The Oriental touched a knob and the lamps were suddenly extinguished, leaving the room illumined by the red glow of the oven. Then he bade his visitor fix his eyes on the surface of the disk.
"Upon this you will presently behold two scenes."
He poured a few drops of something resembling black oil upon the disk, which at once spread in a mirror-like surface. Then he began to mutter some words in an Oriental tongue, and lighted a few grains of a chemical preparation which emitted an odor of bitter aloë. This, when the flames had subsided, he threw upon the oil which at the contact became iridescent.
Basil looked and waited in vain.
The conjurer exhausted all the selections which he thought appropriate. The oil gradually lost the changing aspect it had acquired from the burning substance, and returned to its dull murky tints, and the interest which had appeared on Basil's features gave place to a contemptuous sneer.
"Are you, after all, but a trickster who would impose his art upon the unwary?"
The magician did not reply to this insult, nor did it seem to affect him visibly.
"We must try a mightier spell," he said, "for hostile forces are in conjunction against us."
By a small tongs he raised from the fire the metallic plate that had been lying upon it. Its surface presented the appearance of oxidized silver with a deep glow of heat.
Upon this he claimed to be able to produce the picture of past or future events, and many scenes had been reflected upon the magic shield.