He found himself wishing Chloe Burnett had not gone; he would have liked to have his own silence buttressed by another instead of harassed by a futile and spasmodic volubility. His mind gazed blankly at the riddle of the three Stones in an awe which he usually kept for Organic Law. There must be some conclusion, he felt, but he couldn't think -not yet. "-pay even more," he heard at his side and drove faster. "Is there no intelligent creature about?" he thought. "I wish that girl hadn't-no, perhaps it's as well. Damn it, I'm muddled."

He reached his house almost at the same time that Chloe by a slower and longer method came to her own, full of similar half-conscious anxieties and alarms. She found, opened, and read a couple of letters that awaited her, and realized when she had finished that she knew nothing of their contents, and did not particularly want to know. She put down the New Statesman in its place on the table, took off her things, and looked vaguely round the room. It was here then that Lord Arglay had been during that unbelievable and terrifying disappearance; to this the Crown of Suleiman had transported him. The Crown of Suleiman.... the Lord Chief Justice. Chloe Burnett. It might have happened but she didn't believe it; at least, except that she couldn't disbelieve in that sharp spasm of fear. She moved towards a chair and noticed, with a slight annoyance, that she had forgotten to shake the cushions up when she left the house that evening. Or had another visitor-? Chloe dropped into the chair where Lord Arglay had sat and burst into tears.

ChapterEnd

Chapter Three
THE TALE OF THE END OF DESIRE

When Miss Burnett arrived at the Chief Justice's house the next morning she found him reading his correspondence in a perfectly normal way. He looked up to welcome her and considered her carefully. "No worse?" he said. "Good night? Well, you missed something even more eerie."

"O Lord Arglay! Nothing happened?"

"Something happened all right," Arglay answered, and his face grew grave. "Up to last night," he went on, "I thought Giles was monkeying about with something, and playing tricks on Reginald for some infernal reason of his own. But I don't know now; I really don't. He didn't seem to expect what did happen."

"But, Lord Arglay! What did?"

The Chief Justice told her. Chloe sat gazing at him. "It multiplies itself?" she breathed. "But it must be somethingmagical, then. Something unnatural."

Arglay shook his head. "I wouldn't say that," he answered. "Atoms do it, or electrons, or something. But I admit to having a nasty jar when I saw the three things all exactly alike. Somehow the sight of Reginald producing stones of Suleiman ben Daood at the rate of two a minute with a chisel-it didn't seem decent.