Across the Zodiac, page 239 by Percy Greg
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e same spot and in the same words of the solemn but simple Zulvakalfe [word of peace]:--
"Peace be with you, near and far, Children of the Silver Star; Lore undoubting, conscience clean, Hope assured, and life serene. By the Light that knows no flaw, By the Circle's perfect law, By the Serpent's life renewed, By the Wings' similitude-- Peace be yours no force can break; Peace not death hath power to shake; Peace from passion, sin, and gloom, Peace of spirit, heart, and home; Peace from peril, fear, and pain; Peace, until we meet again-- Meet--before yon sculptured stone, Or the All-Commander's Throne."
Before we finally parted, Esmo gave me two or three articles to which he attached especial value. The most important of these was a small cube of translucent stone, in which a multitude of diversely coloured fragments were combined; so set in a tiny swivel or swing of gold that it might be conveniently attached to the watch-chain, the only Terrestrial article that I still wore. "This," he said, "will test nearly every poison known to our science; each poison discolouring for a time one or another of the various substances of which it is composed; and poison is perhaps the weapon least unlikely to be employed against you when known to be connected with myself, and, I will hope, to possess the favour of the Sovereign. If you are curious to verify its powers, the contents of the tiny medicine-chest I have given you will enable you to do so. There is scarcely one of those medicines which is not a single or a combined poison of great power. I need not warn you to be careful lest you give to any one the means of reaching them. I have shown you the combination of magnets which will open each of your cases; that demanded by the chest is the most complicated of all, and one which can hardly be hit upon by accident. Nor can any one force or pick open a case locked by our electric apparatus, save by cutting to pieces the metal of the case itself, and this only special tools will accomplish; and, unless