broke off several of them, and averting his face so that the fumes of
it might not reach him, he caused the thick milk-white juice that they
contained to trickle into the mouth of a little gourd which was hung
about his neck by a string. When he had collected enough of the poison
and carefully corked the gourd with a plug of wood, he descended the
tree again. At the great fork where the main branches sprang from the
trunk, he stood a while contemplating a creeping plant which ran up
them. It was a plant of naked stem, like the tree it grew upon; and,
also like the tree, its leaves consisted of bunches of green spikes
having a milky juice.

"Strange," he said aloud, "that Nature should set the bane and the
antidote side by side, the one twined about the other. Well, so it is in
everything; yes, even in the heart of man. Shall I gather some of this
juice also? No; for then I might repent and save him, remembering that
he has loved me, and thus lose her I seek, her whom I must win back or
be withered. Let the messenger of the King of Heaven save him, if he
can. This tree lies on his path; perchance he may prevail upon its dead
to tell him of the bane and of the antidote." And once more the wizard
laughed mockingly.

*****

The vision passed. At this moment Thomas Owen, recovering from his
swoon, lifted his head from the window-place. The night before him was
as black as it had been, and behind him the little American clock
was still striking the hour of midnight. Therefore he could not have
remained insensible for longer than a few seconds.

A few seconds, yet how much he had seen in them. Truly his want of