but more especially of a diary kept by a certain James Kammerer, who acted in the capacity of butler and famulus to the Count.  The evidence is ten times stronger than any upon which men believe the articles of their religion.  If it related to less wonderful subjects, you would not hesitate to believe implicitly every word you read.  There were ten homunculi—­James Kammerer calls them prophesying spirits—­kept in strong bottles, such as are used to preserve fruit, and these were filled with water.  They were made in five weeks, by the Count von Kueffstein and an Italian mystic and rosicrucian, the Abbe Geloni.  The bottles were closed with a magic seal.  The spirits were about a span long, and the Count was anxious that they should grow.  They were therefore buried under two cartloads of manure, and the pile daily sprinkled with a certain liquor prepared with great trouble by the adepts.  The pile after such sprinklings began to ferment and steam, as if heated by a subterranean fire.  When the bottles were removed, it was found that the spirits had grown to about a span and a half each; the male homunculi were come into possession of heavy beards, and the nails of the fingers had grown.  In two of the bottles there was nothing to be seen save clear water, but when the Abbe knocked thrice at the seal upon the mouth, uttering at the same time certain Hebrew words, the water turned a mysterious colour, and the spirits showed their faces, very small at first, but growing in size till they attained that of a human countenance.  And this countenance was horrible and fiendish.’

Haddo spoke in a low voice that was hardly steady, and it was plain that he was much moved.  It appeared as if his story affected him so that he could scarcely preserve his composure.  He went on.

’These beings were fed every three days by the Count with a rose-coloured substance which was kept in a silver box.  Once a week the bottles were emptied and filled again with pure rain-water.  The change had to be made rapidly, because while the homunculi were exposed to the air they closed their eyes and seemed to grow weak and unconscious, as though they were about to die.  But with the spirits that were invisible, at certain intervals blood was poured into the water; and it disappeared at once, inexplicably, without colouring or troubling it.  By some accident one of the bottles fell one day and was broken.  The homunculus within died after a few painful respirations in spite of all efforts to save him, and the body was buried in the garden.  An attempt to generate another, made by the Count without the assistance of the Abbe, who had left, failed; it produced only a small thing like a leech, which had little vitality and soon died.’

Haddo ceased speaking, and Arthur looked at him with amazement.  ’But taking for granted that the thing is possible, what on earth is the use of manufacturing these strange beasts?’ he exclaimed.