Page:Captain of the Polestar.djvu/323

 Rh chance. There is one ingredient which you can never get. Save that which is in the ring of Thoth, none will ever more be made.

"`In the ring of Thoth!' I repeated; `where then is the ring of Thoth?'

"`That also you shall never know,' he answered. `You won her love. Who has won in the end? I leave you to your sordid earth life. My chains are broken. I must go!' He turned upon his heel and fled from the chamber. In the morning came the news that the Priest of Thoth was dead.

"My days after that were spent in study. I must find this subtle poison which was strong enough to undo the elixir.  From early dawn to midnight I bent over the test-tube and the furnace.  Above all, I collected the papyri and the chemical flasks of the Priest of Thoth.  Alas! they taught me little.  Here and there some hint or stray expression would raise hope in my bosom, but no good ever came of it.  Still, month after month, I struggled on. When my heart grew faint I would make my way to the tomb by the palm-trees. There, standing by the dead casket from which the jewel had been rifled, I would feel her sweet presence, and would whisper to her that I would rejoin her if mortal wit could solve the riddle.

"Parmes had said that his discovery was connected with the ring of Thoth. I had some remembrance of the trinket.  It was a large and weighty circlet, made, not of gold, but of a rarer and heavier metal brought from the mines of Mount Harbal.  Platinum, you call