pages: latestmagicbeing00hoff.pdf, 148
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latestmagicbeing00hoff.pdf | 148 | 132 LATEST MAGIC The trick may be introduced as follows: "For the next surprise I have to show you we are indebted to the ancient alchemists. People regard them as back numbers nowadays, because they didn't know anything about aeroplanes, or appendicitis, or income tax and such-like up-to- date luxuries; but they had a good many useful little secrets of their own. One of them was the recipe for what was called the Alkahest, a liquid which immediately dissolved anything it touched; from a gold watch to a set of fire-irons. The secret of making it has long been lost, and all that still exists of the liquid itself I have here in this bottle." The bottle is here brought forward and offered for inspection. "Pretty colour, isn't it? And it has a very delightful perfume." (Takes out stopper.) "You are welcome to smell it but I don't advise you to taste it. If you did you would probably never taste anything again. I want you to notice, by the way, those two letters H R on the label. There is a dead secret attached to those letters. They mean something, of course; but nobody knows what it is."7 The bottle is replaced on the table. "This bottle came into my hands by inheritance. An ancestor of mine, in the reign of James the First, was an alchemist in a small way. He is reputed to have made a handsome income by sell- |