tched him, and promptly gave
information. Acting on this the police set out to search the house. When
we reached the entrance we were met by the owner, and a warrant was
shown to him. A heated argument followed, at the end of which the
infuriated man waved us in with a magnificent and most dramatic gesture.
There were some twenty rooms in the house, and the stifling heat of a
July noon made the task none too enjoyable. The police inspector was
extremely thorough in his work, and an hour had passed before three
rooms had been searched. He looked into the cupboards, went down on his
knees to peer into the ovens, stood on tiptoe to search the fragile
wooden shelves (it was a heavy stone which we were looking for), hunted
under the mats, and even peeped into a little tobacco-tin. In one of the
rooms there were three or four beds arranged along the middle of the
floor. The inspector pulled off the mattresses, and out from under each
there leapt a dozen rats, which, if I may be believed, made for the
walls and ran straight up them, disappearing in the rafter-holes at the
top. The sight of countless rats hurrying up perpendicular walls may be
familiar to some people, but I venture to call it an amazing spectacle,
worthy of record. Then came the opening of one or two
travelling-trunks. The inspector ran his hand through the clothes which
lay therein, and out jumped a few more rats, which likewise went up the
walls. The searching of the remaining rooms carried us well through the
afternoon; and at last, hot and weary, we decided to abandon the hunt.
Two nights later a man was seen walking away from the house with a heavy
sack on his back; and the stone is now, no doubt, in the Western
hemisphere.

The attempt to regain a lost antiquity is seldom crowned with success.
It is so extremely difficult to obtain reliable information; and as soon
as a man is suspected his enemies will rush in with accusations.
Thirty-eight separate accusations were sent in against a certain
head-watchman during the first days after the fact had leaked out that
he was under suspicion. Not one of them could be shown to be true.
Sometimes one man will bring a charge against another for the betterment
of his own interests. Here is a letter from a watchman who had resigned,
but wished to rejoin, "To his Exec. Chief Dircoter of the tembels. I
have honner to inform that I am your servant X, watchman on the tembels
before this time. Sir from one year ago I work