The Green Mummy

F >> Fergus Hume >> The Green Mummy

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Date laughed good-humoredly.

"It seems to me, gentlemen, that you have brought me on a
filibustering expedition," he said, and seemed to enjoy the novel
situation. Date had been wrapped up in the cotton-wool of
civilization for a long time, but his primitive instincts rose to
the surface, now that he had to face a probable rough-and-tumble
fight. "But I don't expect there will be any scrap," he said
regretfully. "My uniform will settle the matter."

It certainly seemed to annoy Captain Hervey considerably, for, as
the boat approached the shore, and the moonlight revealed a
distinctly official overcoat, he gave an order. The man stopped
rowing and the boat rocked gently, some distance from the jetty.

"You've got a high old crowd with you, Don Pedro," sang out
Hervey, in great displeasure. "Is that angel in the military
togs, with the brass buttons, the almighty aristocrat!"

"No. I am here," cried out Random, laughing at the description,
which he recognized. "My friend Hope is with me, and Inspector
Date. I suppose you have heard what has happened?"

"Yes, I've taken it all in," said Hervey sourly. "I guess the
news is all over Pierside. Well, it's none of my picnic, I
reckon. So chuck that gold over here, Don Pedro, and I'll send
along the writing."

"No," said Don Pedro, prompted by Date. "You must come ashore."

"I guess not," said Hervey vigorously. "You want to run me in."

"For that theft of thirty years ago," laughed De Gayangos.
"Nonsense! Come along. You are quite safe."

"Shan't take your damned word for it," growled Hervey. "But if
those two gents can swear that there's no trickery, I'll come. I
can depend on the word of an English aristocrat, anyhow."

"Come along. You are quite safe," said Sir Frank, and Hope
echoed his words.

Thus being made certain, Hervey gave an order and the boat was
rowed right up to the beach, immediately below the jetty. The
four men were about to descend, but Hervey seemed anxious to
avoid giving them trouble.

"Hold on, gents," said he, leaping ashore. "I'll come up
'longside."

Date, ever suspicious, thought it queer that the skipper should
behave so politely, as he had gathered that Hervey was not
usually a considerate man. Also, he saw that when the captain
was climbing the bank, the boat, in charge of a mate--as the
inspector judged from his brass-bound uniform--backed water to
the end of the jetty, where it swung against one of the
shell-encrusted piles. Hervey finally reached the jetty level,
but refused to come on to the same. He beckoned to Don Pedro and
his companions to walk forward to the ground upon which he was
standing. Also, he seemed exceedingly anxious to take time over
the transaction, as even after he had handed the scroll of
writing to the Peruvian, and had received the gold in exchange,
he engaged in quarrelsome conversation. Pretending that he
doubted if De Gayangos had brought the exact sum, he opened the
canvas bag and insisted on counting the money. Don Pedro
naturally lost his temper at this insult, and swore in Spanish,
upon which Hervey responded with such volubility that anyone
could see he was a pastmaster in Castilian swearing. The row was
considerable, especially as Random and Hope were laughing at the
quarrel. They thought that Hervey was the worse for drink, but
Date--clever for once in his life--did not think so. It
appeared to him that the boat had gone to the end of the jetty
for some reason connected with the same reason which induced the
skipper to spin out the time of the meeting by indulging in an
unnecessary quarrel.

The skipper also kept his eyes about him, and insisted that the
four men should keep together at the head of the pier.

"I daresay you're trying to play low down on me," he said with a
scowl, after satisfying himself that the money was correct, "but
I've got my shooter."

"So have I," cried Don Pedro indignantly, and slipped his hand
round to his hip pocket, "and if you talk any further so
insulting I shall--"

"Oh, you bet, two can play at that game," cried Hervey, and
ripped out his own weapon before the Spaniard could produce his
Derringer. "Hands up or I shoot."

But he had reckoned without his host. While covering De
Gayangos, he overlooked the fact that Random and Hope were close
at hand. The next moment, and while Don Pedro flung up his
hands, the ruffian was covered by two revolvers in the hands of
two very capable men.

"Great Scott!" cried Hervey, lowering his weapon. "Only my fun,
gents. Here, you get back!"

This was to Inspector Date, who had been keeping his ears and
eyes open, and who was now racing for the end of the jetty.
Peering over, he uttered a loud cry.

"I thought so--I thought so. Here's the nigger and the mummy!"

