Lord Arglay frowned a little. "What do you mean?" he said, with a sound of the Chief Justice in his voice.

"I mean that I just was," Reginald said victoriously. "I don't know how I got there. I felt a little dizzy at the time, and I had a headache of sorts afterwards. But without any kind of doubt I was one minute in Ealing and the next in Rowland Street, one minute in Rowland Street and the next in Ealing."

The two listeners looked at each other, and were silent for two or three minutes. Reginald leaned back and waited for more.

Lord Arglay said at last, "I won't ask you if you were drunk, Reginald, because I don't think you'd tell me this extraordinary story if you were drunk then unless you were drunk now, which you seem not to be. I wonder what exactly it was that Giles did. Sir Giles Tumulty, Miss Burnett, is one of the most cantankerously crooked birds I have ever known. He is, unfortunately, my remote brother-in-law; his brother was Reginald's mother's second husband-you know the kind of riddle-me- ree relationship. He's obscurely connected with diabolism in two continents; he has written a classic work on the ritual of Priapus; he is the first authority in the world on certain subjects, and the first authority in hell on one or two more. Yet he never seems to do anything himself, he's always in the background as an interested observer. I wonder what exactly it was that he did and still more I wonder why he did it."

"But he didn't do anything," Reginald said indignantly. "He just sat and watched."

"Of two explanations," Lord Arglay said, "other things being equal, one should prefer that most consonant with normal human experience. That Giles should play some sort of trick on you is consonant with human experience; that you should fly through the air in ten minutes is not- at least it doesn't seem so to me. What do you think, Miss Burnett?"

"I don't seem to believe it somehow," Chloe said. "Did you say it was the Crown of Suleiman, Mr. Montague? I thought he went on a carpet."

Lord Arglay stopped a cigarette half way to his lips. "Eh" he said. " What a treasure you are as a secretary, Miss Burnett! So he did, I seem to remember. You're sure it wasn't a carpet, Reginald?"

"Of course I'm sure," Reginald said irritably. "Should I mistake a carpet for a crown? And I never knew that Suleiman had either particularly."

Lord Arglay, pursuing his own thoughts, shook his head. "It would be like Giles to have the details right, you know," he said. "If there was a king who travelled so, that would be the king Giles would bring out for whatever his wishes might be. Look here, Reginald, what did he want you to do?"

"Nothing," Reginald answered. "But the point is this." Confirming the Chief Justice's previous dictum he became suddenly lucid. "The Persian man told us that small fractions taken from the Stone-it's the Stone in the Crown that does it-have the same power. Now, if that's so, we can have circlets made-with a chip in each, and just think what any man with money would give to have a thing like that. Think of a fellow in Throgmorton Street being able to be in Wall Street in two seconds! Think of Foreign Secretaries! Think of the Secret Service! Think of war! Every Government will need them. And we have the monopoly. It means a colossal fortune-colossal.