Part 3, Chapter 17 Summary

While she is still recovering from the guillotine incident, Lyra feels the probing fingers of the golden monkey as they examine the contents of her waist belt. Mrs. Coulter asks Lyra what happened to her in London, and Lyra fabricates a story. She says that a man and a woman tricked her, and put her in a car. Lyra says that she escaped the car when it was stopped, and was then captured by Gobblers and taken to Trollesund.

When asked about the Dust, Mrs. Coulter lies and says that it is evil and can infect daemons, because they can have troublesome thoughts. That is why, she says, they must separate children from their daemons - to save the children.

Mrs. Coulter then asks about the alethiometer, and Lyra removes the tin containing the spy-fly. "Did you put it (the alethiometer...