The Green Mummy - Page 174/191

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."