"It is all my fault that we do not have the stone," he said.

"How do you know we do not have it?" I asked.

"Do not jest," he said, angrily.

"I am serious," I said.

"I saw," he said. "I watched. I did not take my eyes from him. I watched with care. I watched with attention. I watched closely. I watched like a tarn. Nothing escaped me. Nothing, not even the tiniest of movements!"

"You did watch carefully," I said. I certainly had to give him that. He would have been watching more carefully than anyone there, unless perhaps myself. The others about, of course, would not have been watching as we were. They would not have known anything might be afoot. They would not have been suspecting anything, or looking for anything.

"Yes," he said.

"But perhaps you did not watch as carefully as you thought," I said.

"No," said Marcus. "I watched very carefully."

"But perhaps you were carefully watching in the wrong place at the wrong time," I said.

"I do not understand," he said.

"It is not important," I said.

"I must have the stone," said Marcus. "I shall not leave Ar without it!" "I do not think you will have to," I said.

"I do not understand," he said.

"Perhaps we have the stone," I said.

"No," said Marcus. "Even from here I can see it, on its plank."

"You see some stone," I said.

"It is the Home Stone of Ar's Station," he said.

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"It has to be," he said. "I did not take my eyes off it the whole time." "Perhaps you only think you did not take your eyes off it the whole time," I said.

"This is not a time for joking," he said.

"Sorry," I said.

"I am prepared to rush forth and seize the stone," he said. "Are you with me?" "No," I said.

"Then I shall go alone," he said.

"I would not do so, if I were you," I said.

"Why not?" he asked.

"I really do not think it is necessary," I said.

"Why not?" he asked.

"I think we have it already," I said.

"What?" said Marcus.

"Just that," I said.

"Tal, gentlemen!" beamed Boots Tarsk-Bit, waddling up to us.

"I wanted to kill you," said Marcus to him.

"Any particular reason?" inquired Boots.

"For insulting the Home Stone of Ar's Station," said Marcus, grimly.

"I trust that your homicidal urges have now subsided," said Boots.

"Considerably," said Marcus. "Now I am depressed."

"You seem in good spirits," I said to Boots.

"What did you think of my performance? he asked.

"I thought it marvelous, brilliant, unparalleled, incomparable!" I said. "Only that?" he asked, hurt.

"Better than that, if possible," I assured him.

"Incomparably incomparable?" asked Boots.

"At least," I said.

"Yet I expect to exceed it," he said.

"You will try again, then?" asked Marcus, eagerly.

"Hold," I said. "How can you exceed the incomparably incomparable?"

"Easily," said Boots. "All that is required is that in each of one's performances one exceeds all one's previous performances, as well as those of everyone else. Thus I set new standards as I go along."

"And thus," I said, "in that fashion, is it possible for the incomparably incomparable to be outdone by the even more incomparably incomparable."

"That is it," said Boots.

"You will then try again?" asked Marcus, eagerly.

"Try what again?" asked Boots.

"To obtain the Home Stone of Ar's Station," said Marcus.

"What for?" asked Boots.

"What for?" asked Marcus.

"He already has it," I said.

Boots opened his cloak, briefly.

"It is the Home Stone?" whispered Marcus, reverently.

"I certainly hope so," said Boots.

"Do you not remember what he said in his insulae," I asked Marcus, "that it would be no more than a sneeze?"

"Yes," said Marcus. That is a Gorean expression, incidentally, that something would be no more than a sneeze.

"A sneeze," I said. "A sneeze! Do you not grasp it, the audacity of it, the humor of it?"

"No," said Marcus.

"That is when the wily rogue did it," I chuckled, "when he sneezed. We were watching him, not his hands, and that is when the substitution was made!" "Quite wrong," said Boots.

"Oh? I said.

"Yes," he said. "The substitution was made quite early in the performance, when I looked up at the clouds, speculating that they would be unlikely to bother raining on such an unworthy stone. You remember in the jokes about why they had to take it indoors and make it a Home Stone, there being nothing else to do with it, because it was causing a drought in the countryside?"

"That is not true, of course," said Marcus.

"No, of course not," said Boots. "It is really a quite nice stone."

"And it could be rained upon like any other stone," said Marcus.

"Of course," agreed Boots.

"It comes from a well-watered area, in the Vosk Basin," said Marcus.

"I am sure of it," said Boots.

"I remember," I said. "The substitution was made so early? I asked.

"Yes," he said.

"Not when you sneezed?" I said.

"No," he said. "It is often my practice to make the substitution early, before the audience is really ready to watch for it. They are not yet that alert. Then one acts as though the substitution, if it is a magic show, is to take place later. One may even hint at times and ways of doing it, and have the audience crying out, thinking they have caught you, but then they are mystified when you show them that things are not as they thought. Also, if the substitution is made late, people may perhaps even recall, remembering things they did not pay attention to at the time, or deduce what must have occurred. Thus, you wish to give them a great deal to think about after the actual substitution. One does not just do the substitution and rush off. That might suggest the time at which, for example, and perhaps even the manner in which, the substitution had taken place. To be sure, this was not really a performance of that sort because no one, except you two, I suppose, was expecting anything of the sort. Indeed, it was, all things considered, little more than a brief, startling revelation of comedic brilliance, with a casual substitution thrown in. You will never know the temptation I felt to show both Home Stones afterwards, so that the audience might come to a fuller appreciation of the entire matter."

"It is good that you resisted that temptation," said Marcus.

"I think so," said Boots.

"You might have been roasted alive within the Ahn," said Marcus.

"In my thinking on the matter I did not neglect to take such considerations into my calculations," said Boots. "I permitted them to exert their influence, to add their weight, so to speak, to the scales."

"Know that we, for what it is worth, and all those of Ar's Station," said Marcus, "appreciate your brilliance!"

"Thank you," said Boots..

"We salute you!" he said.

"Thank you," said Boots.

"You did not do it when you sneezed? I asked.

"No," he said.

"Why then did you sneeze?" I asked.

"My nose itched," he said.

"Then," said Marcus, pleased, "if the substitution was made early you were not, most of the time, reviling the actual Home Stone of Ar's Station."

"True," said Boots.

"And I almost killed you for nothing," marveled Marcus.

Boots shuddered.

"You nose itched?" I asked.

"Yes," said Boots.

"I think," I said, "that you should prepare to leave the city as soon as possible."

"No," said Boots.

"Tonight," said Marcus.

"No," said Boots.

"Marcus is going to assist me tomorrow," I said. "But he will catch up with you, with a slave, Phoebe." I looked at Boots. "No?" I asked.

"No," said Boots. "Tomorrow night is better. If the substitution is discovered today, on the same day I was within the circle, and I left the city today, this might seem too improbably to be a mere coincidence. It seems likely that it might be conjectured I was in flight."