CHAPTER I.--THE FIGHT AND THEFT IN THE MUSEUM
A tall, muscular, black-bearded, dark-eyed, beak-nosed native strolledinto the Lahore Museum, in the Punjab; he carried a massivefive-foot-long stick with a crook handle, and studded with shortbrass-headed nails from handle to ferrule. He sauntered about until hecame to a case containing ancient daggers and swords, which arrested hisattention for some time.
About a dozen other visitors were in the room, and of these a couplestrolled together from one object of interest to another; they were finestalwart natives, and each possessed a stick of ordinary size.
These two men quietly walked about exchanging opinions on the variouscurios until they came face to face with the solitary man gazing at theantique weapons.
"What! art thou here, thou badmash (scoundrel)?" exclaimed one of thetwo.
"Ah, thou son of a swine, take that!" replied the tall man, and, with aquickness which proved him to be an expert in the handling of a stick,struck the native who had addressed him a vicious blow on the head, but,the said head being protected by many folds of his puggari, the strokemerely knocked him down without doing any serious injury.
In an instant the fallen man's friend struck at the assailant, and, theother man springing up, a fierce fight was quickly in full swing, twoagainst one, and the noise of the sticks rattling together in powerfulstrokes, and the insulting taunts thrown at each other by thecombatants, soon attracted the other sight-seers and the Museumattendants.
In a few minutes the fighters had been turned out of the building; theyhad done no damage except to themselves, and neither party would bring acharge against the other, so they scowlingly went in opposite directionsas soon as they were outside.
"A family feud," said a bystander.
"Yes, I expect it is a vendetta," responded another.
These remarks, however, were very far from the truth, for the apparentenemies were the greatest friends and bound together by the most solemnvows, and in fact the realistic fight had been pre-arranged with adefinite object, which was successfully attained, as indeed the Museumofficials discovered later.
The day after the fracas Doctor Mullen, Government geologist, called atthe Museum; he was accompanied by his son Mark, a sturdily built lad ofabout eighteen, who was preparing to follow his father's profession, andwith them was Tom Ellison, the Doctor's assistant, a young man oftwenty-four, tall and extremely active.
"Well, Ramji Daji, what's this I hear about a robbery at the Museumyesterday?" asked the doctor of the assistant curator.
"Ah, Sahib, I am very sorry, but the badmashes stole those pieces ofstrangely carved stones you found on the Salt Range mountains, and alsoanother piece, which was lying near them on the table here," answeredRamji Daji.
"But what in the world did they carry them off for? They can be of novalue to anybody," remarked the Doctor.
"I don't know, Sahib. There was a fight here yesterday, and some hoursafter we missed the five fragments of inscribed stone and one piecebelonging to another set. Had they taken any of the gold or silverthings we could have understood, but----" and Ramji Daji made a gestureexpressive of the puzzled state of his own mind.
"There can be only two reasons for the strange theft--it is either apractical joke, or some one saw the stones who was able to decipherthem--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 ofa slab, an inch or so thick, the largest being about seven inches longby four or five wide, and the smallest some four inches by two. Thesefive parts would not fit evenly together, and in the Doctor's opinionthey formed about half of the original slab.
The Doctor had taken a careful rubbing on paper of the letters on thestones, and sent it to a friend for the purpose of deciphering it ifpossible.
"I wonder, Doctor, whether any one from the Salt Range stole the stones?Do you remember that your tent was surreptitiously searched a few nightsafter you had found the pieces?" remarked Tom Ellison.
"I remember my things having been ransacked, and we concluded some thiefhad been disturbed, but we never for a moment thought they were afterthe bits of inscribed slab, which, by the way, I had sent off the daybefore when sending for stores for the camp," he replied.
"Well, if he was after the stones he may have followed us to Lahore andyou 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 allthe trouble to come so far for them," suggested Mark Mullen.
"To-morrow I hope to hear from Professor Muirson, and he will probablythrow 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 reportbefore 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 wasfull of thoughts concerning the stolen stones, and conjuring up allsorts of strange mysteries connected with them.
Doctor Mullen duly received from the Professor the expected letter, apart of which read as follows--
"There can be no doubt that the ruins in which you found the fragmentsof inscribed slab are those of a Greek settlement which was mostprobably founded on the Salt Range by camp followers, and possiblysoldiers, of Alexander the Great's army who were left behind on hisreturn from India.
"I can only conclude from the rubbing you have sent me that it is notfrom the original inspection, but that the slab of which you have foundparts was inscribed from memory at a much later period, it being made upof three languages. The original sense may or may not have beenretained, and as far as I am able to understand it the incompletewording would in English read--' ... into thy charge ... guarded ...descendants with life ... of Hydas ... sacrifice ... the gods.'
"I have made no attempt to guess at the missing words, for, as you willsee at a glance, the incomplete sentences allow of a variety ofrenderings, thereby causing great uncertainty with regard to theoriginal meaning."
"I wish we had the other parts of the slab," exclaimed Mark, as soon ashis father had read out the letter.
"Yes, it is rather interesting. Well, we start to-morrow for the SaltRange to continue our work, and I will show you the exact spot where Ifound the pieces, and a diligent search there may be rewarded by thediscovery of at least some of the other portion," said the Doctor; andboth Mark and Tom Ellison hoped such might prove to be the case, littlethinking what dangers they would be led into on account of thosefragments of an old, broken slab.