Hervey uttered a curse, and, plunging past the trio, careless of
the leveled weapons, ran down to the end of the jetty, and,
throwing his arms round Date, leaped with him into the sea. They
fell just beside the boat, as Random saw when he reached the
spot. A confused volley of curses arose, as the boat pushed out
from the encrusted pile, the mate thrusting with a boat-hook.
Hervey and Date were in the water, but as the boat shot into the
moonlight, Random--and now Hope and De Gayangos, who had come up
--saw a long green form in amongst the sailors; also, very
plainly, Cockatoo with his great mop of yellow hair.

"Shoot! shoot!" yelled Date, who was struggling with the skipper
in the shallow water near shore. "Don't let them escape."

Hope ran up the jetty and fired three shots in the air, certain
that the firing would attract the attention of the four or five
constables on guard at the cottage, which was no very great
distance away. Random sent a bullet into the midst of the
boatload, and immediately the mate fired also. The bullet
whistled past his head, and, crazy with rage, he felt inclined to
jump in amongst the ruffians and have a hand-to-hand fight. But
De Gayangos stopped him in a voice shrill with anger. Already
the shouts and noise of the approaching policemen could be heard.
Cockatoo gripped the green mummy case desperately, while the
sailors tried to row towards the ship.

Then De Gayangos gave a shout, and leaped, as the boat swung past
the jetty. He landed right on Cockatoo, and although a cloud
drifted across the moon, Random heard the shots coming rapidly
from his revolver. Meanwhile Hervey got away from Date, as the
constables came pounding down the jetty and on to the beach.

"Chuck the mummy and nigger overboard and make for the ship," he
yelled, swimming with long strokes towards the boat.

This order was quite to the sailors' minds, as they had not
reckoned on such a fight. Half a dozen willing hands clutched
both Cockatoo and the case, and, in spite of the Kanaka's cries,
both were hurled overboard. As the case swung overside, De
Gayangos, balancing himself at the end of the boat, fired at
Cockatoo. The shot missed the Kanaka, and pierced the mummy
case. Then from it came a piercing yell of agony and rage.

"Great God!" shouted Hope, who was watching the battle, "I
believe Braddock is in that damned thing."

The next moment De Gayangos was swung overboard also, and the
sailors were lifting Hervey into the boat. It nearly upset, but
he managed to get in, and the craft rowed for the vessel, which
was again showing a flaring blue light. Random sent a shot after
the boat, and then with the policemen ran down to help De
Gayangos, who was struggling in the water. He managed to pull
him out, and when he had him safe and breathless on shore, he saw
that the boat was nearing the ship, and that Date, torn and wet
and disheveled, with three policemen, was up to his waist in
water, struggling to bring ashore Cockatoo and the mummy case, to
which he clung like a limpet. Hope ran down to give a hand, and
in a few minutes they had the Kanaka ashore, fighting like the
demon he was. Random and De Gayangos joined the breathless
group, and Cockatoo was held in the grasp of two strong men--who
required all their strength to hold him--while Date, warned by
Hope's cry of what was in the case, tore at the lid. It was but
lightly fastened and soon came off. Then those present saw in
the moonlight the dead face of Professor Braddock, who had been
shot through the heart. As they looked at the sight, Cockatoo
broke from those who held him, and, throwing himself on his
master, howled and wept as though his heart would break. At the
same moment there came a derisive whistle from The Firefly, and
they saw the great tramp steamer slowly moving down stream,
increasing her speed with almost every revolution of the screw.
Braddock had been captured, but Hervey had escaped.

At the inquest on the Professor and on the body of Mrs. Jasher,
it was proved that Cockatoo had warned his master that the game
was up, and had suggested that Braddock should escape by hiding
in the mummy case. The corpse of Inca Caxas was placed in an
empty Egyptian sarcophagus--in which it was afterwards found--
and Braddock, assisted by his faithful Kanaka, wheeled the case
down to the old jetty. Here, in a nook where Cockatoo had
formerly kept the boat, the Professor concealed himself all that
night and all next day. Cockatoo, having got rid of his boat
long since (lest it might be used in evidence against him and his
master), ran through the dense mist and the long night up to
Pierside, where he saw Captain Hervey and bribed him with a
promise of one thousand pounds to save his master. Hervey,
having assured himself that the money was safe, since it was
banked in a feigned name in Amsterdam, agreed, and arranged to
ship the Professor in the mummy case.

Thus it was that Hervey kept the four men talking up the jetty,
as he knew that Cockatoo with his own sailors was shipping the
Professor in the mummy case underneath, and well out of sight.
Cockatoo had come down stream with The Firefly, and in this way
had not been discovered. Throughout that long day the miserable
Braddock had crouched like a toad in its hole, trembling at every
sound of pursuit, as he knew that the whole of the village was
looking for him. But Cockatoo had hidden him well in the case,
in the lid of which holes had been bored. He had brandy to drink
and food to eat, and he knew that he could depend upon the
Kanaka. Had Date not been suspicious, the ruse might have been
successful, but to save himself Hervey had to sacrifice the
wretched Professor, which he did without the slightest
hesitation. Then came the unlucky shot from the revolver of De
Gayangos, which had ended Braddock's wicked life. It was Fate.

