Two days later the tinker left the mountainside again and walked through the rain to the surgery. When he arrived, he found the doctor pacing back and forth across the drawing-room floor. In his hand, he held a piece of paper, and he started talking almost as soon as the tinker had seated himself. He knew the meaning of the third inscription.

    The sorcerer had entered a fearsome contract. He had struck a bargain with a dread creature that lived beneath the earth. In return for the girl's life, he had offered the young man's soul. It would belong to the being after the fourteen days has elapsed. The young man would never again return as a rival. But the sorcerer had also agreed to another condition. If the being were prevented from stealing the young man's soul, then th...

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