and of that too the
handle, though not the blade, had been changed from iron into gold.

Ayesha asked to see this afterwards and was but ill-pleased with the
result of her experiment. She pointed out to me that lines and blotches
of gold ran for an inch or more down the substance of the steel, which
she feared that they might weaken or distemper, whereas it had been her
purpose that the hilt only should be altered.[*]

[*] I proved in after days how real were Ayesha's alchemy,
and the knowledge which enabled her to solve the secret that
chemists have hunted for in vain, and, like Nature's self,
to transmute the commonest into the most precious of the
metals. At the first town that I reached on the frontiers of
India, I took this knife to a jeweller, a native, who was as
clever as he proved dishonest, and asked him to test the
handle. He did so with acids and by other means, and told me
that it was of very pure gold, twenty-four carats, I think
he said. Also he pointed out that this gold became gradually
merged into the steel of the blade in a way which was quite
inexplicable to him, and asked me to clear up the matter. Of
course I could not, but at his request I left the knife in
his shop to give him an opportunity of examining it further.
The next day I was taken ill with one of the heart-attacks
to which I have been liable of late, and when I became able
to move about again a while afterwards, I found that this
jeweller had gone, none knew whither. So had my knife.--L.
H. H.

Often since that time I have marvelled how Ayesha performed this
miracle, and from what substances she gathered or compounded the
lightning-like material, which was her servant in the work; also,
whether or no it had been impregnated with the immortalizing fire of
Life that burned in the caves of Kor.[*] Yet to this hour I have found
no answer to the problem, for it is beyond my guessing.

[*] Recent discoveries would appear to suggest that this
mysterious "Fire of Life," which, whatever else it may have
been, was evidently a force and no true fire, since it did
not burn, owed its origin to the emanations from radium, or
some kindred substance. Although in the year 1885, Mr. Holly
would have known nothing of the properties of these
marvellous rays or emanations, doubtless Ayesha was familiar
with them and t