"What does this mean, my lord?" he asked. "The water is streaming off me and I am stifling. What sound is that, master?"
"This is the cause," answered the host, pulling aside a large curtain of asbestos, and uncovering a large brick furnace in the centre of which glared two fiery cavities like lions' eyes in the gloom.
This furnace stood in an inner room, centrally, twice the size of the first, unseen from the stone-cloth screen.
"This is rather alarming, meseems," said the prince.
"Only a furnace, my lord."
"But there are different kinds of furnaces; this one strikes me as diabolical, and the smell is not pleasant. What devil's broth are you cooking?"
"What your eminence wants. I believe you will accept a sample of my produce. I was not going to work until to-morrow; but as your eminence changed his mind, I lit the fire as soon as I saw you on the road hither. I made the mixture so that the furnace is boiling, and you can have your gold in about ten minutes. Let me open the ventilator to let in some air."
"What, are these crucibles on the fire——"
"In ten minutes they will pour you out the gold as pure as from any assayer's in christendom."
"I should like to look at them."