passion of the investigator within him could not be subdued, for as he
looked about in search of a cloth to stanch the blood that flowed from
the boy's finger his eyes fell upon the bottle of elixir on the table,
and then on the rose at his feet and the thought flashed across him that
Bianca who had sent him the rose might have indicated to him by the hand
of their offspring the substance which he needed to achieve the object of
his life.

Of every element found in water or in air, in the earth or fire, he had
added a portion to the elixir, save only the blood of a child.

Breathless he caught the hand of his son and held it over the phial,
speaking coaxingly to him while drop after drop of the red life blood
trickled into the elixir.

Then he put the child in Frau Schimmel's arms and hurried into the
laboratory as fast as his tired feet could carry him. There he blew the
bellows so violently that the housekeeper looked at him with silent
indignation. When all was prepared he poured the liquid into a crucible,
set it among the glowing and sparkling coals and murmured strange words
and spells over the seething fluid until it boiled up and the hissing
bubbles ran over the rim of the crucible. Then he stood the hot vessel
in cold water, pronounced one more incantation over it, held it before a
mirror--the symbol of the Spirit of Truth and the emblem which she is
always represented as carrying in her right hand--and poured the liquid
back into the phial. Beads of perspiration stood on his forehead, his
eyes gleamed with excitement, and he breathed heavily as he approached
his son to try the power of the new elixir on him.

But something most unexpected happened: Frau Schimmel, usually so timid,