The Green Mummy

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"I understood that the Professor bought it himself."

"So he did, but I supplied the purchase money. Therefore I do
not intend that this should be lost sight of again. Lucy, my
dear, you run home again and tell your father what we have found.
He had better bring men, to take it to his museum. When it is
there, Mrs. Jasher can then explain how it came to be in her
garden."

Without a word Lucy set off, walking quickly, anxious to fulfill
her mission and gladden the heart of her step-father with the
amazing news.

Archie and Mrs. Jasher were left alone, and the former lighted a
cigarette, while he tapped the mummy case, and examined it as
closely as the pale gleam of the moonlight permitted. Mrs.
Jasher made no move to enter the house, much as she had
complained of the cold. But perhaps she found the flimsy skirt
of the tea-gown sufficient protection.

"It seems to me, Mr. Hope," said she very tartly, "that you
suspect my having a hand in this," and she tapped the mummy
coffin also.

"Pardon me," observed Hope very politely, "but I suspect
nothing, because I have no grounds upon which to base my
suspicions. But certainly it is odd that this missing mummy
should be found in your garden. You will admit that much."

"I admit nothing of the sort," she rejoined coolly. "Only myself
and Jane live in the cottage, and you don't expect that two
delicate women could move this huge thing." She tapped the case
again. "Moreover, had I found the mummy I should have taken it
to the Pyramids at once, so as to give Professor Braddock some
pleasure."

"It will certainly be an acceptable wedding present," said Archie
sarcastically.

"Pardon me," said Mrs. Jasher in her turn, "but I have nothing to
do with it as a present or otherwise. How the thing came into my
arbor I really cannot say. As I told you, Professor Braddock
made no remark about it when he came; and when he left, although
I was at the door, I did not notice anything in this arbor.
Indeed I cannot say if I ever looked in this direction."

Archie mused and glanced at his watch.

"The Professor told Lucy that he came by the six train: you say
that he was here at seven."

"Yes, and he left at eight. What is the time now?"

"Ten o'clock, or a few minutes after. Therefore, since neither
you nor Braddock saw the mummy, I take it that the case was
brought here by some unknown people between eight o'clock and a
quarter to ten, about which time I arrived here with Lucy."

Mrs. Jasher nodded.

"You put the matter very clearly," she observed dryly. "You have
mistaken your vocation, Mr. Hope, and should have been a criminal
lawyer. I should turn detective were I you."

"Why?" asked Archie with a start.

"You might ascertain my movements on the night when the crime was
committed," snapped the little widow. "A woman muffled in a
shawl, in much the same way as my head is now muffled in my
skirt, talked to Bolton through the bedroom window of the
Sailor's Rest, you know."

Hope expostulated.

"My dear lady, how you run on! I assure you that I would as soon
suspect Lucy as you."

"Thank you," said the widow very dryly and very tartly.

"I merely wish to point out," went on Archie in a conciliatory
tone, "that, as the mummy in its case--as appears probable--
was brought into your garden between the hours of eight and ten,
less fifteen minutes, that you may have heard the voices or
footsteps of those who carried it here."

"I heard nothing," said Mrs. Jasher, turning towards the path.
"I had my supper, and played a game or two of patience, and then
wrote letters, as I told you before. And I am not going to stand
in the cold, answering silly questions, Mr. Hope. If you wish to
talk you must come inside."

Hope shook his head and lighted a fresh cigarette.

"I stand guard over this mummy until its rightful owner comes,"
said he determinedly.

"Ho!" rejoined Mrs. Jasher scornfully: she was now at the door.
"I understood that you bought the mummy and therefore were its
owner. Well, I only hope you'll find those emeralds Don Pedro
talked about," and with a light laugh she entered the cottage.

Archie looked after her in a puzzled way. There was no reason to
suspect Mrs. Jasher, so far as he saw, even though a woman had
been seen talking to Bolton on the night of the crime. And yet,
why should the widow refer to the emeralds, which were of such
immense value, according to Don Pedro? Hope glanced at the case
and shook the primitive coffin, anxious for the moment to open it
and ascertain if the jewels were still clutched grimly in the
mummy's dead hands. But the coffin was fastened tightly down
with wooden pegs, and could only be opened with extreme care and
difficulty. Also, as Hope reflected, even did he manage to open
this receptacle of the dead, he still could not ascertain if the
emeralds were safe, since they would be hidden under innumerable
swathings of green-dyed llama wool. He therefore let the matter
rest there, and, staring at the river, wondered how the mummy had
been brought to the garden in the marshes.

