“What alchemist has not?” he answered. “I knew that it was brought in early days to Egypt from somewhere in the East, and there it stood in a temple for many centuries. When the Romans conquered Egypt, the crystal was taken to Rome. During the years when the Romans were colonizing the lands around the Black Sea a certain Roman officer fell in love with a woman of Transylvania, and being sent there with a legion, stole for her this crystal from a temple in Rome. When his crime was discovered the Emperor sent a detachment of soldiers to bring him back, but he fled to the district which is now Halicz, but which went then under the Roman name Galicia. There he lived with his wife under an assumed name, in a remote village later known as Tarnov, and there the crystal remained up to the time that it passed into the hands of the Charnetskis. Around it grew up a sect of sorcerers, magicians, practicers of the Black Art, astrologers, and alchemists—some sincere, others mere charlatans.” “Surely there have been many attempts to steal the crystal from the Charnetskis?” “Only one. It seems that men, even alchemists and astrologers, lost for a time the thread of its history, and it was only when a runaway servant of Andrew Charnetski spread the news in the East that it was in his possession that an attempt was made to find it. That attempt, as you know, cost Pan Andrew his house and property in the Ukraine. Who it is that is inciting these robbers I know not, but I have no doubt that the leader of the band was in the pay of some person in high authority.” “Would the robbers taken prisoners say nothing?” “No, they did not know all, I believe. And like most Tartars they would rather die than betray a secret. Torture could not wring it out of them.” “Does Pan Andrew suspect that you have the crystal?” “Pan Andrew considers me his friend. And at heart I am ashamed and sick that I have not restored it before now.” “But think. If it had not been for you, the Cossack would have escaped with the crystal and it would have been lost forever.” “I know it. Yet that is no justification for me. I stole it if a thief ever stole anything. When I first saw it that night on the floor of Pan Andrew’s lodging I would have exchanged my chance of heaven for its possession. When I had obtained it, and the attention of the crowd in the court below was turned to the robbers and to the man escaping over the roofs, I brought it here to the loft, under my coat.” “You did well,” said Tring, the wildest impulses of excitement leaping within him. “Look—look at the crystal. It glows and dances and quivers like a thing alive, ready to tell its secrets. Quick, draw your chair near to it as you used to draw your chair to me when I was the master of your trances. Gaze deeply into it”—he fixed the hesitating alchemist with his eyes as a serpent might fix a helpless bird—“and now let us try the greatest experiment of all.”