It was extraordinarily important to Scottish national feeling to have this stone in Scotland. Ian Hamilton hatched his plot and got three friends from the university to help him do it. But as he edged the stone onto his coat so that he could drag it away, he pulled one of the rings too hard and the stone broke in two. So for one awful sickening moment, it seemed he had actually destroyed the very thing he'd come to rescue. It made it much easier to deal with.