The Green Mummy
trickery, and he determined to circumvent him. He agreed to marry Mrs.
Jasher, as, if he had not done so, she could have warned Sidney and he
could have escaped with both the mummy and the jewels by conniving with
Hervey. The Professor could not risk that, as, remembering Hervey
as Gustav Vasa, he was aware how clever and reckless he was. Whether
Braddock ever intended to marry the widow in the end it is hard to
say, but he certainly pretended to consent to the engagement, which was
mainly brought about by Lucy. Then came the details of the murder so far
as Mrs. Jasher knew.
One evening--in fact on the evening when the crime was committed--the
woman was walking in her garden late. In the moonlight she saw Braddock
and Cockatoo go down along the cinderpath to the jetty near the Fort.
Wondering what they were doing, she waited up, and heard and saw
them--for it was still moonlight--come back long after midnight. The
next day she heard of the murder, and guessed that the Professor and his
slave--for Cockatoo was little else--had rowed up to Pierside in a boat
and there had strangled Sidney and stolen the mummy. She saw Braddock
and accused him. The Professor had then opened the case, and had
pretended astonishment when discovering the corpse of the man whom
Cockatoo had strangled, as he knew perfectly well.
Braddock at first denied having been to Pierside, but Mrs. Jasher
insisted that she would tell the police, so he was forced to make a
clean breast of it to the woman.
“Now for it,” said Random, settling himself to hear details of the
crime, for he had often wondered how it had been executed.
“Braddock,” read Archie from the confession, for Mrs. Jasher did not
trouble herself with a polite prefix--“Braddock explained that when he
received a letter from Sidney stating that he would have to remain
with the mummy for a night in Pierside, he guessed that his treacherous
assistant intended to effect the robbery. It seems that Sidney by
mistake had left behind the disguise in which he intended to escape.
Aware of this through me”--Mrs. Jasher referred to herself--“he made
Cockatoo assume the dress and row up the river to the Sailor's Rest. The
Kanaka easily could be mistaken for a woman, as he also, like Sidney,
was slender and smooth-chinned. Also, he wore the shawl over his head to
disguise his mop of frizzy hair as much as possible, and for the purpose
of concealing his tattooed face. In the darkness--it was after nine
o'clock--he spoke to Sidney through the window, as he had seen him there
earlier, when searching for him. Cockatoo said that Sidney was much
afraid when he heard that his purpose had been discovered by the
Professor. He offered a share of the plunder to the Kanaka, and Cockatoo
agreed, saying he would come back late, and that Sidney was to admit him
into the bedroom so that they could open the mummy and steal the
jewels. Sidney quite believed that Cockatoo was heart and soul with him,
especially as the cunning Kanaka swore that he was weary of his master's
tyranny. It was when Cockatoo was talking thus that he was seen by Eliza
Flight, who mistook him--very naturally--for a woman. Cockatoo then
returned by boat to the Gartley jetty and told his master. Afterwards,
the Professor, at a much later hour, went down to the jetty and was
rowed up to Pierside by the Kanaka.”
“That was when Mrs. Jasher saw them,” said Random, much interested.
“Yes,” said Archie. “And then, if you remember; she watched for the
return of the couple.”
“It was nearly midnight when the boat was brought alongside the sloping
stone bank of the alley which ran past the Sailor's Rest. No one was
about at that hour, not even a policeman, and there was no light in
Sidney Bolton's window. Braddock was much agitated as he thought that
Sidney had already escaped. He waited in the boat and sent Cockatoo to
knock at the window. Then a light appeared and the window was silently
opened. The Kanaka slipped in and remained there for some ten minutes
after closing the window. When he returned, the light was extinguished.
He whispered to his master that Sidney had opened the packing case and
the mummy coffin, and had ripped the swathings to get the jewels. When
Sidney would not hand over the jewels to the Kanaka, as the latter
wanted him to, Cockatoo, already prepared with the window cord, which he
had silently taken from the blind, sprang upon the unfortunate assistant
and strangled him. Cockatoo told this to his horrified master, and
wanted him to come back to hide the corpse in the packing case.
Braddock refused, and then Cockatoo told him that he would throw the
jewels--which he had taken from Sidney's body--into the river. The
position of master and servant was reversed, and Braddock was forced to
obey.
“The Professor slipped silently ashore and into the room. The two men
relighted the candle and pulled down the blind. They then placed the
corpse of Sidney in the packing case, and screwed the same down in
silence. When this was completed, they were about to carry the mummy in
its coffin--the lid of which they had replaced--to the boat, when they
heard distant footsteps, probably those of a policeman on his beat.
At once they extinguished the candle, and--as Braddock told Mrs.
Jasher--he, for one, sat trembling in the dark. But the policeman--if
the footsteps were those of a policeman--passed up another street, and
the two were safe. Without relighting the candle, they silently slipped
the mummy through the window, Cockatoo within and Braddock without. The
case and its contents were not heavy, and it was not difficult for
the two men to take it to the boat. When it was safely bestowed,
Cockatoo--who was as cunning as the devil, according to his master
returned to the bedroom, and unlocked the door. He afterwards passed a
string through the joining of the upper and lower windows, and managed
to shut the snib. Afterwards he came to the boat and rowed it back
to Gartley. On the way Cockatoo told his master that Sidney had left
instructions that the packing case should be taken next morning to the
Pyramids, so there was nothing to fear. The mummy was hidden in a hole
under the jetty and covered with grass.”
