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 its all up? said Cyril at last; its no use our looking for a thing thats 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 dont 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, Dont you understand? The thing existed in the Past. If you were in the Past, too, you could find it. Its very difficult to make you understand things. Time and space are only forms of thought.
I see, said Cyril.
No, you dont, said the Psammead, and it doesnt matter if you dont, 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?
Im afraid I dont, said Anthea; Im sorry Im so stupid.
Well, at any rate, you see this. That lost half of the Amulet is in the Past. Therefore its in the Past we must look for it. I mustnt 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 AntheaI 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 broken down, and ere any magic could rebuild it one spoke a word before which my power bowed down and was still. And the Amulet lay there, still perfect, but enslaved. Then one coming with stones to rebuild the shrine, dropped a hewn stone on the Amulet as it lay, and one half was sundered from the other. I had no power to seek for that which was lost. And there being none to speak the word of power, I could not rejoin it. So the Amulet lay in the dust of the desert many thousand years, and at last came a small man, a conqueror with an army, and after him a crowd of men who sought to seem wise, and one of these found half the Amulet and brought it to this land. But none could read the name. So I lay still. And this man dying and his son after him, the Amulet was sold by those who came after to a merchant, and from him you bought it, and it is here, and now, the name of power having been spoken, I also am here.
This is what the voice said. I think it must have meant Napoleon by the small man, the conqueror. Because I know I have been told that he took an army to Egypt, and that afterwards a lot of wise people went grubbing in the sand, and fished up all sorts of wonderful things, older than you would think possible. And of these I believe this charm to have been one, and the most wonderful one of all.
Everyone listened: and everyone tried to think. It is not easy to do this clearly when you have been listening to the kind of talk I have told you about.
At last Robert said
Can you take us into the Pastto the shrine where you and the other thing were together. If you could take us there, we might find the other part still there after all these thousands of years.
Still there? silly! said Cyril. Dont you see, if we go back into the Past it wont be thousands of years ago. It will be NOW for uswont it? He appealed to the Psammead, who said
Youre not so far off the idea as you usually are!
Well, said Anthea, will you take us back to when there was a shrine and you were safe in itall of you?
Yes, said the voice. You must hold me up, and speak the word of power, and one by one, beginning with the first-born, you shall pass through me into the Past. But let the last that passes be the one that holds me, and let him not lose his hold, lest you lose me, and so remain in the Past for ever.
Thats a nasty idea, said Robert.
When you desire to return, the beautiful voice went on, hold me up towards the East, and speak the word. Then, passing through me, you shall return to this time and it shall be the present to you.
But how A bell rang loudly.
Oh crikey! exclaimed Robert, thats tea! Will you please make it proper daylight again so that we can go down. And thank you so much for all your kindness.
Weve enjoyed ourselves very much indeed, thank you! added Anthea politely.
The beautiful light faded slowly. The great darkness and silence came and these suddenly changed to the dazzlement of day and the great soft, rustling sound of London, that is like some vast beast turning over in its sleep.
The children rubbed their eyes, the Psammead ran quickly to its sandy bath, and the others went down to tea. And until the cups were actually filled tea seemed less real than the beautiful voice and the greeny light.
After tea Anthea persuaded the others to allow her to hang the charm round her neck with a piece of string.
It would be so awful if it got lost, she said: it might get lost anywhere, you know, and it would be rather beastly for us to have to stay in the Past for ever and ever, wouldnt it?
CHAPTER 4. EIGHT THOUSAND YEARS AGO
Next morning Anthea got old Nurse to allow her to take up the poor learned gentlemans breakfast. He did not recognize her at first, but when he did he was vaguely pleased to see her.
You see Im wearing the charm round my neck, she said; Im taking care of itlike you told us to.
Thats right, said he; did you have a good game last night?
You will eat your breakfast before its cold, wont you? said Anthea. Yes, we had a splendid time. The charm made it all dark, and then greeny light, and then it spoke. Oh! I wish you could have heard itit was such a darling voiceand it told us the other half of it was lost in the Past, so of course we shall have to look for it there!
The learned gentleman rubbed his hair with both hands and looked anxiously at Anthea.
I suppose its naturalyouthful imagination and so forth, he said. Yet someone must have Who told you that some part of the charm was missing?
I cant tell you, she said. I know it seems most awfully rude, especially after being so kind about telling us the name of power, and all that, but really, Im not allowed to tell anybody anything about thethethe person who told me. You wont forget your breakfast, will you?
The learned gentleman smiled feebly and then frownednot a cross-frown, but a puzzle-frown.
Thank you, he said, I shall always be pleased if youll look inany time youre passing you knowat least
The learned gentleman smiled feebly and then frownednot a cross-frown, but a puzzle-frown.
Thank you, he said, I shall always be pleased if youll look inany time youre passing you knowat least
I will, she said; goodbye. Ill always tell you anything I MAY tell.
He had not had many adventures with children in them, and he wondered whether all children were like these. He spent quite five minutes in wondering before he settled down to the fifty-second chapter of his great book on The Secret Rites of the Priests of Amen Ra.
It is no use to pretend that the children did not feel a good deal of agitation at the thought of going through the charm into the Past. That idea, that perhaps they might stay in the Past and never get back again, was anything but pleasing. Yet no one would have dared to suggest that the charm should not be used; and though each was in its heart very frightened indeed, they would all have joined in jeering at the cowardice of any one of them who should have uttered the timid but natural suggestion, Dont lets!
