"It wasn't there a short time ago. I brought a duster and went over the
sideboard myself."

Quest grunted.

"H'm! No one else has been in the room, and it hasn't been empty for more
than ten minutes," he remarked. "Well, let's see what's inside, any way."

"Just be careful, Mr. Quest," Laura advised. "I don't get that box at
all."

Quest pushed it with his forefinger.

"No bomb inside, any way," he remarked. "Here goes!"

He lifted off the lid. There was nothing in the interior but a sheet of
paper folded up. Quest smoothed it out with his hand. They all leaned over
and read the following words, written in an obviously disguised hand:

"You have embarked on a new study--anthropology. What
characteristic strikes you most forcibly in connection with it?
Cunning? The necklace might be where the skeleton is. Why not
begin at the beginning?"

The note was unsigned, but in the spot where a signature might have been
there was a rough pen drawing of two hands, with fingers extended, talon
fashion, menacingly, as though poised to strike at some unseen enemy.
Quest, after their first moment of stupefaction, whistled softly.

"The hands!" he muttered.