Hope recollected that experts had decided the mode in which the
mummy had been removed from the Pierside public-house. It had
been passed through the window, according to Inspector Date and
others, and, when taken across the narrow path which bordered the
river, had been placed in a waiting boat. After that it had
vanished until it had re-appeared in this arbor. But if taken by
water once, it could have been taken by water again. There was a
rude jetty behind the embankment, which Hope could easily see
from where he stood. In all probability the mummy had been
landed there and carried to the garden, while Mrs. Jasher was
busy with her supper and her game of cards and her letters.
Also, the path from the shore to the house was very lonely, and
if any care had been exercised, which was probable, no one from
the Fort road or from the village street could have seen the
stealthy conspirators bringing their weird burden. So far Hope
felt that he could argue excellently. But who had brought the
mummy to the garden and why had it been brought there? These
questions he could not answer so easily, and indeed not at all.

While thus meditating, he heard, far away in the frosty air, a
puffing and blowing and panting like an impatient motor-car.
Before he could guess what this was, Braddock appeared, simply
racing along the marshy causeway, followed closely by Cockatoo,
and at some distance away by Lucy. The little scientist rushed
through the gate, which he flung open with a noise fit to wake
the dead, and lunged forward, to fall with outstretched arms upon
the green case. There he remained, still puffing and blowing,
and looked as though he were hugging a huge green beetle.
Cockatoo, who, being lean and hard, kept his breath more easily,
stood respectfully by, waiting for his master to give orders, and
Lucy came in quietly by the gate, smiling at her father's
enthusiasm. At the same moment Mrs. Jasher, well wrapped up in a
coat of sables, emerged from the cottage.

"I heard you coming, Professor," she called out, hurrying down
the path.

"I should think the whole Fort heard the Professor coming," said
Hope, glancing at the dark mass. "The soldiers must think it is
an invasion."

But Braddock paid no heed to this jocularity, or even to Mrs.
Jasher, to whom he had been so lately engaged. All his soul was
in the mummy case, and as soon as he recovered his breath, he
loudly proclaimed his joy at this miraculous recovery of the
precious article.

"Mine! mine!" he roared, and his words ran violently through the
frosty air.

"Be calm, sir," advised Hope--"be calm."

"Calm! calm!" bellowed Braddock, struggling to a standing
position. "Oh, confound you, sir, how can I be calm when I find
what I have lost? You have a mean, groveling soul, Hope, not the
soaring spirit of a collector."

"There is no need to be rude to Archie, father," corrected Lucy
sharply.

"Rude! Rude! I am never rude. But this mummy." Braddock
peered closely at it and rapped the wood to assure himself it was
no phantom. "Yes! it is my mummy, the mummy of Inca Caxas. Now
I shall learn how the Peruvians embalmed their royal dead. Mine!
mine! mine!" He crooned like a mother over a child, caressing
the coffin; then suddenly drew himself upright and fixed Mrs.
Jasher with an indignant eye. "So it was you, madam, who stole
my mummy," he declared venomously, "and I thought of making you
my wife. Oh, what an escape I have had. Shame, woman, shame!"

Mrs. Jasher stared, then her face grew redder than the rouge on
her cheeks, and she stamped furiously in the neat Louis Quinze
slippers in which she had in judiciously come out.

"How dare you say what you have said?" she cried, her voice
shrill and hard with anger. "Mr. Hope has been saying the same
thing. Are you both mad? I never set eyes on the horrid thing
in my life. And only to-night you told me that you loved--"

"Yes, yes, I said many foolish things, I don't doubt, madam. But
that is not the question. My mummy! my mummy!" he rapped the
wood furiously--"how does my mummy come to be here?"

"I don't know," said Mrs. Jasher, still furious, "and I don't
care."

"Don't care: don't care, when I look forward to your helping me
in my lifework! As my wife--"

"I shall never be your wife," cried the widow, stamping again.
"I wouldn't be your wife for a thousand or a million pounds.
Marry your mummy, you horrid, red-faced, crabbed little--"

"Hush! hush!" whispered Lucy, taking the angry woman round the
waist, "you must make allowances for my father. He is so
excited over his good fortune that he--"

"I shall not make allowance," interrupted Mrs. Jasher angrily.
"He practically accuses me of stealing the mummy. If I did that,
I must have murdered poor Sidney Bolton."

"No, no," cried the Professor, wiping his red face. "I never
hinted at such a thing. But the mummy is in your garden."

