e here a group of letters which _may_ form one of the few
Hebrew words that I know--the word _badim_, 'lies.' But you had better
get it deciphered by an expert."

"If it is Hebrew," said Badger, "we can manage it all right. There are
plenty of Jews at our disposal."

"You had much better take the paper to the British Museum," said
Thorndyke, "and submit it to the keeper of the Phoenician antiquities
for decipherment."

Inspector Badger smiled a foxy smile as he deposited the paper in his
pocket-book. "We'll see what we can make of it ourselves first," he
said; "but many thanks for your advice, all the same, Doctor. No, Mr.
James, I can't give you any information just at present; you had better
apply at the hospital."

"I suspect," said Thorndyke, as we took our way homewards, "that Mr.
James has collected enough material for his purpose already. He must
have followed us from the hospital, and I have no doubt that he has his
report, with 'full details,' mentally arranged at this moment. And I am
not sure that he didn't get a peep at the mysterious paper, in spite of
the inspector's precautions."

"By the way," I said, "what do you make of the document?"

"A cipher, most probably," he replied. "It is written in the primitive
Semitic alphabet, which, as you know, is practically identical with
primitive Greek. It is written from right to left, like the Phoenician,
Hebrew, and Moabite, as well as the earliest Greek, inscriptions. The
paper is common cream-laid notepaper, and the ink is ordinary indelible
Chinese ink, such as is used by draughtsmen. Those are the facts, and
without further study of the document itself, they don't carry us very
far."

"Why do you think it is a cipher rather than a document in
straightforward Hebrew?"

"Because it is obviously a secret message of some kind. Now, every
educated Jew knows more or less Hebrew, and, although he is able to read
and write only the modern square Hebrew character, it is so easy to
transpose one alphabet into another that the mere language would afford
no security. Therefore, I expect that, when the experts translate this
document, the translation or transliteration will be a mere farrago of
unintelligible nonsense. But we shall see, and meanwhile the facts that
we have offer several interesting suggestions which are well worth
consideration."

"As, for instance--?"

"Now, my dear Jervis," said Thorndyke, shaking an admonitory forefinger
at me, "don't, I p