"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!"