“I don’t understand you,” said the girl.
“It isn’t eight thousand years ago,” whispered Jane. “It’s now—and that’s just what I don’t like about it. I say, do let’s get home again before anything more happens. You can see for yourselves the charm isn’t here.”
“What’s in that place in the middle?” asked Anthea, struck by a sudden thought, and pointing to the fence.
“That’s the secret sacred place,” said the girl in a whisper. “No one knows what is there. There are many walls, and inside the insidest one It is, but no one knows what It is except the headsmen.”
“I believe you know,” said Cyril, looking at her very hard.
“I’ll give you this if you’ll tell me,” said Anthea taking off a bead-ring which had already been much admired.
“Yes,” said the girl, catching eagerly at the ring. “My father is one of the heads, and I know a water charm to make him talk in his sleep. And he has spoken. I will tell you. But if they know I have told you they will kill me. In the insidest inside there is a stone box, and in it there is the Amulet. None knows whence it came. It came from very far away.”
“Have you seen it?” asked Anthea.
The girl nodded.
“Is it anything like this?” asked Jane, rashly producing the charm.