Look here, uncle, we want to keep this thing quiet."

"Eh?" Sir Giles said. "Quiet? No, I don't particularly want to keep it quiet. I want to talk to Palliser about it-after me he knows more about these things than anyone. And I want to see Van Eilendorf-and perhaps Cobham, though his nonsense about the double pillars at Baghdad was the kind of tripe that nobody but a broken-down Houndsditch sewer-rat would talk."

The Prince stood up. "I have shown you and told you these things," he said, "because you knew too much already, and that you may see how very precious is the Holy Thing which you have there. I ask you again to restore it to the guardians from whom you stole it. I warn you that if you do not-"

"I didn't steal it," Sir Giles broke in. "I bought it. Go and ask the fellow who sold it to me."

"Whether you stole by bribery or by force is no matter," the Prince went on. "You very well know that he who betrayed it to you broke the trust of generations. I do not know what pleasure you find in it or for what you mean to use it, unless indeed you will make it a talisman for travel. But however that may be, I warn you that it is dangerous to all men and especially dangerous to such unbelievers as you. There are dangers within the Stone, and other dangers from those who were sworn to guard the Stone. I offer you again as much money as you can desire if you will return it."

"O well, as to money," Reginald Montague said, "of course my uncle will have a royalty-a considerable royalty-on all sales and that'll be a nice little bit in a few months. Yours isn't a rich Government anyhow, is it? How many millions do you owe us?"

The Prince took no notice. He was staring fiercely and eagerly at Sir Giles, who put out his hand again and picked up the circlet.

"No," he said, "no, I shan't part with it. I want to experiment a bit. The bastard asylum attendant who sold it to me-"

The Prince interrupted in a shaking voice. "Take care of your words," he said. "Outcast and accursed as that man now is, he comes of a great and royal family. He shall writhe in hell for ever, but even there you shall not be worthy to see his torment."

"-said there was hardly anything it wouldn't do," Sir Giles finished. "No, I shan't ask Cobham. Palliser and I will try it first. It was all perfectly legal, Prince, and all the Governments in the world can't make it anything else."

"I do not think Governments will recover it," the Prince said. "But death is not a monopoly of Governments. If I had not sworn to my uncle-"

"O it was your uncle, was it?" Sir Giles asked. "I wondered what it was that made you coo so gently. I rather expected you to be more active about it to-night."

"You try me very hard," the Prince uttered. "But I know the Stone will destroy you at last."

"Quite, quite," Sir Giles said, standing up. "Well, thank you for coming.