sage tried the experiment under
all known conditions, and particularly when the moon was in the same
quarter and when the sun was in the same house. He tried it, indeed,
thrice on the corresponding day of the year, but--the product did not
issue."

"How do you account for that?"

"Probably, in the first instance, an impurity in one of the drugs
introduced a foreign substance into the alembic. That chance never
occurred again, as far as I can learn, until, amusing myself with the
same precipitation, I--I, Caesar Basterga of Padua," the scholar
continued, not boastfully but in a tone thoughtful and almost absent,
"in the last year of the last century, hit at length upon the same
result."

The Syndic leaned forward; his hands gripped his knees more tightly.
"And you," he said, "can repeat it?"

Basterga shook his head sorrowfully. "No," he said, "I cannot. Not that
I have myself essayed the experiment more than thrice. I could not
afford it. But a correspondent, M. de Laurens, of Paris, physician to
the King, has, at the expense of a wealthy patient, spent more than
fifteen thousand florins in essays. Alas, without result."

The big man spoke with his eyes on the floor. Had he turned them on the
Syndic he must have seen that he was greatly agitated. Beads of moisture
stood on his brow, his face was red, he swallowed often and with
difficulty. At length, with an effort at composure, "Possibly your
product--is not, after all, the same as Ibn Jasher's?" he said.

"I tested it in the same way," Basterga answered quietly.

"What? By curing persons of that disease?"

"Yes," Basterga rejoined. "And I would to Heaven," he continued, with
the first spirt of feeling which he had allowed to escape him, "that I
had held my hand after the first proof. Instead, I must needs try it
again and again, and again."

"For nothing?"

Basterga shrugged his shoulders. "No," he said, "not for nothing." By a
gesture he indicated the objects about him. "I am not a poor man now,
Messer Blondel. Not for nothing, but too cheaply. And so often that I
have now remaining but one portion of that substance which all the
science of Padua cannot renew. One portion, only, alas!" he repeated
with regret.

"Enough to cure one person?" the Syndic exclaimed.

"Yes."

"And the disease?" Blondel rose as he spoke. "The disease?" he repeated.
He extended his trembling arms to the other. No longer, even if he
wished it, could Basterga feign himself b