ound. It was like the rising and falling of the waves of the sea.

Anthea shuddered and said again, 'Oh, Psammead, Psammead!'

'Well?' said a brisk voice, and the curtain of skins was lifted at one
corner by a furry hand, and out peeped the bat's ears and snail's eyes
of the Psammead.

Anthea caught it in her arms and a sigh of desperate relief was breathed
by each of the four.

'Oh! which IS the East!' Anthea said, and she spoke hurriedly, for the
noise of wild fighting drew nearer and nearer.

'Don't choke me,' said the Psammead, 'come inside.'

The inside of the hut was pitch dark.

'I've got a match,' said Cyril, and struck it. The floor of the hut was
of soft, loose sand.

'I've been asleep here,' said the Psammead; 'most comfortable it's been,
the best sand I've had for a month. It's all right. Everything's all
right. I knew your only chance would be while the fight was going on.
That man won't come back. I bit him, and he thinks I'm an Evil Spirit.
Now you've only got to take the thing and go.'

The hut was hung with skins. Heaped in the middle were the offerings
that had been given the night before, Anthea's roses fading on the top
of the heap. At one side of the hut stood a large square stone block,
and on it an oblong box of earthenware with strange figures of men and
beasts on it.

'Is the thing in there?' asked Cyril, as the Psammead pointed a skinny
finger at it.

'You must judge of that,' said the Psammead. 'The man was just going to
bury the box in the sand when I jumped out at him and bit him.'

'Light another match, Robert,' said Anthea. 'Now, then quick! which is
the East?'

'Why, where the sun rises, of course!'

'But someone told us--'

'Oh! they'll tell you anything!' said the Psammead impatiently, getting
into its bass-bag and wrapping itself in its waterproof sheet.

'But we can't see the sun in here, and it isn't rising anyhow,' said
Jane.

'How you do waste time!' the Psammead said. 'Why, the East's where the
shrine is, of course. THERE!'

It pointed to the great stone.

And still the shouting and the clash of stone on metal sounded nearer
and nearer. The children could hear that the headmen had surrounded the
hut to protect their treasure as long as might be from the enemy. But
none dare to come in after the Psammead's sudden fierce biting of the
headman.

'Now, Jane,' said Cyril, very quickly. 'I'll take the Amulet, you stand
ready to hold up the charm, and be sure y