There was the table and the chair. But the top of the table was bare. There was no completed puzzle of shining pieces, no glitter of color. Not even the box remained. There was nothing but the chair and the table, and a lot of dust, and a great many spider webs.

“I—I left it right here.” He tapped the tabletop with his finger. Then he stared down in complete amazement, just as Sig had shown at the door.

“It’s not here now,” Sig was saying. But Ras had moved over to Kim and stood watching him.

“What is it, man? What’s got you bugged?”

“Dust!” Kim pointed. “Look at all the dust! See, that’s where I just touched—I made a mark. But all the rest—it’s thick with dust! How—how could the puzzle have been here? How could we have shoved all those pieces around and not brushed the dust away?”

Ras leaned closer. “Hey, look here, you guys—he’s right! There’s sure a lot of dust. And you don’t get that much dust, even in an old place like this, just overnight. Even if someone took the puzzle away last night, there wouldn’t be all this dust on the table. Look, I can even write my name on it!”

And with a fingertip he printed G-E-O-R-G-E on the table’s surface.

“But,” Artie protested, his voice shrill, “I know it was right there—on that table! I saw it there—there was the silver dragon, and the blue one, and the red I worked—and a lot of yellow pieces—and the box—all right there!” He put down a finger in turn, stirring up more dust.

“I saw it”—Sig slowly nodded his head—”and so did you, Ras. And Kim was after us, he worked the last dragon. I know he didn’t make up that story—it fits. A different dragon, but the story was like ours. And we all know ours were true. But—the puzzle is gone—and the box—and all that dust—It just doesn’t make sense!”

“Maybe,” Kim said—he had been trying to think straight ever since he had come to the empty table—“maybe we weren’t supposed to keep the puzzle. Maybe it was only meant to be worked once.”

“But why?” Artie asked the question none of them could answer.

“Who knows?” was the best Ras could say. “Just this—I know what I saw, though it may be gone now. And I know what I did when I was Sherkarer of Meroë. Even if the puzzle is gone I am going to remember that.”

“Yes, and maybe Kim’s right,” Sig said. “Maybe we each were to have only one chance at the puzzle, and we had it.”

“But the dust—where did the dust come from?”