Sentence:  Now among the treasures in the palace of the Dragon King of the World Under the Sea were two jewels having wondrous power over the tides. [...] Whoever owned them had the power to make the tides instantly rise or fall at his word, to make the dry land appear, or the sea overwhelm it, in the <WSD>fillip</WSD> of a finger. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  Something unimportant, a trifle; also, the brief time it takes to flick one's finger "(see noun sense 1)"; a jiffy.