For to build such a tower some fifty men at least must have been necessary. Even had they succeeded in bringing all their provisions to land from their stranded vessel, these must have been consumed in a very short time. They had already been living there a whole year, and had never once come forth from their rocky retreat to buy provisions in the neighbouring village. They could certainly not have lived on sea-spiders and mussels alone; and yet their rocks produced nothing else.
It was evident, nevertheless, that they possessed abundance of money. For, in summer, the old women of Dago (but never the young girls) would carry great baskets of fruit and flowers to the locked door which guarded the entrance to the courtyard of the tower. Some one would then appear in response to their knocking, open a small window in the door, receive the baskets of flowers, and hand out real money in exchange for them. No; that was no spurious coin. At one time it was a Russian imperial, at another an English sovereign, while sometimes it was German thalers and Spanish dollars, intermixed with a few Venetian zecchini, that were given in payment. But who within, it was often wondered, could require flowers? And if they had money to give in exchange for flowers, then why not for food also?
At length the spiritual overseer of the island, the Very Reverend Jeremiah Waimœner, resolved to ascertain by personal inquiry what manner of men really dwelt in that mysterious edifice. With this object he one day made bold to call upon its self-imprisoned proprietor.
He was at once admitted. Strange to say, although he came quite alone, his eyes were not even bound—as he had fully convinced himself they would be—before he was conducted to the Master's presence. He was allowed to look all around and see everything. On returning home there would be absolutely nothing to prevent him telling everybody that the tower, with all its inner staircases, was built of massive stone, and that it was divided internally into very many stories. On reaching the twelfth story the reverend gentleman was received by the Master of the tower. This portion of the building had the appearance of an observatory, and was surmounted by a lofty dome. The room was six-sided, and had three large windows looking towards the sea, the three opposite walls being covered with wainscot. Everything in the room indicated that it served as the study of a man of science. There were astronomical instruments, musty books, and numerous chemical tubes and retorts. In addition there were all kinds of superstitious designs, alchemistic abracadabras and symbols, in which no man of sense any longer believes.
The Master himself was a grave-looking personage, whose features never betrayed the slightest emotion either while speaking or listening. He requested his visitor to be seated beside him on a semicircular bench which enclosed a sort of chemical furnace. The clergyman introduced himself and, after hinting that he had heard of the Master's great love for science, observed that he had long ardently wished to make his acquaintance, as science was his own darling pursuit. They might be able, he suggested, to exchange ideas to their mutual advantage.
The Master hereupon welcomed him warmly as a guest. Presently he pressed a secret spring, and a bright fire suddenly blazed up in the furnace before them. In a moment the Master had drawn forth from the oven a supply of bread, meat and dried figs, just as if they had all been freshly baked and prepared within. He then turned a tap in another part of the same apparatus, and at once a stream of fresh foaming beer flowed into a large tankard beneath. This he placed with the other good things on the table before his guest.
The Reverend Herr Waimœner convinced himself by tasting that everything was really what it appeared to be.
"But tell me, my good sir," he exclaimed in astonishment, "whence do you procure all these provisions?"
"That is perfectly simple," replied the Master gravely. "Everything on earth, as you know, is produced by the transformation of matter. The alchemists of old used to puzzle their brains to discover how to make stones into gold. But I have solved a much deeper problem than that—how to make the rocks into bread, meat and fruit, and the waters of the sea into sparkling wine and foaming beer."
"You are pleased to make sport of me, I see," said the clergyman with a somewhat sickly smile.