The Green Mummy
“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.
Archie twisted a chair round and straddled his long legs across it, with
his arms resting on its back. His quick brain had rapidly comprehended
the situation, and, being acquainted with both sides of the question, it
was not difficult to come to a decision. If it was hard that Don Pedro
should lose his ancestor's mummy, it was equally hard that Braddock--or
rather himself--should lose the purchase money, seeing that it had been
paid in good faith to the seller in Malta for a presumably righteously
acquired object. On these premises the young Solon proceeded to deliver
judgment.
“I understand,” said he judiciously, “that Don Pedro had the mummy
stolen from him thirty years ago, and that you, Professor, bought it
under the impression that the Maltese owner had a right to possess it.”
“Yes,” snapped Braddock, “and I daresay the Maltese owner thought so
too, since he bought it from that collector in Paris.”
Hope nodded.
“And if Vasa sold it to the man in Paris,” said he calmly, “he certainly
would not tell the purchaser that he had looted the mummy in Lima, and
the poor man would not know that he was receiving stolen goods. Is that
right, Don Pedro?”
“Yes, sir,” said the Peruvian, who had recovered his temper and his
gravity; “but I declare solemnly that the mummy was stolen from my
father and should belong to me.”
“No one disputes that,” said Archie cheerfully; “but it ought to belong
to the Professor also, since he has bought it. Now, as it can't possibly
belong to two people, we must split the difference. You, Professor,
must sell back the mummy to Don Pedro for the price you paid for it, and
then, Don Pedro, you must recompense Professor Braddock for his loss.”
“I have not much money,” said Don Pedro gravely; “still, I am willing to
do as you say.”
“I don't know that I am,” protested Braddock noisily. “There are the two
emeralds which are of immense value, as Don Pedro says, and they belong
to me, since the mummy is my property.”
“Professor,” said Archie solemnly, “you must do right, even if you lose
by it. I believe the story of Senor De Gayangos; and the mummy with its
jewels belongs to him. Besides, you only wish to see the way in which
the Inca race embalmed their dead. Well, then, unpack the mummy here in
the presence of Don Pedro. When you have satisfied your curiosity, and
when Senor De Gayangos signs a check for one thousand pounds, he can
take away the corpse. You have had so much trouble over it, that I
wonder your are not anxious to see the last of it.”
“But the emeralds would sell for much money and would defray the
expenses of my expedition into Egypt to search for that Queen's tomb.”
“I understood from Lucy that Mrs. Jasher intended to finance that
expedition when she became your wife.”
“Humph!” muttered Braddock, stroking his fat chin. “I said a few foolish
things to her last night when I was heated up. She may not forgive me,
Hope.”
“A woman will forgive anything to the man she loves,” said Archie.
Braddock was no fool, and could not help casting a glance at his tubby
figure, which was reflected in a near mirror. It seemed incredible that
Mrs. Jasher could love him for his looks, and the fact that he
might some day be a baronet did not strike him at the moment as a
consideration. However, he foresaw trouble and expense should Don
Pedro go to law, as he seemed determined to do. Taking all things into
consideration, Braddock thought that Archie's judgment was a good one,
and yielded.
“Well,” he said after reflection, “let us agree. I shall open the case
and examine the mummy, which after all is the reason why I bought it.
When I have satisfied myself as to the difference between the modes of
embalming, Don Pedro can give me a check and take away the mummy. I only
hope that he will have less trouble with it than I have had,” and,
so speaking, Braddock, signing to Cockatoo to bring all the necessary
tools, laid hands on the case.
“I am content,” said Don Pedro briefly, and seated himself in a chair
beside the young Daniel who had delivered judgment.
Hope offered to assist the Professor to open the case, but was dismissed
with an abrupt refusal.
“Though I am glad you are present to see the mummy unpacked,” said
Braddock, laboring at the lid of the case, “for if the emeralds are
missing, Don Pedro might accuse me of stealing them.”
“Why should the emeralds be missing?” asked Hope quickly.
Braddock shrugged his shoulders.
“Sidney Bolton was killed,” said he in a low voice, “and it was not
likely that any one would commit a murder for the sake of this mummy,
and then leave it stranded in Mrs. Jasher's garden. I have my doubts
about the safety of the emeralds, else I would not have consented to
sell the thing back again.”
With this honest speech, the Professor vigorously attacked the lid of
the case, and inserted a steel instrument into the cracks to prize up
the covering. The lid was closed with wooden pegs in an antique but
perfectly safe manner, and apparently had not been opened since the
dead Inca had been laid to rest therein hundreds of years ago among the
Andean mountains. Don Pedro winced at this desecration of the dead, but,
as he had given his consent, there was nothing left to do but to grin
and bear it. In a wonderfully short space of time, considering the
neatness of the workmanship and the holding power of the wooden pegs,
the lid was removed. Then the four on-lookers saw that the mummy had
been tampered with. Swathed in green-stained llama wool, it lay rigid
in its case. But the swathings had been cut; the hands protruded and the
emeralds were gone--torn rudely from the hard grip of the dead.
CHAPTER XV. AN ACCUSATION
Both Don Pedro and Professor Braddock were amazed and angry at the
disappearance of the jewels, but Hope did not express much surprise.
Considering the facts of the murder, it was just what he expected,
although it must be confessed that he was wise after the event.
“I refer you to your own words immediately before the case was opened,
Professor,” he remarked, after the first surprise had subsided.
“Words! words!” snapped Braddock, who was anything but pleased. “What
words of mine do you mean, Hope?”
“You said that it was not likely that any one would commit a murder for
the sake of the mummy only, and then leave it stranded in Mrs. Jasher's
garden. Also, you declared that you had your doubts about the safety of
the emeralds, else you would not have consented to sell the mummy again
to its rightful owner.”
The Professor nodded.
“Quite so: quite so. And what I say I hold to,” he retorted,
“especially as I have proved myself a true prophet. You can both see
for yourselves,” he waved his hand towards the rifled case, “that poor
Sidney must have been killed for the sake of the emeralds. The question
is, who killed him?”
“The person who knew about the jewels,” said Don Pedro promptly.
“Of course: but who did know? I was ignorant until you told me about the
manuscript. And you, Hope?” He searched Archie's face.
“Do you intend to accuse me?” questioned the young man with a slight