“Yes. On the day after the crystal disappeared, he made a confidant of me as one already acquainted with his name and a part of his history.”
“But you had heard of the crystal before?”
“What alchemist has not?” he answered. “I knew that it was brought in early days to Egypt from somewhere in the East, and there it stood in a temple for many centuries. When the Romans conquered Egypt, the crystal was taken to Rome. During the years when the Romans were colonizing the lands around the Black Sea a certain Roman officer fell in love with a woman of Transylvania, and being sent there with a legion, stole for her this crystal from a temple in Rome. When his crime was discovered the Emperor sent a detachment of soldiers to bring him back, but he fled to the district which is now Halicz, but which went then under the Roman name Galicia. There he lived with his wife under an assumed name, in a remote village later known as Tarnov, and there the crystal remained up to the time that it passed into the hands of the Charnetskis. Around it grew up a sect of sorcerers, magicians, practicers of the Black Art, astrologers, and alchemists—some sincere, others mere charlatans.”
“Surely there have been many attempts to steal the crystal from the Charnetskis?”
“Only one. It seems that men, even alchemists and astrologers, lost for a time the thread of its history, and it was only when a runaway servant of Andrew Charnetski spread the news in the East that it was in his possession that an attempt was made to find it. That attempt, as you know, cost Pan Andrew his house and property in the Ukraine. Who it is that is inciting these robbers I know not, but I have no doubt that the leader of the band was in the pay of some person in high authority.”
“Would the robbers taken prisoners say nothing?”
“No, they did not know all, I believe. And like most Tartars they would rather die than betray a secret. Torture could not wring it out of them.”
“Does Pan Andrew suspect that you have the crystal?”
“Pan Andrew considers me his friend. And at heart I am ashamed and sick that I have not restored it before now.”
“But think. If it had not been for you, the Cossack would have escaped with the crystal and it would have been lost forever.”