“To Egypt, please!” said Anthea, when Cyril had uttered the wonderful Name of Power.
“When Moses was there,” added Jane.
And there, in the dingy Fitzroy Street dining-room, the Amulet grew big, and it was an arch, and through it they saw a blue, blue sky and a running river.
“No, stop!” said Cyril, and pulled down Jane’s hand with the Amulet in it.
“What silly cuckoos we all are,” he said. “Of course we can’t go. We daren’t leave home for a single minute now, for fear that minute should be the minute.”
“What minute be what minute?” asked Jane impatiently, trying to get her hand away from Cyril.
“The minute when the Queen of Babylon comes,” said Cyril. And then everyone saw it.
For some days life flowed in a very slow, dusty, uneventful stream. The children could never go out all at once, because they never knew when the King of Babylon would go out lion hunting and leave his Queen free to pay them that surprise visit to which she was, without doubt, eagerly looking forward.
So they took it in turns, two and two, to go out and to stay in.
The stay-at-homes would have been much duller than they were but for the new interest taken in them by the learned gentleman.