“Can one of you go after Strange and bring him back?” asked Mr Murray.

“Oh, certainly! Hadley-Bright is your man for that!” declared Henry Purfois. “He was one of the Duke’s aides-de-camp at Waterloo, you know. There is nothing he likes better than dashing about on a horse at impossible speeds.”

“Do you know where Mr Strange has gone?” asked Tom Levy.

“Two weeks ago he was in Geneva,” said Mr Murray. “I had a letter from him this morning. He may be still there. Or he may have gone on to Italy.”

The door opened and Shackleton walked in, his wig hung with drops of rain as if he had decorated it with innumerable glass beads. “All is well,” he said eagerly to Mr Murray. “The books are still in their bales.”

“You saw them with your own eyes?”

“Yes, indeed. I dare say it takes a good deal of magic to make ten thousand books disappear.”

“I wish I could be so sanguine,” said Tom Levy. “Forgive me, Mr Murray, but from all I ever heard of Mr Norrell once he has set himself a task he works tirelessly at it until it is accomplished. I do not believe we have time to wait for Mr Strange to come back.”

Shackleton looked surprized to hear any one pronounce with such confidence upon magical matters.

Mr Murray hastily introduced Strange’s three pupils. “How much time do you think we have?” he asked Tom.

“A day? Two at the most? Certainly not enough time to find Mr Strange and bring him back. I think, Mr Murray, that you must put this into our hands and we must try a spell or two to counteract Norrell’s magic.”

“Are there such spells?” asked Mr Murray, eyeing the novice-magicians doubtfully.

“Oh, hundreds!” said Henry Purfois.

“Do you know any of them?” asked Mr Murray.

“We know of them,” said William Hadley-Bright. “We could probably put a fairly decent one together. What an excellent thing it would be if Mr Strange came back from the Continent and we had saved his book! That would rather make him open his eyes, I think!”

“What about Pale’s Invisible What-D’ye-Call-It and Thingumajig?” asked Henry Purfois.

“I know what you mean,” said William Hadley-Bright.

“A really remarkable procedure of Dr Pale’s,” Henry Purfois informed Mr Murray. “It turns a spell around and inflicts it upon its maker. Mr Norrell’s own books would go blank or disappear! Which is, after all, no more than he deserves.”

“I am not sure Mr Strange would be so delighted if he came back and found we had destroyed England’s foremost magical library,” said Tom. “Besides in order to perform Pale’s Invisible Reflection and Protection we would have to construct a Quiliphon.”

“A what?” said Mr Murray.

“A Quiliphon,” said William Hadley-Bright. “Dr Pale’s works are full of such machines for doing magic. I believe that in appearance it is something between a trumpet and a toasting fork …”

“… and there are four metal globes on top that go round and round,” added Henry Purfois.