e," said Joe. "And there is a vast difference between wet heat and
dry heat. Water, above one hundred and fifty degrees, would be
unbearable. It would really burn you badly. Water, as you know, boils at
two hundred and twelve degrees Fahrenheit. But before this point is
reached it is capable of ending life.

"Dry heat, however, is different. Men have frequently borne without
permanent discomfort dry heat up to three hundred degrees. This heat is
often reached in the drying rooms of oilcloth and oiled silk factories.

"Now the fire I handle is dry heat. I would no more think of pouring
boiling water over my hands than I would of taking poison. And yet I
will show you that I can thrust my hand into a blazing fire and suffer
no harm.

"In an old book I read that to enable one to thrust one's hands into the
fire all you had to do was to anoint them with a mixture of _bol
armenian_, quicksilver, camphor and spirits of wine. I should prefer to
leave that mixture alone, though in the book it is said that if one puts
that mixture on his hands he may handle boiling lead.

"Perhaps some ancient magician did this, but I think he depended more on
water than on anything else. If your hands are wet there is formed on
them a film of moisture which, for a moment, will enable you to
withstand high degrees of dry heat.

"In another old book I read that if one prepared himself with 'liquid
stortax,' which is juice from a certain tree growing in Italy, he could
enter fire, bathe in fire, put a burning coal on his tongue, and even
swallow fire.

"Now I am not going to let you into all my secrets. You shall see--what
you shall see!" concluded Joe.

As intimated before, the method Joe Strong used is not going to be
printed here. You have been given some genuine ancient formulae, safe in
the knowledge that some of the ingredients can not be obtained. And the
modern substitutes are not going to be told. Enough to say that Joe had
"prepared himself."

The young magician looked to see that all was in readiness. Perceiving
that it was, he retired for a moment to a cabinet set up on the stage,
and when he came out he was ready for his tricks.

Joe advanced to what seemed to be an elaborate candelabra in which seven
tapers were set. He stood in front of this a moment, and then he
announced:

"Having lived on a fire diet so long I have a bit to spare. I will light
these candles without using a match."

He waved his hand over the candela