"What of that? I don't know how it came there. Mr. Hope, surely
you do not support Professor Braddock in his preposterous
accusation?"

"I bring no accusation," stuttered the Professor.

"Neither do I, Mrs. Jasher. You are excited now. Go in and
sleep, and to-morrow you will talk reasonably." This brilliant
speech was from Hope, and wrought Mrs. Jasher into a royal rage.

"Well," she gasped, "he asks me to be calm, as it I wasn't the
very calmest person here. I declare: oh, I shall be ill! Lucy,"
she seized the girl's hand and dragged her towards the cottage,
"come in and give me red lavender. I shall be in bed for days
and days and days. Oh, what brutes men can be! But listen, you
two horrors," she indicated Braddock and Hope, as she pushed open
the door, "if you dare to say a word against me, I'll have an
action for libel against you. Oh, dear me, how very ill I feel!
Lucy, darling, help me, oh, help me, and--and--oh--oh--oh!"
She flopped down on the threshold of her home with a cry.

"Archie! Archie! She's fainted."

Hope rushed forward, and raised the stout little woman in his
arms. Jane, attracted by the clamor, appeared on the scene, and
between the three of them they managed to get Mrs. Jasher placed
on the sofa of the pink drawing-room. She certainly was in a
dead faint, so Hope left her to the administrations of Lucy and
the servant, and walked out again into the garden, closing the
cottage door after him.

He found the heartless Professor quite oblivious to Mrs. Jasher's
sufferings, so taken up was he with the newly found mummy.
Cockatoo had been sent for a hand-cart, and while he was absent
Braddock expatiated on the perfections of this relic of Peruvian
civilization.

"Will you sell it to Don Pedro?" asked Hope.

"After I have done with it, not before," snapped Braddock,
hovering round his treasure. "I shall want a percentage on my
bargain also."

Archie thought privately that if Braddock unswathed the mummy, he
would find the emeralds and would probably stick to them, so that
his expedition to Egypt might be financed. It that case Don
Pedro would no longer wish to buy the corpse of his ancestor.
But while he debated as to the advisability of telling the
Professor of the existence of the emeralds, Cockatoo returned
with the hand-cart.

"You have lost Mrs. Jasher," said Hope, while he, assisted the
Professor to hoist the mummy on to the cart.

"Never mind! never mind!" Braddock patted the coffin. "I have
found something much more to my mind: something ever so much
better. Ha! ha!"

CHAPTER XIV

THE UNEXPECTED HAPPENS

In spite of newspapers and letters and tape-machines and
telegrams and such like aids to the speedy diffusion of news, the
same travels quicker in villages than in cities. Word of mouth
can spread gossip with marvelous rapidity in sparsely inhabited
communities, since it is obvious that in such places every person
knows the other--as the saying goes--inside out. In every
English village walls have ears and windows have eyes, so that
every cottage is a hot-bed of scandal, and what is known to one
is, within the hour, known to the others. Even the Sphinx could
not have preserved her secret long in such a locality.

Gartley could keep up its reputation in this respect along with
the best, therefore it was little to be wondered at, that early
next morning every one knew that Professor Braddock had found his
long-lost mummy in Mrs. Jasher's garden, and had removed the same
to the Pyramids without unnecessary delay. It was not
particularly late when the hand-cart, with its uncanny burden,
had passed along the sole street of the place, and several men
had emerged from the Warrior Inn ostensibly to offer help, but
really to know what the eccentric master of the great house was
doing. Braddock brusquely rejected these offers; but the oddly
shaped mummy case, stained green, having been seen, it needed
little wit for those who had caught a sight of it to put two and
two together, especially as the weird object had been described
at the inquest and had been talked over ever since in every
cottage. And as the cart had been seen coming out of the widow's
garden, it naturally occurred to the villagers that Mrs. Jasher
had been concealing the mummy. Shortly the rumor spread that she
had also murdered Bolton, for unless she had done so, she
certainly--according to village logic--could not have been
possessed of the spoil. Finally, as Mrs. Jasher's doors and
windows were small and the mummy was rather bulky, it was natural
to presume that she had hidden it in the garden. Report said she
had buried it and had dug it up just in time to be pounced upon
by its rightful owner. From which it can be seen that gossip is
not invariably accurate.

