The Green Mummy

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"Who killed Sidney Bolton: who has the emeralds."

"I can't tell you. Listen! With my past life you have nothing
to do. I will commence from the time I came down here. I had
just lost my husband, and I managed to scrape together a few
hundred pounds--oh, quite in a respectable way, I assure you,"
she added scoffingly, on seeing her listener wince. "I came here
to try and live quietly, and, if possible, to secure a rich
husband. I knew that the Fort was here and thought that I might
marry an officer. However, the Professor's position attracted
me, and I decided to marry him. I am engaged, and but for your
cleverness in tracing that letter I should be Mrs. Braddock
within a very short time. I have exhausted all my money. I am
deeply, in debt. I cannot hold out longer."

"But the money you inherited--"

"That is all bluff also. I never had a brother. I inherit no
money. I know nothing of Pekin, save that a friend of mine sends
that scent to me as a yearly Christmas present. I am an
adventuress, but perhaps not so bad as you think me. Lucy and
Donna Inez have heard no wickedness from my lips. I have always
been a good woman in one sense--a moral woman, that is--and I
did wish to marry the Professor and live a happy life. Seeing
that I was at the end of my resources, and that Professor
Braddock expected a legacy with me before marriage, I looked
round to, see how I could get the money. I heard that you were
accused by Captain Hervey, and so last night I wrote that letter
and posted it in London, thinking that you would yield to save
yourself from arrest."

Random laughed cynically.

"You must have thought me weak," he muttered.

"I did," said Mrs. Jasher frankly. "To tell you the truth, I
thought that you were a fool. But by tracing that letter and
withstanding my demand, you have proved yourself to be more
clever than I took you to be. Well, that is all. I know nothing
of the murder. My letter is sheer bluff to extort from you five
thousand pounds. Had you paid I should have passed it off to the
Professor as the money left to me by my brother. But now--"

"Now," said Random, rising to go, "I shall tell what you have
told me to the Professor, and--"

"And hand me over to the police," said Mrs. Jasher, shrugging her
plump shoulders, "Well, I expected that. Yet I fancied for old
times' sake that you might have been more lenient."

"We were never anything but acquaintances, Mrs. Jasher," said
Random coldly, "so I fail to see why you should expect mercy
after the way in which you have behaved. You expect to blackmail
me, and yet go free. I must punish you somehow, so I shall tell
Professor Braddock, as you certainly cannot marry him. But I
shall not hand you over to the police."

"You won't?" Mrs. Jasher stared, scarcely able to believe her
ears.

"No. Give me a day to think over matters, and I shall arrange
what to do with you. I think there is some good in you, Mrs.
Jasher, and so I shall see if I can't assist you. In the
meantime I shall have your cottage watched, so that you may not
run away."

"In that case, you may as well hand me over to the police," she
said bitterly.

"Not at all," rejoined Random coolly. "I can trust my servant,
who is stupid but honest and is devoted to me. I'll see that
everything is kept quiet. But if you attempt to run away I shall
have you arrested for blackmail. You understand?"

"Yes. You are treating me very well," she gasped. "When shall I
see you?"

"To-morrow evening. I must talk the matter over with Braddock.
To-morrow I shall arrange what to do, and probably I shall give
you a chance of leading a new life in some other part of the
world. What do you say?"

"I accept. Indeed, there is nothing else left for me to do."

"That is an ungrateful speech," said Random severely.

"I daresay. However, we can talk of gratitude to-morrow.
Meanwhile, please leave me."

Sir Frank went to the door and there paused.

"Remember," he said distinctly, "that your cottage is being
watched. Try to escape and I shall have you arrested."

Mrs. Jasher groaned and buried her face in the sofa cushion.

CHAPTER XXII

A WEDDING PRESENT

Mrs. Jasher had thought Random exceedingly clever in acting as he
had done to trap her. She would have thought him still more
clever had she known that he trusted to the power of suggestion
to prevent her from trying to escape. Sir Frank had not the
slightest intention of setting his soldier-servant to watch, as
such was not the duty for which such servants are hired. But
having impressed firmly on the adventuress's mind that he would
act in this way, he departed, quite certain that the woman would
not attempt to run away. Although no one was watching the
cottage, Mrs. Jasher, believing what had been told her, would
think that sharp eyes were on her doors and windows day and
night, and would firmly believe that if she tried to get away she
would be captured forthwith by the Pierside police, or perhaps by
the village constable. Like an Eastern enchanter, the baronet
had placed a spell on the cottage, and it acted admirably. Mrs.
Jasher, although longing to escape and hide herself, remained
where she was, cowed by a spy who did not exist.

