"No!" Hamar ejaculated, depositing the brute with a plump on the
ground; "the conditions are that the animal sacrificed must be a cat.
I got the poorest specimen I could find, for I dislike butchering just
as much as you do."

"How are you going to do it?" Kelson asked.

Hamar pointed to a chopper. "The conditions say with steel," he said;
"only with steel, and I should bungle with a knife. You must look the
other way. Now help me with the fire."

Besides the cat, the sack contained a dozen or so bundles of faggots,
well steeped in paraffin, several blocks of wood, a tripod, and a big
tin saucepan.

With the wood, a fire was soon kindled in the centre of the circle;
and the tripod placed over it. Two pints of spring water were then
poured into the saucepan, and to this were added 1 ounce of oxalic
acid, 1 ounce of verdigris, 1-1/2 ounces of hemlock leaves, 1/2 ounce
of henbane, 3/4 ounce of saffron, 2 ounces of aloes, 3 drachms of
opium, 1 ounce of mandrake-root, 5 drachms of salanum, 7 drachms of
poppy-seed, 1/2 ounce of assafoetida, and 1/2 ounce of parsley. As
soon as the saucepan containing these ingredients began to boil Hamar
threw into it two adders' heads, three toads and a centipede.

"Where on earth did you get all those horrors?" Curtis asked,
shrinking away from the bag which had held them.

"Here," Hamar said laconically. "It's extraordinary what a lot of