"What do you make of it, Doctor?" inquired the inspector anxiously,
after a pause, during which Thorndyke had scrutinized the strange
writing with knitted brows.
"Not a great deal," replied Thorndyke. "The character is the Moabite or
Phoenician--primitive Semitic, in fact--and reads from right to left.
The language I take to be Hebrew. At any rate, I can find no Greek
words, and I see 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.
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