The Green Mummy - Page 92/191

"Archie! Archie! She's fainted."

Hope rushed forward, and raised the stout little woman in his arms.

Jane, attracted by the clamor, appeared on the scene, and between the

three of them they managed to get Mrs. Jasher placed on the sofa of the

pink drawing-room. She certainly was in a dead faint, so Hope left her

to the administrations of Lucy and the servant, and walked out again

into the garden, closing the cottage door after him.

He found the heartless Professor quite oblivious to Mrs. Jasher's

sufferings, so taken up was he with the newly found mummy. Cockatoo had

been sent for a hand-cart, and while he was absent Braddock expatiated

on the perfections of this relic of Peruvian civilization.

"Will you sell it to Don Pedro?" asked Hope.

"After I have done with it, not before," snapped Braddock, hovering

round his treasure. "I shall want a percentage on my bargain also."

Archie thought privately that if Braddock unswathed the mummy, he

would find the emeralds and would probably stick to them, so that his

expedition to Egypt might be financed. It that case Don Pedro would no

longer wish to buy the corpse of his ancestor. But while he debated as

to the advisability of telling the Professor of the existence of the

emeralds, Cockatoo returned with the hand-cart.

"You have lost Mrs. Jasher," said Hope, while he, assisted the Professor

to hoist the mummy on to the cart.

"Never mind! never mind!" Braddock patted the coffin. "I have found

something much more to my mind: something ever so much better. Ha! ha!"