The next day Random went to the Pyramids as soon as his duties
permitted and saw the Professor. To the prospective bridegroom
he explained all that had happened, and displayed the anonymous
letter, with an account of how he had proved Mrs. Jasher to be
the writer. Braddock's hair could not stand on end, as he had
none, but he lost his temper completely, and raged up and down
the museum in a way which frightened Cockatoo out of his barbaric
wits. When more quiet he sat down to discuss the matter, and
promptly demanded that Mrs. Jasher should be handed over to the
police. But he might have guessed that Sir Frank would refuse to
follow this extreme advice.

"She has acted badly, I admit," said the young man. "All the
same, I think she is a better woman than you may think,
Professor."

"Think! think! think!" shouted the fiery little man, getting up
once more to trot up and down like an infuriated poodle. "I
think she is a bad woman, a wicked woman. To deceive me into
thinking her rich and--"

"But surely, Professor, you wished to marry her also for love?"

"Nothing of the sort, sir: nothing of the sort. I leave love and
such-like trash to those like yourself and Hope, who have nothing
else to think about."

"But a marriage without love--"

"Pooh! pooh! pooh! Don't argue with me, Random. Love is all
moonshine. I did not love my first wife--Lucy's mother--and
yet we were very happy. Had I made Mrs. Jasher my second, we
should have got on excellently, provided the money was
forthcoming for my Egyptian expedition. What am I to do now, I
ask you, Random? Even the thousand pounds you pay for the mummy
goes back to that infernal Hope because of Lucy's silly ideas. I
have nothing--absolutely nothing, and that tomb is amongst those
Ethiopian hills, I swear, waiting to be opened. Oh, what a
chance I have missed!--what a chance! But I shall see Mrs.
Jasher myself. She knows about this murder."

"She declares that she does not."

"Don't tell me! don't tell me!" vociferated the Professor. "She
would not have written that letter had she known nothing."

"That was bluff. I explained all that."

"Bluff be hanged!" cried Braddock, only he used a more vigorous
word. "I do not believe that she would have dared to act on such
a slight foundation. I shall see her myself this very afternoon
and force her to confess. In one way or another I shall find the
assassin and make him disgorge those emeralds under the penalty
of being hanged. Then I can sell them and finance my Egyptian
expedition."

"But you forget, Professor, that the emeralds, when found, belong
to Don Pedro."

"They don't," rasped the little man, turning purple with rage.
"I refuse to let him have them. I bought the mummy, and the
contents of the mummy, including those emeralds. They are
mine."

"No," said Random sharply. "I buy the mummy, from you, so they
pass into my possession and belong to De Gayangos. I shall give
them to him."

"You'll have to find them first," said Braddock savagely; "and as
to the mummy, you shan't have it. I decline to sell it. So
there!"

"If you don't," said Random very distinctly, "Don Pedro will
bring an action against you, and Captain Hervey will be called as
a witness to prove that the mummy was stolen."

"Don Pedro hasn't the money," said Braddock triumphantly; "he
can't pay lawyer's fees."

"But I can," rejoined the young man very dryly. "As I am going
to marry Donna Inez, it is only just that I should help my future
father-in-law in every way. He has a romantic feeling about this
relic of poor humanity and wishes to take it back to Peru. He
shall do so."

"And what about me?--what about me?"

"Well," said Random, speaking slowly with the intention of still
further irritating the little man, whose selfishness annoyed him,
"if I were you I should marry Mrs. Jasher and settle down quietly
in this house to live on what income you have."

Braddock turned purple again and spluttered.

"How dare you make a proposition like that to me, sir?" he
bellowed. "You ask me to marry this low woman, this adventuress,
this--this--this--" Words failed him.

Of course Random had no intention of advising such a marriage,
although he did not think so badly of Mrs. Jasher as did the
Professor. But the little man was so venomous that the young man
took a delight in stirring him up, using the widow's name as a
red rag to this particular bull.

"I do not think Mrs. Jasher is a bad woman," he remarked.

"What! what! what! After what she has done? Blackmail!
blackmail! blackmail!"

"That is bad, I admit, but she has failed to get what she wanted,
and, after all, you indirectly are the cause of her writing that
blackmailing letter."

"I am?--I am? How dare you?"

"You see, she wanted to get five thousand out of me as her
dowry."