It seemed necessary to make arrangements for being out all day, for there was no reason to suppose that the sound of the dinner-bell would be able to reach back into the Past, and it seemed unwise to excite old Nurses curiosity when nothing they could saynot even the truthcould in any way satisfy it. They were all very proud to think how well they had understood what the charm and the Psammead had said about Time and Space and things like that, and they were perfectly certain that it would be quite impossible to make old Nurse understand a single word of it. So they merely asked her to let them take their dinner out into Regents Parkand this, with the implied cold mutton and tomatoes, was readily granted.
You can get yourselves some buns or sponge-cakes, or whatever you fancy-like, said old Nurse, giving Cyril a shilling. Dont go getting jam-tarts, nowso messy at the best of times, and without forks and plates ruination to your clothes, besides your not being able to wash your hands and faces afterwards.
So Cyril took the shilling, and they all started off. They went round by the Tottenham Court Road to buy a piece of waterproof sheeting to put over the Psammead in case it should be raining in the Past when they got there. For it is almost certain death to a Psammead to get wet.
The sun was shining very brightly, and even London looked pretty. Women were selling roses from big baskets-full, and Anthea bought four roses, one each, for herself and the others. They were red roses and smelt of summerthe kind of roses you always want so desperately at about Christmas-time when you can only get mistletoe, which is pale right through to its very scent, and holly which pricks your nose if you try to smell it. So now everyone had a rose in its buttonhole, and soon everyone was sitting on the grass in Regents Park under trees whose leaves would have been clean, clear green in the country, but here were dusty and yellowish, and brown at the edges.
Weve got to go on with it, said Anthea, and as the eldest has to go first, youll have to be last, Jane. You quite understand about holding on to the charm as you go through, dont you, Pussy?
I wish I hadnt got to be last, said Jane.
You shall carry the Psammead if you like, said Anthea. That is, she added, remembering the beasts queer temper, if itll let you.
The Psammead, however, was unexpectedly amiable.
I dont mind, it said, who carries me, so long as it doesnt drop me. I cant bear being dropped.
Jane with trembling hands took the Psammead and its fish-basket under one arm. The charms long string was hung round her neck. Then they all stood up. Jane held out the charm at arms length, and Cyril solemnly pronounced the word of power.
As he spoke it the charm grew tall and broad, and he saw that Jane was just holding on to the edge of a great red arch of very curious shape. The opening of the arch was small, but Cyril saw that he could go through it. All round and beyond the arch were the faded trees and trampled grass of Regents Park, where the little ragged children were playing Ring-o-Roses. But through the opening of it shone a blaze of blue and yellow and red. Cyril drew a long breath and stiffened his legs so that the others should not see that his knees were trembling and almost knocking together. Here goes! he said, and, stepping up through the arch, disappeared. Then followed Anthea. Robert, coming next, held fast, at Antheas suggestion, to the sleeve of Jane, who was thus dragged safely through the arch. And as soon as they were on the other side of the arch there was no more arch at all and no more Regents Park either, only the charm in Janes hand, and it was its proper size again. They were now in a light so bright that they winked and blinked and rubbed their eyes. During this dazzling interval Anthea felt for the charm and pushed it inside Janes frock, so that it might be quite safe. When their eyes got used to the new wonderful light the children looked around them. The sky was very, very blue, and it sparkled and glittered and dazzled like the sea at home when the sun shines on it.
They were standing on a little clearing in a thick, low forest; there were trees and shrubs and a close, thorny, tangly undergrowth. In front of them stretched a bank of strange black mud, then came the browny-yellowy shining ribbon of a river. Then more dry, caked mud and more greeny-browny jungle. The only things that told that human people had been there were the clearing, a path that led to it, and an odd arrangement of cut reeds in the river.
They looked at each other.
Well! said Robert, this IS a change of air!
It was. The air was hotter than they could have imagined, even in London in August.
I wish I knew where we were, said Cyril.
Heres a river, nowI wonder whether its the Amazon or the Tiber, or what.
Its the Nile, said the Psammead, looking out of the fish-bag.
Then this is Egypt, said Robert, who had once taken a geography prize.
I dont see any crocodiles, Cyril objected. His prize had been for natural history.
The Psammead reached out a hairy arm from its basket and pointed to a heap of mud at the edge of the water.
What do you call that? it said; and as it spoke the heap of mud slid into the river just as a slab of damp mixed mortar will slip from a bricklayers trowel.
Oh! said everybody.
There was a crashing among the reeds on the other side of the water.
And theres a river-horse! said the Psammead, as a great beast like an enormous slaty-blue slug showed itself against the black bank on the far side of the stream.
Its a hippopotamus, said Cyril; it seems much more real somehow than the one at the Zoo, doesnt it?
Im glad its being real on the other side of the river, said Jane. And now there was a crackling of reeds and twigs behind them. This was horrible. Of course it might be another hippopotamus, or a crocodile, or a lionor, in fact, almost anything.
Keep your hand on the charm, Jane, said Robert hastily. We ought to have a means of escape handy. Im dead certain this is the sort of place where simply anything might happen to us.
I believe a hippopotamus is going to happen to us, said Janea very, very big one.
They had all turned to face the danger.
Dont be silly little duffers, said the Psammead in its friendly, informal way; its not a river-horse. Its a human.