The Green Mummy - Page 71/191

It was certainly strange how constantly the subject of the missing

mummy came uppermost. Since it had disappeared and since the man who had

brought it to England was dead, it might have been thought that nothing

more would be said about the matter. But Professor Braddock harped

incessantly on his loss--which was perhaps natural--and Widow Anne also

talked a great deal as to the possibility of the mummy, being found,

as she hoped to learn by that means the name of the assassin who had

strangled her poor boy. Now Don Pedro de Gayangos appeared with the

strange information that the weird relic of Peruvian civilization had

been stolen from his father. Apparently fate was not inclined to let the

matter of the lost mummy drop, and was working round to a denouement,

which would possibly include the solution of the mystery of Sidney

Bolton's death. Yet, on the face of it, there appeared to be no chance

of the truth becoming known.

Of course, when Don Pedro announced that the Mummy had formerly belonged

to his father, every one was anxious to hear how it had been stolen. The

Gayangos family were established in Lima, and the embalmed body of Inca

Caxas had been purchased from a gentleman residing in Malta. How, then,

had it crossed the water, and how had Don Pedro learned its whereabouts,

only to arrive too late to secure his missing property? Mrs. Jasher was

especially anxious to learn these things, and explained her reasons to

Lucy.

"You see, my dear," she said to the girl on the day after Don Pedro's

arrival in Gartley, "if we learn the past of that horrid mummy, we may

gain a clue to the person who desired possession of the nasty thing, and

so may hunt down this terrible criminal. Once he is found, the mummy may

be secured again, and should I be able to return it to your father, out

of gratitude he would certainly marry me."

"You seem to think that the assassin is a man," said Lucy dryly; "yet

you forget that the person who talked to Sidney through the window of

the Sailor's Rest was a woman."

"An old woman," emphasized Mrs. Jasher briskly: "quite so."

Lucy contradicted.

"Eliza Flight did not say if the woman was old or young, but merely

stated that she wore a dark dress and a dark shawl over her head. Still,

this mysterious woman was connected in some way with the murder, else

she would not have been speaking to Sidney."

"I don't follow you, my dear. You talk as though poor Mr. Bolton

expected to be murdered. For my part, I hold by the verdict of wilful

murder against some person or persons unknown. The truth is to be found,

if anywhere, in the past of the mummy."