his is a queer business," said he, coming to the point at once--"this
burglary, I mean. Why should they want to crack your place, right here
in the Temple, too? You've got nothing of value here, have you? No
'hard stuff,' as they call it, for instance?"

"Not so much as a silver teaspoon," replied Thorndyke, who had a
conscientious objection to plate of all kinds.

"It's odd," said the superintendent, "deuced odd. When we got your note,
we thought these anarchist idiots had mixed you up with the case--you
saw the papers, I suppose--and wanted to go through your rooms for some
reason. We thought we had our hands on the gang, instead of which we
find a party of common crooks that we're sick of the sight of. I tell
you, sir, it's annoying when you think you've hooked a salmon, to bring
up a blooming eel."

"It must be a great disappointment," Thorndyke agreed, suppressing a
smile.

"It is," said the detective. "Not but what we're glad enough to get
these beggars, especially Halkett, or Barton, as he calls himself--a
mighty slippery customer is Halkett, and mischievous, too--but we're not
wanting any disappointments just now. There was that big jewel job in
Piccadilly, Taplin and Horne's; I don't mind telling you that we've not
got the ghost of a clue. Then there's this anarchist affair. We're all
in the dark there, too."

"But what about the cipher?" asked Thorndyke.

"Oh, hang the cipher!" exclaimed the detective irritably. "This
Professor Poppelbaum may be a very learned man, but he doesn't help _us_
much. He says the document is in Hebrew, and he has translated it into
Double Dutch. Just listen to this!" He dragged out of his pocket a
bundle of papers, and, dabbing down a photograph of the document before
Thorndyke, commenced to read the Professor's report. "'The document is
written in the characters of the well-known inscription of Mesha, King
of Moab' (who the devil's he? Never heard of him. Well known, indeed!)
'The language is Hebrew, and the words are separated by groups of
letters, which are meaningless, and obviously introduced to mislead and
confuse the reader. The words themselves are not strictly consecutive,
but, by the interpellation of certain other words, a series of
intelligible sentences is obtained, the meaning of which is not very
clear, but is no doubt allegorical. The method of decipherment is shown
in the accompanying tables, and the full rendering suggested on the
enclosed sheet. It is to be