"You abdicated?"
"Yes, my boy, I really did. And if that bomb had not happened I should have been off the throne and you would have been on it. So now, Max, I am going to tell you everything." And he did, from beginning to end.
And when it came to giving Max the actual proof, he got up and unlocked a drawer, and handed out of it the shard and the four films for him to look at.
"Take a magnifying-glass," said the King. "The face and the raised arm are behind the palisade to the right."
"I can't see them," said Max.
"Very small," said the King; "a man with a dark beard."
Max continued to look without result. "I can't find it," he said.
"Well, look at the figures and lettering on the shard; you can see those."
"No," said Max, "I can't."
The King came impatiently across and took them off him. Then, as he examined them, he saw that the shard and the four films had been changed.