ing you that we're bound for the
Tin Isles. Tyre alone knows where the Tin Isles are. It is a splendid
secret we keep from all the world. It is as great a thing to us as your
magic to you.'

He spoke in quite a new voice, and seemed to respect both the children
and the Amulet a good deal more than he had done before.

'The King sent you, didn't he?' said Jane.

'Yes,' answered Pheles, 'he bade me set sail with half a score brave
gentlemen and this crew. You shall go with us, and see many wonders.' He
bowed and left them.

'What are we going to do now?' said Robert, when Pheles had caused them
to be left along with a breakfast of dried fruits and a sort of hard
biscuit.

'Wait till he lands in the Tin Isles,' said Rekh-mara, 'then we can
get the barbarians to help us. We will attack him by night and tear the
sacred Amulet from his accursed heathen neck,' he added, grinding his
teeth.

'When shall we get to the Tin Isles?' asked Jane.

'Oh--six months, perhaps, or a year,' said the Egyptian cheerfully.

'A year of THIS?' cried Jane, and Cyril, who was still feeling far too
unwell to care about breakfast, hugged himself miserably and shuddered.
It was Robert who said--

'Look here, we can shorten that year. Jane, out with the Amulet! Wish
that we were where the Amulet will be when the ship is twenty miles from
the Tin Island. That'll give us time to mature our plans.'

It was done--the work of a moment--and there they were on the same ship,
between grey northern sky and grey northern sea. The sun was setting
in a pale yellow line. It was the same ship, but it was changed, and
so were the crew. Weather-worn and dirty were the sailors, and their
clothes torn and ragged. And the children saw that, of course, though
they had skipped the nine months, the ship had had to live through them.
Pheles looked thinner, and his face was rugged and anxious.

'Ha!' he cried, 'the charm has brought you back! I have prayed to it
daily these nine months--and now you are here? Have you no magic that
can help?'

'What is your need?' asked the Egyptian quietly.

'I need a great wave that shall whelm away the foreign ship that follows
us. A month ago it lay in wait for us, by the pillars of the gods, and
it follows, follows, to find out the secret of Tyre--the place of the
Tin Islands. If I could steer by night I could escape them yet, but
tonight there will be no stars.'

'My magic will not serve you here,' said the Egyptian.