s of
frontal--the tapering elegance of contour disguising the strength of
the deadly jaw--the long, large, terrible eye, glittering and green as
the emerald--and withal a certain ruthless calm, as if from the
consciousness of an immense power.

Mechanically I turned round the miniature to examine the back of it, and
on the back was engraved a pentacle; in the middle of the pentacle a
ladder, and the third step of the ladder was formed by the date 1765.
Examining still more minutely, I detected a spring; this, on being
pressed, opened the back of the miniature as a lid. Withinside the lid
was engraved, "Marianna to thee--Be faithful in life and in death to
----." Here follows a name that I will not mention, but it was not
unfamiliar to me. I had heard it spoken of by old men in my childhood as
the name borne by a dazzling charlatan who had made a great sensation in
London for a year or so, and had fled the country on the charge of a
double murder within his own house--that of his mistress and his rival.
I said nothing of this to Mr. J----, to whom reluctantly I resigned the
miniature.

We had found no difficulty in opening the first drawer within the iron
safe; we found great difficulty in opening the second: it was not
locked, but it resisted all efforts, till we inserted in the chinks the
edge of a chisel. When we had thus drawn it forth, we found a very
singular apparatus in the nicest order. Upon a small thin book, or
rather tablet, was placed a saucer of crystal; this saucer was filled
with a clear liquid--on that liquid floated a kind of compass, with a
needle shifting rapidly round; but instead of the usual points of the
compass were seven strange characters, not very unlike those used by
astrologers to denote the planets. A peculiar but not strong nor
displeasing odor came from this drawer, which was lined with a wood that
we afterward discovered to be hazel. Whatever the cause of this odor, it
produced a material effect on the nerves. We all felt it, even the two
workmen who were in the room--a creeping, tingling sensation from the
tips of the fingers to the roots of the hair. Impatient to examine the
tablet, I removed the saucer. As I did so the needle of the compass went
round and round with exceeding swiftness, and I felt a shock that ran
through my whole frame, so that I dropped the saucer on the floor. The
liquid was spilled--the saucer was broken--the compass rolled to the end
of the room--and at that in