funny somehow, and this was not. It was something
like Arabian Nights magic, and something like being in church. No one
cared to speak.

It was Cyril who said at last--

'Please we want to know where the other half of the charm is.'

'The part of the Amulet which is lost,' said the beautiful voice, 'was
broken and ground into the dust of the shrine that held it. It and the
pin that joined the two halves are themselves dust, and the dust is
scattered over many lands and sunk in many seas.'

'Oh, I say!' murmured Robert, and a blank silence fell. 'Then it's all
up?' said Cyril at last; 'it's no use our looking for a thing that's
smashed into dust, and the dust scattered all over the place.'

'If you would find it,' said the voice, 'You must seek it where it still
is, perfect as ever.'

'I don't understand,' said Cyril.

'In the Past you may find it,' said the voice.

'I wish we MAY find it,' said Cyril.

The Psammead whispered crossly, 'Don't you understand? The thing existed
in the Past. If you were in the Past, too, you could find it. It's very
difficult to make you understand things. Time and space are only forms
of thought.'

'I see,' said Cyril.

'No, you don't,' said the Psammead, 'and it doesn't matter if you don't,
either. What I mean is that if you were only made the right way, you
could see everything happening in the same place at the same time. Now
do you see?'

'I'm afraid _I_ don't,' said Anthea; 'I'm sorry I'm so stupid.'

'Well, at any rate, you see this. That lost half of the Amulet is in the
Past. Therefore it's in the Past we must look for it. I mustn't speak to
the charm myself. Ask it things! Find out!'

'Where can we find the other part of you?' asked Cyril obediently.

'In the Past,' said the voice.

'What part of the Past?'

'I may not tell you. If you will choose a time, I will take you to the
place that then held it. You yourselves must find it.'

'When did you see it last?' asked Anthea--'I mean, when was it taken
away from you?'

The beautiful voice answered--

'That was thousands of years ago. The Amulet was perfect then, and lay
in a shrine, the last of many shrines, and I worked wonders. Then came
strange men with strange weapons and destroyed my shrine, and the Amulet
they bore away with many captives. But of these, one, my priest, knew
the word of power, and spoke it for me, so that the Amulet became
invisible, and thus returned to my shrine, but the shrine was br