“Why didn't they take it up to the house?” asked Random, on hearing
this.
“That would have been dangerous,” said Hope, looking up from the
manuscript, “seeing that the mummy was supposed to have been stolen by
the murderer. It was easier to hide it amongst the grasses under
the jetty, as no one ever goes there. Well”--he turned over a few
pages--“that is practically all. The rest is after events.”
“I want to hear them,” said Random, taking another cup of coffee.
Hope ran his eyes swiftly over the remaining portion of the paper, and
gave further details rapidly to his friend.
“You know all that happened,” he said, “the Professor's pretended
surprise when he found the corpse he had himself helped to pack and--”
“Yes! yes! But why was the mummy placed in Mrs. Jasher's garden?”
“That was Braddock's idea. He fancied that the mummy might be found
under the jetty and that inconvenient inquiries might be made. Also,
he wished if possible to implicate Mrs. Jasher, so as to keep her from
telling to the police what he had told her. He and Cockatoo went down
to the river one night and removed the mummy to the arbor silently.
Afterwards he pretended to be astonished when I found it. I must say
he acted his part very well,” said Hope reflectively, “even to accusing
Mrs. Jasher. That was a bold stroke of genius.”
“A very dangerous one.”
“Not at all. He swore to Mrs. Jasher that if she said anything, he would
tell the police that she had taken the clothes provided by Sidney from
the Pyramids and had gone to speak through the window, in order to fly
with Sidney and the emeralds. As the fact of the mummy being found in
Mrs. Jasher's garden would lend color to the lie, she was obliged to
hold her tongue. And after all, as she says, she didn't mind, since
she was engaged to the Professor, and possessed at least one of the
emeralds.”
“Ah! the one she passed along to me. How did she get that?”
Hope referred again to the manuscript.
“She insisted that Braddock should give it to her as a pledge of good
faith. He had to do it, or risk her splitting. That was why he placed
the mummy in her garden, so as to bring her into the matter, and render
it more difficult for her to speak.”
“What of the other emerald?”
“Braddock took that to Amsterdam, when he went to London that time--if
you remember, when Don Pedro arrived. Braddock sold the emerald for
three thousand pounds, and it is now on its way to an Indian rajah. I
fear Don Pedro will never set eyes on that again.”
“Where is the money?”
“He banked it in a feigned name in Amsterdam, and intended to account
for it when he married Mrs. Jasher by saying it was left to her by that
mythical Pekin merchant brother of hers. Savvy!”
“Yes. What an infernal little villain! And I expect he sent Cockatoo
down last night for the other emerald.”
“That is not related in the manuscript,” said Archie, laying down the
last sheet and taking up his coffee. “The confession ends abruptly--at
the time Cockatoo tapped at the window, I expect. But she said, when
dying, that the Kanaka asked for the second emerald. If she had not sent
it to you in a fit of weakness, I expect she would have passed it along.
I can't make out,” added Archie musingly, “why Mrs. Jasher confessed
when everything was so safe.”
“Well,” said Random, nursing his chin, and staring into the fire, “she
made a mistake in trying to blackmail me, though why she did so I can't
tell, seeing she had the whiphand of Braddock. Perhaps she wanted the
five thousand to spend herself, knowing that the Professor's plunder
would be wasted on his confounded expedition. At any rate she gave
herself away by the blackmail, and I expect she grew frightened. If the
house had been searched--and it might have been searched by the police,
had I arrested her for blackmail the emerald would have been found and
she would have been incriminated. She therefore got rid of it cleverly,
by passing it along to me as a wedding gift. Then she again grew afraid
and wrote out this confession to exonerate herself.”
“But it doesn't,” insisted Hope. “She makes herself out plainly as an
accessory after the fact.”
“A woman doesn't understand these legal niceties. She wrote that out to
clear herself in case she was arrested for the blackmail, and perhaps
in case Braddock refused to help her--as he certainly did, if you
remember.”
“He was hard on her,” confessed Archie slowly.
“Being such a villain himself,” said Random grimly. “However, Cockatoo
arrived unluckily on the scene, and when he found she had parted with
the emerald, and had written out the truth, he stabbed her. If we hadn't
come just in the nick of time, he would have annexed that confession,
and the truth would never have become known. No one,” ended Random,
rising and stretching himself, “would connect Braddock or Cockatoo with
the death of Mrs. Jasher.”
“Or with the death of Sidney Bolton either,” said Hope, also rising and
putting on his cap. “What an actor the man is!”
“Where are you going?” demanded Sir Frank, yawning.
“To the Pyramids. I want to see how Lucy is.”
“Will you tell her about that confession?”
“Not until later. I shall give this to Inspector Date when he arrives.
The Professor has made his bed, so he must lie on it. When I marry Lucy,
I'll take her away from this damned place.”
“Marry her at once, then,” advised Random, “while the Professor is doing
time, and while Cockatoo is being hanged. Meanwhile, I think you had
better put on your overcoat, unless you want to walk through the village