Who was translating a scroll?
Dr Stedman is murdered by an intruder in his study and two toy soldiers are stolen from his desk. The next day, Hugh Drummond reads about the murder in the newspaper. He is approached by a friend, Phillip Coleman, who tells him that he owns two similar figures and that he has received first offers, then threats to sell them. According to Coleman, the soldiers are 900 years old, dating back to the time of William the Conqueror. Coleman leaves the two painted lead figures with Drummond for safety and asks him to look into the affair. To flush out whoever is trying to get the figurines they plant a press story that Drummond has bought them from Coleman.
When a woman, who introduces herself as journalist Estelle Gorday, visits Drummond's apartment, she recognizes the right figures out of a collection that Drummond has assembled on his mantle piece. Drummond and his friend Longworth then visit Stedman Manor and meet the daughter of the victim, Cynthia. She tells them that her father's figures were very similar to those brought by Drummond but different in detail and that they were part of a set of 13 soldiers that Dr Stedman bought at auction together with an Anglo-Saxon palimpsest. He was translating that when he was killed and the scroll was also taken. Dr Stedman was convinced that the statues were exceedingly valuable and he received an offer to buy them from a man called Vane. Vane offered a multiple of what Stedman has paid and left very angry when rejected.
Drummond and Longworth follow an invitation by Ms Gorday. While they are there, Vane breaks into Drummond's apartment and steals the two soldiers. Coleman and Seymour, another friend of Drummond's, shadow him to a Soho flat. Seymour fetches Drummond and they return to Soho. Drummond and Longworth go up. A knife is thrown at them and they find Vane dead and the soldiers missing.
Dr Stedman