TWILIGHT LAND

all the riches of the world were offered to you, would you
rather be wise?”

Mes)!

“Suppose you might have all the rank and power of a
king or of an emperor, would you rather be wise?”

“Yes.”

Suppose I undertook to teach you, would you give up
everything of joy and of pleasure to follow me?”

EGES

“Perhaps you are hungry,” said the master.

“Yes,” said the student, ‘I am.”

“Then, Babette, you may bring some bread and
cheese.”

It seemed to Gebhart that he had learned all that
Nicholas Flamel had to teach him.

It was in the grey of the dawning, and the master took
the pupil by the hand and led him up the rickety stairs
to the roof of the house, where nothing was to be seen
but grey sky, high roofs, and chimney stacks from which
the smoke rose straight into the still air.

‘‘Now,” said the master, ‘‘I have taught you nearly all
of the science that I know, and the time has come to show
- you the wonderful thing that has been waiting for us from
the beginning when time was. You have given up wealth
andthe world and pleasure and joy and love for the sake
of wisdom. Now, then, comes the last test—whether you
can remain faithful to me to the end; if you fail in it, all
is lost that you have gained.”

After he had said that he stripped his cloak away from
his shoulders and laid bare the skin. Then he took a
bottle of red liquor and began bathing his shoulder-blades
with it; and as Gebhart, squatting upon the ridge-pole,

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