The Green Mummy - Page 90/191

Hope recollected that experts had decided the mode in which the mummy

had been removed from the Pierside public-house. It had been passed

through the window, according to Inspector Date and others, and, when

taken across the narrow path which bordered the river, had been placed

in a waiting boat. After that it had vanished until it had re-appeared

in this arbor. But if taken by water once, it could have been taken by

water again. There was a rude jetty behind the embankment, which Hope

could easily see from where he stood. In all probability the mummy had

been landed there and carried to the garden, while Mrs. Jasher was busy

with her supper and her game of cards and her letters. Also, the path

from the shore to the house was very lonely, and if any care had been

exercised, which was probable, no one from the Fort road or from the

village street could have seen the stealthy conspirators bringing their

weird burden. So far Hope felt that he could argue excellently. But who

had brought the mummy to the garden and why had it been brought there?

These questions he could not answer so easily, and indeed not at all.

While thus meditating, he heard, far away in the frosty air, a puffing

and blowing and panting like an impatient motor-car. Before he could

guess what this was, Braddock appeared, simply racing along the marshy

causeway, followed closely by Cockatoo, and at some distance away by

Lucy. The little scientist rushed through the gate, which he flung open

with a noise fit to wake the dead, and lunged forward, to fall with

outstretched arms upon the green case. There he remained, still puffing

and blowing, and looked as though he were hugging a huge green beetle.

Cockatoo, who, being lean and hard, kept his breath more easily, stood

respectfully by, waiting for his master to give orders, and Lucy came

in quietly by the gate, smiling at her father's enthusiasm. At the same

moment Mrs. Jasher, well wrapped up in a coat of sables, emerged from

the cottage.

"I heard you coming, Professor," she called out, hurrying down the path.

"I should think the whole Fort heard the Professor coming," said Hope,

glancing at the dark mass. "The soldiers must think it is an invasion."

But Braddock paid no heed to this jocularity, or even to Mrs. Jasher, to

whom he had been so lately engaged. All his soul was in the mummy case,

and as soon as he recovered his breath, he loudly proclaimed his joy at

this miraculous recovery of the precious article.

"Mine! mine!" he roared, and his words ran violently through the frosty

air.

"Be calm, sir," advised Hope--"be calm."

"Calm! calm!" bellowed Braddock, struggling to a standing position. "Oh,

confound you, sir, how can I be calm when I find what I have lost?

You have a mean, groveling soul, Hope, not the soaring spirit of a

collector."