Free Kolchak The Night Strangler by Richard Matheson, Jeff Rice

volume.
    “Plato and Galen both maintained… shut that damn thing off!”
    “Yes, ma’am! ”
    “You derail my train of thought once more and out you go! Now… where was I?”
    “Plato and Galen both maintained…”
    “… that aging is caused by imbalance of the body’s component elements. An invisible substance known as Mumia—M-U-M-I-A—can be created in a so-called elixir which can restore the body elements to a state of balance and check the aging process for an indefinite period of time. This Archidoxa Medicinae, or “Elixir of Life,’ was the goal of those known as ‘hermetic scientists’ or, more commonly, ‘alchemists.’ The main ingredient of this elixir is what the alchemists referred to as ‘The Philosopher’s Stone.’ End of lecture. Questions?”
    “Dozens. First… is it possible?”
    “If it were possible, don’t you think I’d be an eighty-year-old sexpot sitting here instead of a moldering crone?
    “It’s a side issue anyway. Staying young was not their purpose. Alchemy was conceived as an exalted notion—man at one with the universe which, you must admit, is not such a bad or outlandish idea at all.”
    I nodded in agreement. If man were truly at one with the universe, there would be no need for cops like Schubert or for reporters like me. A lovely dream.
    “’Authentic alchemy is possible only if there is perfect knowledge of metaphysical principles.’ Unquote. Claude d’Yge, a well-known adept.”
    “Adept?”
    “Adept. Adept! Don’t you understand English? One who has attained proficiency.
    “These men lived Spartan lives; most abstaining from all human concourse, living in the most humble of quarters, eating the most humble of foods. The Comte de St. Germain… well, he isn’t the best of examples… too much a lover of life at court but, well anyway, St. Germain subsisted on a diet of oatmeal, groats, the white meat of chicken, and a little wine.”
    “Yummy.”
    “Don’t be fresh.”
    I lit up a cigar.
    “And you can put that out at once!”
    “Oatmeal and groats. Yech! A diet like that would make him old before his time.”
    “You would do well to follow his example. He did rather nicely with his diet. Not only did he remain youthful for many years, but he was said to possess almost superhuman strength and several other amazing abilities.”
    “Really! What other ingredients did this elixir have?”
    “That’s an interesting question. It depends on who was doing the mixing. Those books on the table have been arranged with markers to show you the pertinent areas of research. Adepts used certain ingredients. With the ‘puffers,’ however, it was a different story.”
    “Puffers?”
    “Pretenders. Fake alchemists who were definitely not dedicated to the notion of man being at one with the universe. They tried to transmute lead to gold for no reason save profit and power. And they dabbled in what might commonly be called ‘black magic.’ Some achieved amazing results… and most, if caught, were quickly and painfully put to death.”
    “Then, perhaps, since I’m tracking a known murderer who draws blood from his victims, I’m really after one of these… uh… ‘puffers.’”
    “Not at all unlikely, since we have gone this far.”
    “Which brings me back to my original question. What other ingredients might this elixir have?”
    “Well, assuming the alchemist doing the preparing is, indeed, a man of evil intent… milk… or meat… celandine… sometimes honey. Red wine vinegar. Hair, Sweat. Blood.”
    I dreaded to ask. “What kind of blood?” I already knew the answer.
    “Why, human blood, of course.”
    She explained that while alchemists, as a whole, were distrusted, it was largely through the efforts of these puffers or pretenders to the hermetic art that alchemists came to be feared as disciples of the devil. Then she told me to read the books and make whatever notes or tapes I liked and handed me a hefty volume of her own: Alchemy and