The Alchemist — Les Whitten

Martin Dobecker enjoyed his quiet, ordered world. He was perfectly satisfied with his dead-end government desk job and asked nothing more of life than to be able to go home at 5:00 to the alchemical furnace he was secretly building in his basement...Of course, it was only a hobby. No harm in that. A circle of Fire-Glaze Outdoor Bar-B-Q Bricks mortared together with No-Crack Fire Cement could hardly invite suspicion-even if he had given it the name of Athanor. No, Martin Dobecker was just a harmless mild-mannered eccentric who liked to putter around with Black Magic. Or was he?