But if you carry out
your compact faithfully--that is to say, if at the end of the
twenty-one months you are still united--all the powers you have held
hitherto, in the different stages, temporarily, will return to you and
remain in your possession permanently. Have you anything to say?"
"Yes!" Hamar answered; "I fully understand all you have explained to
us and I like the idea of it immensely. The fear of our coming to any
serious loggerheads and of dissolving partnership doesn't worry me
much--but I must say, it seems very remote--the prospect of gaining
such tremendous powers--powers that will give us practically
everything we want--save youth--"
"Youth you will never regain," lisped the voice. "And elixirs of life,
surely you must know, are no longer sought after, by beings of the
planet Earth. They are quite out of date. You will, of course, learn
the most efficacious means of making yourselves and other people
youthful in appearance."
"Yes, but how shall we learn these secrets?" Kelson nerved himself to
ask.
"They will be revealed to you in various ways--sometimes when asleep.
You will receive preliminary instructions as to divination before this
time to-morrow."
"And meanwhile, we shall be in want of money," Curtis remarked.
"No!" the voice replied, "you will not be in want of money. Have you
anything more to ask?"
No one spoke, and the silence that followed was interrupted by a loud
rustling of the wind.
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