ent
you disunite the compact is broken."

"What advantages will the secrets bring us?" Hamar inquired. "Can we
gain unlimited wealth?"

"Yes!" the voice replied. "Unlimited wealth and influence."

"And health?"

"So long as you fulfil the conditions of the compact you will enjoy
perfect health. Will you, or will you not, pledge yourselves?"

"I am ready if you fellows are," Hamar whispered.

"I am!" Curtis cried. "Anything is better than the life we are living
at present."

"And I, too," Kelson said. "I agree with Ed."

"Very well then," the voice once more lisped. "Each of you take a
fruit and eat it, and the compact is irrevocably struck. You cannot
back out of it without incurring the consequences already named. Don't
be afraid, step up here and help yourselves--one apiece--mind, no
more." And again it seemed to Hamar, Curtis and Kelson as if the tree
and everything around it was convulsed with silent laughter.

"Come on!" Hamar cried, somewhat imperatively. "Don't waste time.
You've decided, and besides, remember this affair may turn out trumps.
I'll go first," and walking up to the tree he plucked a fruit and
began to eat it. Curtis and Kelson slowly followed suit.

"I believe I'm eating a live slug, or a toad," Curtis muttered, with a
retch.

"And I, too," Kelson whispered. "It's filthy. I shall be sick. If I
am, will it make any difference to the compact, I wonder?"

What the fruit really tasted like they could never decide. It reminded
them of many things and of nothing. It was sweet yet bitter; it
repelled but at the same time pleased them; it was as perplexing as
the voice--as enigmatical. When they had eaten it they resumed their
former positions on the ground, and the voice once again addressed
them.

"The fruit you have consumed has created in you a fitness to make use
of the powers about to be conferred. You have acquired the faculty of
sorcery--you will be initiated by stages, into the knowledge and
practice of it. These stages, seven in number, will cover the period
of your compact, _i.e._ twenty-one months, and at the end of every
three months--when a fresh stage is reached--you will receive fresh
powers.

"In the first stage, the stage you are now entering upon, you will
receive the power of divination. You will be told how to detect the
presence of water and all kinds of metals, and how to read people's
thoughts.

"In the second stage--exactly three months from to-day--you will
r