The Green Mummy - Fergus Hume (best love novels of all time txt) 📗
- Author: Fergus Hume
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“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 - tomorrow, 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. Tomorrow 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 tomorrow 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.”
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
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