"Yes, and told me lies about her damned brother who was a Pekin
merchant, when after all he never existed."

"Oh, I don't defend that," said Random coolly. "Mrs. Jasher has
behaved badly on the whole. Still, Professor, I think there is
good in her, as I said before. She evidently had bad parents and
a bad husband; but, so far as I can gather, she is not an immoral
woman. The poor wretch only came here to try and drag herself
out of the mire. If she had married you I feel sure that she
would have made you a most excellent wife."

The Professor was in such a rage that he suddenly became calm.

"Of course you talk absolute rubbish," he said caustically. "Had
I my way this woman would be whipped at a cart's tail for the
shameful way in which she has deceived us all. However, I shall
see her to-day and make her confess who murdered Bolton."

"Don Pedro will be greatly obliged if you do. He wants those
emeralds."

"So do I, and if I get them I shall keep them," snapped Braddock;
"and if you haven't anything more to say you can leave me. I'm
busy."

As there was nothing more to be done with the choleric little
man, Sir Frank took the hint and departed. He went forthwith to
the Warrior Inn to see Don Pedro and also Donna Inez. But it so
happened that the girl had gone to the Pyramids on a visit to
Miss Kendal, and Random was sorry that he had missed her.
However, it was just as well, as he could now talk freely to De
Gayangos. To him he related the whole story of Mrs. Jasher, and
discovered that the Peruvian also, as Braddock had done, insisted
that Mrs. Jasher knew the truth.

"She would not have written that letter if she did not know it,"
said Don Pedro.

"Then you think that she should be arrested?"

"No. We can deal with this matter ourselves. At present she is
quite safe, as she certainly will not leave her cottage, seeing
that she thinks it is being watched. Let us permit Braddock to
interview her, and see what he can learn. Then we can discuss
the matter and come to a decision."

Random nodded absently.

"I wonder if Mrs. Jasher was the woman who talked to Bolton
through the window?" he remarked.

"It is not impossible. Although that does not explain why Bolton
borrowed a female disguise from this mother."

"Mrs. Jasher might have worn it."

"That would argue some understanding between Bolton and Mrs.
Jasher, and a knowledge of the manuscript before Bolton left for
Malta. We know that he could only have seen the manuscript for
the first time at Malta. It was evidently stowed away in the
swathings of the mummy by my father, who forgot all about it when
he gave me the original."

"Hervey forgot also. I wonder if that is true?"

"I am certain it is," said Don Pedro emphatically, "for, if
Hervey, or Vasa, or whatever you like to call him, had found that
manuscript and had got it translated, he certainly would have
opened the mummy and have secured the emeralds. No, Sir Frank, I
believe that his theory is partly true. Bolton intended to run
away with the emeralds, and send the empty mummy to Professor
Braddock; for, if you remember, he arranged that the landlord of
the Sailor's Rest should forward the case next morning, even if
he happened to be away. Bolton intended to be away--with the
emeralds."

"Then you do not believe that Hervey placed the manuscript in my
room?"

"He declared most emphatically that he did not," said Don Pedro,
"when at Pierside yesterday I went to the Sailor's Rest and saw
him. He told Braddock only the other day that he had lost his
chance of a sailing vessel, and, as yet, had not got another one.
But when he returned to Pierside he found a letter waiting him--
so he told me--giving him command of a four thousand ton tramp
steamer called The Firefly. He is to sail at once--to-morrow, I
believe."

"Then what is he going to do about this murder business?"

"He can do nothing at present, as, if he remains in Pierside, he
will lose his new command. To-morrow he drops down stream, but
meantime he intends to write out the whole story of the theft of
the mummy. I have promised to give him fifty pounds for doing
so, as I want to get back the mummy, free of charge, from
Braddock."

"I think Braddock will stick to the mummy in any event," said
Random grimly.

"Not when Hervey writes out his evidence. He will not have it
completed by the time he sails, as he is very busy. But he has
promised to send off a boat to the jetty near the Fort to-morrow
evening, when he is dropping down stream. I shall be there with
fifty pounds in gold."

"Supposing he fails to stop or send the boat?"

"Then he will not get his fifty pounds," retorted Don Pedro.
"The man is a rascal, and deserves prison rather than reward, but
since the mummy was stolen by him thirty years back, he alone can
prove my ownership."

"But why take all this trouble?" argued the baronet. "I can buy
the mummy from Braddock."

"No," said Don Pedro. "I have a right to my own property."

