The Professor would have gone on still more furiously, but that Hope,
seeing Don Pedro was growing angry at the insult, chimed in.
"Let me throw oil on the troubled waters," he said, smoothly. "Don Pedro
is not able to redeem the mummy until the emeralds are found. As such
is the case, we must find the emeralds and enable him to do what is
necessary."
"And how are we to find the jewels?" asked Braddock crossly.
"By finding the assassin."
"How is that to be done?" asked De Gayangos gloomily. "I have been doing
my best at Pierside, but I cannot find a single clue. Vasa is not to be
found."
"Vasa!" exclaimed Archie and the Professor, both profoundly astonished.
Don Pedro raised his eyebrows.
"Certainly. Vasa, if anyone, must have killed your assistant, since he
alone could have known that the jewels were buried with Inca Caxas."
"But, my dear sir," argued Hope good-naturedly, "if Vasa stole the
manuscript, whether translated or not, he certainly must have learned
the truth long, long ago, since thirty years have elapsed. In that event
he must have stolen the jewels, as Professor Braddock remarked lately,
before he sold the mummy to the Parisian collector."
"That may be so," said Don Pedro obstinately, while the Professor
muttered his approval, "but we cannot be certain on that point. No
one--I agree with the Professor in this--would have risked his neck to
steal a mere mummy, therefore the motive for the committal of the crime
must have been the emeralds. Only Vasa knew of their existence outside
myself and my dead father. He, therefore, must be the assassin. I shall
hunt for him, and, when I find him, I shall have him arrested."
"But you can't possibly recognize the man after thirty years?" argued
Braddock disbelievingly.
"I have a royal memory for faces," said Don Pedro imperturbably, "and in
the past I saw much of Vasa. He was then a young sailor of twenty."
"Humph!" muttered Braddock. "He is now fifty, and must have changed in
thirty years. You'll never recognize him."
"Oh, I think so," said the Peruvian smoothly. "His eyes were peculiarly
blue and full of light. Also, he had a scar on the right temple from a
blow which he received in a street riot in which I also was concerned.
Finally, gentlemen, Vasa loved a peon girl on my father's estate, and
she induced him to have the sun encircled by a serpent--a Peruvian
symbol--tattooed on his left wrist. With all these marks, and with my
memory for faces, which never yet has failed me, I have no doubt but
what I shall recognize the man."
"And then?"
"And then I shall have him arrested"
Hope shrugged his square shoulders. He had not much belief in Don
Pedro's boasted royal memory, and did not think that he would recognize
a young sailor of twenty in what would certainly be a grizzled old salt
of fifty years. However, it was possible that the man might be right in
his surmise, since Vasa alone could have known about the emeralds. The
only doubt was whether he would have waited for thirty years before
looting the mummy. Archie said nothing of these thoughts, as they
would only serve to prolong an unprofitable discussion. But he made one
suggestion.