The Green Mummy
for years; in all God's earth there is no more miserable a creature than
I am.”
“Kindly talk without so much melodrama,” said Random cruelly.
“Ah,” Mrs. Jasher sat down and locked her hands together, “you don't
believe me. I daresay you don't understand, for life, real life, is a
sealed book to you. It is useless for me to appeal to your sympathy,
for you are so very ignorant. Let us stick to facts. What do you wish to
know?”
“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