passed like the first. I had taken my stand by the side
of Margrave, watching with him the process at work in the caldron, when
I felt the ground slightly vibrate beneath my feet, and, looking up,
it seemed as if all the plains beyond the circle were heaving like the
swell of the sea, and as if in the air itself there was a perceptible
tremor.

I placed my hand on Margrave's shoulder and whispered, "To me earth and
air seem to vibrate. Do they seem to vibrate to you?"

"I know not, I care not," he answered impetuously. "The essence is
bursting the shell that confined it. Here are my air and my earth!
Trouble me not. Look to the circle! feed the lamps if they fail."

I passed by the Veiled Woman as I walked towards a place in the ring in
which the flame was waning dim; and I whispered to her the same question
which I had whispered to Margrave. She looked slowly around, and
answered, "So is it before the Invisible make themselves visible! Did
I not bid him forbear?" Her head again drooped on her breast, and her
watch was again fixed on the fire.

I advanced to the circle and stooped to replenish the light where it
waned. As I did so, on my arm, which stretched somewhat beyond the line
of the ring, I felt a shock like that of electricity. The arm fell to
my side numbed and nerveless, and from my hand dropped, but within the
ring, the vessel that contained the fluid. Recovering my surprise or my
stun, hastily with the other hand I caught up the vessel, but some of
the scanty liquid was already spilled on the sward; and I saw with a
thrill of dismay, that contrasted indeed the tranquil indifference with
which I had first undertaken my charge, how small a supply was now left.

I went back to Margrave, and told him of the shock, and of its
consequence in the waste of the liquid.

"Beware," said he, "that not a motion of the arm, not an inch of the
foot, pass the verge of the ring; and if the fluid be thus unhappily
stinted, reserve all that is left for the protecting circle and the
twelve outer lamps! See how the Grand Work advances! how the hues in the
caldron are glowing blood-red through the film on the surface!"

And now four hours of the six were gone; my arm had gradually recovered
its strength. Neither the ring nor the lamps had again required
replenishing; perhaps their light was exhausted less quickly, as it
was no longer to be exposed to the rays of the intense Australian moon.
Clouds had gathered over the sk