The Green Mummy - Page 169/191

In the cold gray hours of the morning, Hope and his friend left the

cottage wherein such a tragedy had taken place. The dead woman was lying

stiff and white on her bed under a winding sheet, which had already been

strewn with many-hued chrysanthemums taken from the pink parlor by the

weeping Jane. The wretched woman who had led so stormy and unhappy a

life had at least one sincere mourner, for she had always been kind to

the servant, who formed her entire domestic staff, and Jane would not

hear a word said against the dead. Not that anyone did say anything; for

Random and Hope kept the contents of the confession to themselves. There

would be time enough for Mrs. Jasher's reputation to be smirched when

those same contents were made public.

When the poor woman died, Random left the doctor and the servant to look

after the corpse, and went into the parlor. Here he met Hope with the

confession in his hand. Luckily, Painter was not in the room at the

moment, else he would have prevented the artist from taking away the

same. Hope--as directed by Mrs. Jasher--had found the confession,

written on many sheets, lying on the desk. It broke off abruptly towards

the end, and was not signed. Apparently at this point Mrs. Jasher had

been interrupted--as she had said--by the tapping of Cockatoo at the

window. Probably she had admitted him at once, and on her refusal to

give him the emerald, and on her confessing what she had written, he had

overturned the lights for the purpose of murdering her. Only too well

had the Kanaka succeeded in his wickedness.

Archie slipped the confession into his pocket before the policeman

returned, and then left the cottage with Random and the doctor, since

nothing else could now be done. It was between seven and eight, and the

chilly dawn was breaking, but the sea-mist still lay heavily over the

marshes, as though it were the winding sheet of the dead. Robinson went

to his own house to get his trap and drive into Jessum, there to catch

the train and ferry to Pierside. It was necessary that Inspector Date

should be informed of this new tragedy without delay, and as Constable

Painter was engaged in watching the cottage, there was no messenger

available but Dr. Robinson. Random indeed offered to send a soldier,

or to afford Robinson the use of the Fort telephone, but the doctor

preferred to see Date personally, so as to detail exactly what had

happened. Perhaps the young medical man had an eye to becoming better

known, for the improvement of his practice; but he certainly seemed

anxious to take a prominent part in the proceedings connected with the

murder of Mrs. Jasher.

When Robinson parted from them, Random and Hope went to the lodgings of

the latter, so as to read over the confession and learn exactly to what

extent Mrs. Jasher had been mixed up in the tragedy of the green mummy.

She had declared herself innocent even on her death-bed, and so far

as the two could judge at this point, she certainly had not actually

strangled Sidney Bolton. But it might be--and it appeared to be more

than probable--that she was an accessory after the fact. But this they

could learn from the confession, and they sat in Hope's quiet little

sitting-room, in which the fire had been just lighted by the artist's

landlady, with the scattered sheets neatly ranged before them.