However this may be, the news of Professor Braddock's good
fortune shortly came to Don Pedro's ears through the medium of
the landlady. As she revealed what she had heard in the morning,
the Peruvian gentleman was spared a sleepless night. But as soon
as he learned the truth--which was surprising enough in its
unexpectedness--he hastily finished his breakfast and hurried to
the Pyramids. As yet he had not intended to see Braddock so
promptly, or at least not until he had made further inquiries at
Pierside, but the news that Braddock possessed the royal ancestor
of the De Gayangoses brought him immediately into the museum. He
greeted the Professor in his usual grave and dignified manner,
and no one would have guessed from his inherent calmness that the
unexpected news of Braddock's arrival, and the still more
unexpected information about the green mummy, had surprised him
beyond measure. Being somewhat superstitious, it also occurred
to Don Pedro that the coincidence meant good fortune to him in
the recovery of his long-lost ancestor.

Braddock, already knowing a great deal about Don Pedro from Lucy
and Archie Hope, was only too pleased to see the Peruvian, hoping
to find in him a kindred spirit. As yet the Professor was not
aware of the contents of the ancient Latin manuscript, which
revealed the fact of the hidden emeralds, since Hope had decided
to leave it to the Peruvian to impart the information. Archie
knew very well that Don Pedro--as he had plainly stated--wished
to purchase the mummy, and it was only right that Braddock should
know what he was selling. But Hope forgot one important fact
perhaps from the careless way in which Don Pedro had told his
story--namely, that the Professor in a second degree was a
receiver of stolen goods. Therefore it was more than probable
that the Peruvian would claim the mummy as his own property.
Still, in that event he would have to prove his claim, and that
would not be easy.

The plump little professor had not yet unsealed the case, and
when Don Pedro entered, he was standing before it rubbing his fat
hands, with a gloating expression in his face. However, as
Cockatoo had brought in the Peruvian's card, Braddock expected
his visitor and wheeled to face him.

"How are you, sir?" said he, extending his hand. "I am glad to
see you, as I hear that you know all about this mummy of Inca
Caxas."

"Well, I do," answered De Gayangos, sitting down in the chair
which his host pushed forward. "But may I ask who told you that
this mummy was that of the last Inca?"

Braddock pinched his plump chin and replied readily, enough.

"Certainly, Don Pedro. I wished to learn the difference in
embalming between the Egyptians and the ancient Peruvians, and
looked about for a South American corpse. Unexpectedly I saw in
several European newspapers and in two English journals that a
green Peruvian mummy was for sale at Malta for one thousand
pounds. I sent my assistant, Sidney Bolton, to buy it, and he
managed to get it, coffin and all, for nine hundred. While in
Malta, and before he started back in The Diver with the mummy, he
wrote me an account of the transaction. The seller--who was the
son of a Maltese collector--told Bolton that his father had
picked up the mummy in Paris some twenty and more years ago. It
came from Lima some thirty years back, I believe, and, according
to the collector in Paris, was the corpse of Inca Caxas. That is
the whole story."

Don Pedro nodded gravely.

"Was there a Latin manuscript delivered along with the mummy?" he
asked.

Braddock's eyes opened widely.

"No, sir. The mummy came thirty years ago from Lima to Paris.
It passed twenty years back into the possession of the Maltese
collector, and his son sold it to me a few months ago. I never
heard of any manuscript."

"Then Mr. Hope did not repeat to you what I told him the other
night?"

The Professor sat down and his mouth grew obstinate.

"Mr. Hope related some story you told him and others about this
mummy having been stolen from you."

"From my father," corrected the unsmiling Peruvian; keeping a
careful eye on his host; "that is really the case. Inca Caxas
is, or was, my ancestor, and this manuscript"--Don Pedro
produced the same from his inner pocket--"details the funeral
ceremonies."

"Very interesting; most interesting," fussed Braddock, stretching
out his hand. "May I see it?"

"You read Latin," observed Don Pedro, surrendering the
manuscript.

Braddock raised his eyebrows.

"Of course," he said simply, "every well-educated man reads
Latin, or should do so. Wait, sir, until I glance through this
document."

"One moment," said Don Pedro, as the Professor began to literally
devour the discolored page. "You know from Hope, I have no
doubt, how I chance upon my own property in Europe?"

Braddock, still with his eyes on the manuscript, mumbled

"Your own property. Quite so: quite so."

"You admit that. Then you will no doubt restore the mummy to
me."

By this time the drift of Don Pedro's observations entirely
reached the understanding of the scientist, and he dropped the
document he was reading to leap to his feet.

"Restore the mummy to you!" he gasped. "Why, it is mine."

"Pardon me," said the Peruvian, still gravely but very
decisively, "you admitted that it belonged to me."

