Adventures in Many Lands, page 78 by Various Authors
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ither party would bring a charge against the other, so they scowlingly went in opposite directions as 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 apparent enemies were the greatest friends and bound together by the most solemn vows, and in fact the realistic fight had been pre-arranged with a definite object, which was successfully attained, as indeed the Museum officials discovered later.
The day after the fracas Doctor Mullen, Government geologist, called at the Museum; he was accompanied by his son Mark, a sturdily built lad of about eighteen, who was preparing to follow his father's profession, and with them was Tom Ellison, the Doctor's assistant, a young man of twenty-four, tall and extremely active.
"Well, Ramji Daji, what's this I hear about a robbery at the Museum yesterday?" asked the doctor of the assistant curator.
"Ah, Sahib, I am very sorry, but the badmashes stole those pieces of strangely carved stones you found on the Salt Range mountains, and also another piece, which was lying near them on the table here," answered Ramji Daji.
"But what in the world did they carry them off for? They can be of no value to anybody," remarked the Doctor.
"I don't know, Sahib. There was a fight here yesterday, and some hours after we missed the five fragments of inscribed stone and one piece belonging to another set. Had they taken any of the gold or silver things we could have understood, but----" and Ramji Daji made a gesture expressive of the puzzled state of his own mind.
"There can be only two reasons for the strange theft--it is either a practical joke, or some one saw the stones who was able to decipher them--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 of a slab, an inch or so thick, the largest being