would do. Then the man will get the tray out of the window. I
think you'd better be the one,' it said to Anthea. 'We'll wait
out here.'

So the others flattened their noses against the shop window, and
presently a large, dirty, short-fingered hand with a very big
diamond ring came stretching through the green half-curtains at
the back of the shop window and took away the tray.

They could not see what was happening in the interview between
Anthea and the Diamond Ring, and it seemed to them that she had
had time--if she had had money--to buy everything in the shop
before the moment came when she stood before them, her face
wreathed in grins, as Cyril said later, and in her hand the
charm.

It was something like this: [Drawing omitted.] and it was made of
a red, smooth, softly shiny stone.

'I've got it,' Anthea whispered, just opening her hand to give
the others a glimpse of it. 'Do let's get home. We can't stand
here like stuck-pigs looking at it in the street.'

So home they went. The parlour in Fitzroy Street was a very flat
background to magic happenings. Down in the country among the
flowers and green fields anything had seemed--and indeed had
been--possible. But it was hard to believe that anything really
wonderful could happen so near the Tottenham Court Road. But the
Psammead was there--and it in itself was wonderful. And it could
talk--and it had shown them where a charm could be bought that