they carry them off for? They can be of no
value to anybody," remarked the Doctor.

"I don't know, Sahib. There was a fight here yesterday, and some hours
after we missed the five fragments of inscribed stone and one piece
belonging to another set. Had they taken any of the gold or silver
things we could have understood, but----" and Ramji Daji made a gesture
expressive of the puzzled state of his own mind.

"There can be only two reasons for the strange theft--it is either a
practical joke, or some one saw the stones who was able to decipher
them--which we could not--but the joke theory seems the more probable,"
said the Doctor.

The pieces of stone referred to consisted of five irregular fragments of
a slab, an inch or so thick, the largest being about seven inches long
by four or five wide, and the smallest some four inches by two. These
five parts would not fit evenly together, and in the Doctor's opinion
they formed about half of the original slab.

The Doctor had taken a careful rubbing on paper of the letters on the
stones, and sent it to a friend for the purpose of deciphering it if
possible.

"I wonder, Doctor, whether any one from the Salt Range stole the stones?
Do you remember that your tent was surreptitiously searched a few nights
after you had found the pieces?" remarked Tom Ellison.

"I remember my things having been ransacked, and we concluded some thief
had been disturbed, but we never for a moment thought they were after
the bits of inscribed slab, which, by the way, I had sent off the day
before when sending for stores for the camp," he replied.

"Well, if he was after the stones he may have followed us to Lahore and
you to the Museum, when you came to take a rubbing of the lettering,"
said Tom.

"There must be a clue to something written on them, if any one took all
the trouble to come so far for them," suggested Mark Mullen.

"To-morrow I hope to hear from Professor Muirson, and he will probably
throw some light on the meaning of the inscription," said the Doctor.
"But come, we must get back to work, for I have to finish my report
before we start into camp again in a couple of days' time," he added,
and they hurried away to their own office, but at least Mark's mind was
full of thoughts concerning the stolen stones, and conjuring up all
sorts of strange mysteries connected with them.

Doctor Mullen duly received from the Professor the expected letter, a
part of which read as follows--