time--and then we shall remember HOW we found it.
And then we can go back and do the finding really.'

'I see,' said Robert, and this time he did, and I hope YOU do.

'Yes,' said Anthea. 'Oh, Squirrel, how clever of you!'

'But will the Amulet work both ways?' inquired Robert.

'It ought to,' said Cyril, 'if time's only a thingummy of whatsitsname.
Anyway we might try.'

'Let's put on our best things, then,' urged Jane. 'You know what people
say about progress and the world growing better and brighter. I expect
people will be awfully smart in the future.'

'All right,' said Anthea, 'we should have to wash anyway, I'm all thick
with glue.'

When everyone was clean and dressed, the charm was held up.

'We want to go into the future and see the Amulet after we've found it,'
said Cyril, and Jane said the word of Power. They walked through the big
arch of the charm straight into the British Museum.

They knew it at once, and there, right in front of them, under a glass
case, was the Amulet--their own half of it, as well as the other half
they had never been able to find--and the two were joined by a pin of
red stone that formed a hinge.

'Oh, glorious!' cried Robert. 'Here it is!'

'Yes,' said Cyril, very gloomily, 'here it is. But we can't get it out.'

'No,' said Robert, remembering how impossible the Queen of Babylon had
found it to get anything out of the glass cases in the Museum--except by
Psammead magic, and then she hadn't been able to take anything away with
her; 'no--but we remember where we got it, and we can--'

'Oh, DO we?' interrupted Cyril bitterly, 'do YOU remember where we got
it?'

'No,' said Robert, 'I don't exactly, now I come to think of it.'

Nor did any of the others!

'But WHY can't we?' said Jane.

'Oh, _I_ don't know,' Cyril's tone was impatient, 'some silly old
enchanted rule I suppose. I wish people would teach you magic at school
like they do sums--or instead of. It would be some use having an Amulet
then.'

'I wonder how far we are in the future,' said Anthea; the Museum looks
just the same, only lighter and brighter, somehow.'

'Let's go back and try the Past again,' said Robert.

'Perhaps the Museum people could tell us how we got it,' said Anthea
with sudden hope. There was no one in the room, but in the next gallery,
where the Assyrian things are and still were, they found a kind, stout
man in a loose, blue gown, and stockinged legs.

'Oh, they've got a new uniform