acid, the dish containing it covered and placed in hot ashes. Charcoal is kept burning atop of this for some time after.
The uninitiated may say: "This is all very interesting, but what purpose do these ingenious processes serve?" Well, the point is that variety is the spice of life. If one can turn a nondescript whitish stone into a stone of lustrous green, or provide it with coloured speckles and bands, one has extended one's market and enhanced the value of one's goods. Thereby hangs at least one tale to my personal knowledge.
When I was running an office in Hong Kong, a Chinese business friend oi mine who did a roaring trade in Jade, mostly with American and European tourists, once confided to me that the shortage of tourist Jade—that is, low-grade Jade which comes within easy reach of the average tourist's pocket—was causing him grave misgivings, for here was a potential source of much revenue rapidly drying up. "How can do?" was his continual refrain when several times thereafter he broached the subject again, hopeful that I could do something about it.
It was then that I remembered that some of my Idar connections, wizards in their own right, could turn any kind of agate into any other kind. I offered to supply my Chinese friend with what he needed in order to put a stop to the calamity of good English and American money being taken back whence it came.
"Give me a pattern to work to, Hy Lee, and I will see what I can do for you."
"Can do," said he curtly, and supplied me with several beads of green jade. Within three months the mail brought