At the inquest a verdict of "wilful murder" was brought against
the Kanaka, but a verdict of "justifiable homicide" was given in
favor of the Peruvian. Thus Cockatoo was hanged for the double
murder and Don Pedro went free. He remained long enough in
London to see his daughter married to the man of her choice, and
then returned to Lima.

Of course the affair caused more than a nine days' wonder, and
the newspapers were filled with accounts of the murder and the
projected escape. But Lucy was saved from all this publicity,
as, in the first place, her name was kept out of print as much as
possible, and, in the second, Archie promptly married her, and
within a fortnight of her step-father's death took her to the
south of France, and afterwards to Italy. What with his own
money and the money she inherited from her mother--in which
Braddock had a life interest--the young couple had nearly a
thousand a year.

Six months later Sir Frank came into the small San Remo where Mr.
and Mrs. Hope lived, with his wife on his arm. Lady Random
looked singularly charming and was assuredly more conversational.
This was the first time the two sets of lovers had met since the
tragedy, and now each girl had married the man she loved.
Therefore there was great joy.

"My yacht is over at Monte Carlo," said Random, "and I am, going
with Inez to South America. She wants to see her father."

"Yes, I do," said Lady Random; "and we want you to come also,
Lucy--you and your dear husband."

Archie and his wife looked at one another, but declined
unanimously.

"We would rather stay here in San Remo," said Mrs. Hope, becoming
slightly pale. "Don't think me unkind, Inez, but I could not
bear to go to Peru. It is associated too much in my own mind
with that terrible green mummy."

"Oh, Don Pedro has taken that back to the Andes," explained Sir
Frank, "and it is now reposing in the sepulchre in which it was
placed, hundreds of years ago, by the Indians, faithful to Inca
Caxas. Inez and I are going up to a kind of forbidden city,
where Don Pedro reigns as Inca, and I expect we shall have a
jolly time. I hear there is some big game shooting there."

"What about your soldiering?" asked Hope, rather, surprised at
this extended tour being arranged.

"Oh, my husband has left the army," pouted Inez. "His duties
kept him away from me nearly all the day, and I grew weary of
being left alone."

"So you see, Mrs. Hope," laughed Random gayly, "that I have had
to succumb to my fireside tyrant. We shall go and see this fairy
city and then return to my home in Oxfordshire. There Inez will
settle down as a real English wife and I'll turn a country
squire. So, after all our troubles, peace will come."

"And as you will not come to my country," said Lady Random to
her hostess, "you cannot refuse to visit Frank and myself at the
Grange. We have had so much trouble together that we cannot lose
sight of each other."

"No," said Lucy, kissing her. "We will come to Oxfordshire."

So it was arranged, and the next day Mr. and Mrs. Hope went over
to Monte Carlo to see the last of Sir Frank and his wife. They
stood on the heights watching the pretty little steamer making
for South America. Archie noticed that his wife's face was
somewhat sad.

"Are you sorry we did not go, sweetheart?"

"No," she replied, placing her arm within his own. "I only want
to be with you."

"That is all right." He patted her hand. "Now that we have sold
all the furniture in the Pyramids, and have got rid of the lease,
there will be nothing to remind you of the green mummy."

"Yet I can't help thinking of my unfortunate step-father, and of
poor Mrs. Jasher, and of Sidney Bolton. Oh, Archie, little as we
can afford it, I am glad that we allow Mrs. Bolton a small sum a
year. After all, it was through my step-father that her son met
with his death."

"I don't quite agree with you, dear. Cockatoo's innate savagery
was the cause, as Professor Braddock did not intend or desire
murder. But there, dear, do not think any more about these
dismal things. Dream of the time when I shall be the president
of the Royal Academy, and you my lady."

"I am your lady now. But," added Lucy, perhaps from an
association of ideas of color and the Academy, "I shall hate
green for the rest of my life."

"That's unlucky, considering it is Nature's color. My dear, in a
year or two this tragedy, or rather the three tragedies, will
seem like a dream. I won't listen to another word now. The
green mummy has passed out of our lives and has taken its bad
luck with it."

"Amen, so be it," said Lucy Hope, and the happy couple went home,
leaving all their sorrows behind them, while the smoke of the
steamer faded on the horizon.

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