Random lingered until late in the afternoon and until darkness
fell, as he was anxious to see Donna Inez. But she did not
appear until late. Meanwhile Archie Hope put in an appearance,
having come to see Don Pedro with an account of his interview
with Widow Anne. Before coming to the inn he had called on
Professor Braddock, and from him had heard all about the
wickedness of Mrs. Jasher. His surprise was very great.

"I should not have believed it," he declared. "Poor woman!"

"Ah," said Random, rather pleased, "you are more merciful than
the Professor, Hope. He calls her a bad woman."

"Humph! I don't think that Braddock is so good that he can
afford to throw a stone," said Archie rather sourly. "Mrs.
Jasher has not behaved well, but I should like to hear her
complete story before judging. There must be a lot of good in
her, or Lucy, who has been with her a great deal, would have
found her out long ago. I go by a woman's judgment of a woman.
But Mrs. Jasher must have been anxious to marry."

"She was; as Professor Braddock knows," said Random quickly.

"I am not thinking of that so much as of what Widow Anne told
me."

"Oh," said Don Pedro, looking up from where he was seated, "so
you have seen that old woman? What does she say about the
clothes?"

"She sticks to her story. Sidney, she declares, borrowed the
clothes to give to me for a model. Now, I never asked Bolton to
do this, so I fancy the disguise must have been intended for
himself, or for Mrs. Jasher."

"But what had Mrs. Jasher to do with him?" demanded Random
sharply.

"Well, it's odd," replied Hope slowly, "but Mrs. Bolton declares
that her son was in love with Mrs. Jasher, and when he returned
from Malta intended to marry her."

"Impossible!" cried Sir Frank. "She engaged herself to Braddock."

"But only after Bolton's death, remember."

Don Pedro nodded.

"That is true. But what you say, Mr. Hope, proves the truth of
Hervey's theory."

"In what way?"

"Mrs. Jasher, as we know from what Random told us, wanted money.
She would not marry a man who was poor. Bolton was poor, but of
course the emeralds would make him wealthy, as they are of
immense value. Probably he intended to steal them in order to
marry this woman. This implicates Mrs. Jasher in the crime."

"Yes," assented Sir Frank, nodding. "But as Bolton did not know
that the emeralds existed before he bought the mummy in Malta, I
do not see why he should borrow a disguise beforehand for Mrs.
Jasher to meet him at the Sailor's Rest."

"The thing is easily settled," said Hope impatiently. "Let us
both go to Mrs. Jasher's this evening, and insist upon the truth
being told. If she confesses about her secret engagement to
Sidney Bolton, she may admit that the clothes were borrowed for
her."

"And she may admit also that she placed the manuscript in my
room," said Sir Frank after a pause. "Hervey did not place it
there, but it is just possible that Mrs. Jasher, having got it
from Bolton when she talked to him through the window, may have
done so."

"Nonsense!" said Hope with vigorous commonsense. "Mrs. Jasher
would be spotted in a moment if she had gone to your quarters.
She had to pass the sentry, remember. Then, again, we have not
yet proved that she was the woman in Mrs. Bolton's clothes who
spoke through the window. That can all be settled if we speak to
her this evening."

"Very good." Random glanced at his watch. "I must get back. Don
Pedro, will you tell Inez that I shall come in this evening? We
can then talk further about these matters. Hope?"

"I shall stop here, as I wish to consult Don Pedro."

Random nodded and took a reluctant departure. He dearly wished,
as an engaged lover should, to remain on the chance that Donna
Inez might return, but duty called him and he was forced to obey.

The night was very dark, although it was not particularly late.
But there was no rain, and Random walked rapidly through the
village and down the road to the Fort. He caught a glimpse of
the lights of Mrs. Jasher's cottage twinkling in the distance,
and smiled grimly as he thought of the invisible spell he had
placed thereon. No doubt Mrs. Jasher was shivering in her Louis
Quinze shoes at the idea of being watched. But then, she
deserved that much punishment at least, as Random truly thought.

When entering the Fort, the sentry saluted as usual, and Random
was about to pass, when the man stepped forward, holding out a
brown paper package.

"Please, sir, I found this in my sentry box," he said, saluting.

Sir Frank took the packet.

"Who placed it there? and why do you give it to me?" he demanded
in surprise.

"Please, sir, it's directed to you, sir, and I don't know who put
it in my box, sir. I was on duty, sir, and I 'spose someone must
have dropped it on the floor of the box, sir, when I was at the
other end of my beat, sir. It was as dark as this, sir, and I
saw nothing and heard nothing. When I come back, sir, I stepped
into the box out of the rain and felt it with my feet. I struck
a light, sir, and found it was for you."

