I therefore kept my three duns working with
great diligence, pounding down ice around the central cask, and
stirring the acid in the others. They did not cease, however,
importuning me with questions as to what I intended to do with all
this apparatus, and expressed much dissatisfaction at the terrible
labor I made them undergo. They could not perceive, so they said, what
good was likely to result from their getting wet to the skin, merely
to take a part in such horrible incantations. I began to get uneasy,
and worked away with all my might, for I verily believe the idiots
supposed that I had entered into a compact with the devil, and that,
in short, what I was now doing was nothing better than it should be. I
was, therefore, in great fear of their leaving me altogether. I
contrived, however, to pacify them by promises of payment of all
scores in full, as soon as I could bring the present business to a
termination. To these speeches they gave, of course, their own
interpretation; fancying, no doubt, that at all events I should come
into possession of vast quantities of ready money; and provided I paid
them all I owed, and a trifle more, in consideration of their
services, I dare say they cared very little what became of either my
soul or my carcass.
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