"Yes; and soon I became aware that they were engaged upon other matters than those which directly concerned me, and that I was to be made useful to them in the practice of their evil arts. I will not speak too much of these things. The thought is hateful and repulsive. Suffice it to say that they were eagerly pursuing the study of certain black arts, and that they had books and instruments, either belonging to Tito, or found by them in this strange tower, whereby they sought to prosecute their studies. They had dupes too, who visited them, and strove to peer into the future, and they would use incantations and burn strange pungent drugs, and methinks they ofttimes so bewildered their visitors that they imagined they saw in the smoke wreaths strange things which were never there at all. However that may be, there were some who came again and again, and brought gold with them each time. And as the conjurors grew bolder they would ask larger fees. I trow they have grown rich upon the proceeds of those weeks of fraud and devilry." "And how didst thou come to hear and see so much?" "They grew careless of my presence in the upper chamber, where everything was prepared. As I grew weak from hunger and from loss of blood--for blood seemed a necessity to them for every experiment, and it was part of their purpose to reduce me to a mere shadow--they spoke freely of all they did and wished to do. I am certain they never intended me to escape their clutches; and I believe that upon the night of the rescue, had you been but a few minutes longer in forcing the door, they would have taken my life without pity, so fearful were they of what I might reveal. But they could not spare time in their haste to collect their gold, and as it was, they were almost caught as they climbed through the window-slits." "And was it real magic?" asked Alys in a low voice; "or was it all trickery and jugglery?"