Page:Harold Lamb--Marching Sands.djvu/48

 At their room in the hotel Gray showed the vase to Delabar. It was a valuable object, of enamel wrought on gold leaves, and inscribed with some Chinese characters.

"What do you make of our worthy Wu Fang—



hullo!" he broke off. Delabar had seized the vase and taken off the top.

"It is what the Chinese call a message jar," explained the scientist, feeling within the vase. He removed a slim roll of silk, wound about an ebony stick. On the silk four Chinese characters were delicately painted.

"What do they mean?" asked Gray, looking over his shoulder.