Braddock's face deepened to a fine purple.

"I didn't know what I was saying," he protested. "How could I
say it was your property when I have bought it for nine hundred
pounds?"

"It was stolen from me."

"That has got to be proved," said Braddock caustically.

Don Pedro rose, looking more like, Don Quixote than ever.

"I have the honor to give you my word and--"

"Yes, yes. That is all right. I cast no imputation on your
honor."

"I should think not," said the other coldly but strongly.

"All the same, you can scarcely expect me to part with so
valuable an object," Braddock waved his hand towards the case,
"without strict inquiry into the circumstances. And again, sir,
even if you succeed in proving your ownership, I am not inclined
to restore the mummy to you for nothing."

"But it is stolen property you are keeping from me."

"I know nothing about that: I have only your bare word that it is
so, Don Pedro. All I know is that I paid nine hundred pounds for
the mummy and that it cost the best part of another hundred to
bring it to England. What I have, I keep."

"Like your country," said the Peruvian sarcastically.

"Precisely," replied the Professor suavely. "Every Englishman has
a bull-dog tenacity of purpose. Brag is a good dog, Don Pedro,
but Holdfast is a better one."

"Then I understand," said the Peruvian, stretching out his hand
to pick up the fallen manuscript, "that you will keep the mummy."

"Certainly," said Braddock coolly, "since I have paid for it.
Also, I shall keep the jewels, which the manuscript tells me--
from the glance I obtained of it--were buried with it."

"The sole jewels buried are two large emeralds which the mummy
holds in its hands," explained Don Pedro, restoring the
manuscript to his pocket, "and I wish for them so that I may get
money to restore the fortunes of my family."

"No! no! no!" said Braddock forcibly. "I have bought the mummy
and the jewels with it. They will sell to supply me with money
to fit out my expedition to the tomb of Queen Tahoser."

"I shall dispute your claim," cried De Gayangos, losing his
calmness.

Braddock waved his hand with supreme content.

"I can give you the address of my lawyers," he retorted; "any
steps you choose to take will only result in loss, and from what
you hint I should not think that you had much money to spend on
litigation."

Don Pedro bit his lip, and saw that it was indeed a more
difficult task than he had anticipated to make Braddock yield up
his prize.

"If you were in Lima," he muttered, speaking Spanish in his
excitement, "you would then learn that I speak truly."

"I do not doubt your truth," answered the Professor in the same
language.

De Gayangos wheeled and faced his host, much surprised.

"You speak my tongue, senor?" he demanded.

Braddock nodded.

"I have been in Spain, and I have been in Peru," he answered
dryly, "therefore I know classical Spanish and its colonial
dialects. As to being in Lima, I was there, and I do not wish to
go there again, as I had quite enough of those uncivilized parts
thirty years ago, when the country was much disturbed after your
civil war."

"You were in Lima thirty years ago," echoed Don Pedro; "then you
were there when Vasa stole this mummy."

"I don't know who stole it, or even if it was stolen," said the
Professor obstinately, "and I don't know the name of Vasa. Ah!
now I remember. Young Hope did say something about the Swedish
sailor who you said stole the mummy."

"Vasa did, and brought it to Europe to sell--probably to that
man in Paris, who afterwards sold it to your Malteses collector."

"No doubt," rejoined Braddock calmly; "but what has all this to
do with me, Don Pedro?"

"I want my mummy," raged the other, and looked dangerous.

"Then you won't get it," retorted Braddock, adopting a pugnacious
attitude and quite composed. "This mummy has caused one death,
Don Pedro, and from your looks I should think you would like it
to cause another."

"Will you not be honest?"

"I'll knock your head off if you bring my honesty into question,"
cried the Professor, standing on tip-toe like a bantam. "The
best thing to do will be to take the matter into court. Then the
law can decide, and I have little doubt but what it will decide
in my favor."

The Englishman and the Peruvian glared at one another, and
Cockatoo, who was crouching on the floor, glanced from one angry
face to another. He guessed that the white men were quarreling
and perhaps would come to blows. It was at this moment that a
knock came to the door, and a minute later Archie entered.
Braddock glanced at him, and took a sudden resolution as he
stepped forward.

"Hope, you are just in time," he declared. "Don Pedro states
that the mummy belongs to him, and I assert that I have bought
it. We shall make you umpire. He wants it: I want it. What is
to be done?"

"The mummy is my own flesh and blood, Mr. Hope," said Don Pedro.

"Precious little of either about it," said Braddock
contemptuously.

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