Sir Frank slipped the package into his pocket and went away after
a grim word or so to the sentry, advising him to be more on the
alert. He was puzzled to think who had left the packet in the
sentry box, and curious to know what it contained. As soon as he
got to his own room, he cut the string which bound loosely the
brown paper. Then, in the lamplight, there rolled out from the
carelessly-tied parcel a glorious sea-green emerald of great
size, radiating light like a sun. A scrap of white paper lay in
the brown wrapping. On it was written, "A wedding gift for Sir
Frank Random."

CHAPTER XXIII

JUST IN TIME

Of all the surprises in connection with the tragedy of the green
mummy, this was surely the greatest. Sidney Bolton had
undoubtedly been murdered for the sake of the emeralds, and the
assassin had escaped with the spoil, for which he had sold his
soul. Yet here was one of the jewels returned anonymously to
Random, who could pass on the same to its rightful owner. In the
midst of his amazement Sir Frank could not help chuckling when he
thought how enraged Professor Braddock would be at Don Pedro's
good fortune. At the eleventh hour, as it were, the Peruvian had
got back his own, or at least a portion of his own.

Placing the emerald in his drawer, Random gave orders to his
servant that the sentry, when off duty, should be brought before
him. Just as Random finished dressing for mess--and he dressed
very early, so as to devote his entire attention to solving this
new problem--the soldier who had been on guard appeared. But he
could tell nothing more than he had already related. When doing
sentry-go immediately outside the gate of the Fort, the packet
had been slipped into the box, while the man was at the far end
of his beat. It was quite dark when this was done, and the
soldier confessed that he had not heard a sound, much less had he
seen anyone. The person who had brought the glorious gem had
watched his opportunity, and, soft-footed as a cat, had stolen
forward in the darkness to drop the precious parcel on the floor
of the sentry box. There the man had found it by the feel of his
feet, when he stepped in some time later to escape a shower. But
what time had elapsed from the placing of the parcel to its
discovery by the sentry it was impossible to say. It must,
however, as Random calculated, have been within the hour, since,
before then, it would not have been dark enough to hide the
approach of the person, whether male or female, who carried a
king's ransom in the brown paper parcel.

At first Random was inclined to place the sentry under arrest for
having failed so much in his duty as to allow anyone to approach
so near the Fort; but, as he had already reprimanded the man,
and, moreover, wished to keep the fact of the recovered jewel
quiet, he simply dismissed him. When alone, he sat down before
the fire, wondering who could have dared so very greatly, and for
what reason the emerald had been handed to him. If it had been
sent to Don Pedro, or even to Professor Braddock, it would have
been much more reasonable.

It first occurred to him that Mrs. Jasher, out of gratitude for
the way in which he had treated her, had sent him the jewel.
Remembering his former experience, he smelt the parcel, but could
detect no sign of the famous Chinese scent which had proved a
clue to the letter. Of course the direction on the packet and
the inscribed slip of paper were in feigned handwriting, so he
could gather nothing from that. Still, he did not think that
Mrs. Jasher had sent the emerald. She was desperately hard up,
and if she had become possessed of the gem by murder--presuming
her to have been the woman who talked to Bolton through the
window--she assuredly would have sold it to supply her own
needs. Certainly, if guilty, she would still possess the other
emerald, of equal value; but undoubtedly, had she risked her neck
to gain a fortune, she would have kept the entire plunder which
was likely to cost her so dear. No; whomsoever it was who had
repented at the eleventh hour, Mrs. Jasher was not the person.

Perhaps Widow Anne was the woman who had talked through the
window, and who had restored the emerald. But that was
impossible, since Mrs. Bolton habitually took more liquor than
was good for her, and would not have the nerve to deliver the
jewel, much less commit the crime, the more especially as the
victim was her own son. Of course she might have found out
Sidney's scheme to run away with the jewels, and so would have
claimed her share. But if she had been in Pierside on that
evening--and her presence in Gartley had been sworn to by three
or four cronies--she would have guessed who had strangled her
boy. If so, not all the jewels in the world would have prevented
her denouncing the criminal. With all her faults--and they were
many--Mrs. Bolton was a good mother, and looked upon Sidney as
the pride and joy of her somewhat dissipated life. Mrs. Bolton
was certainly as innocent as Mrs. Jasher.

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