you took leave of Braddock?"

"No," snapped the widow. "If I had I should certainly have come to look.
Also Professor Braddock, who is so anxious to recover it, would not have
allowed it to remain here."

"Then the case was not here when the Professor left you to-night?"

"No! He left me at eight o'clock to go home to dinner."

"When did he arrive here?" questioned Hope quickly.

"At seven. I am sure of the time, for I was just sitting down to my
supper. He was here an hour. But he said nothing, when he entered, of
any mummy being in the arbor; nor when he left me at the door and I came
to say good-bye to him--did either of us see this object. To be sure,"
added Mrs. Jasher meditatively, "we did not look particularly in the
direction of this arbor."

"I scarcely see how any one entering or leaving the garden could fail to
see it, especially as the snow reflects the moonlight so brightly."

Mrs. Jasher shivered, and taking the skirt of her tea-gown, flung it
over her carefully attired head,

"It is very cold," she remarked irritably. "Don't you think we had
better return to the house, and talk there?"

"What!" said Archie grimly, "and leave the mummy to be carried away
as mysteriously as it has been brought. No, Mrs. Jasher. That mummy
represents one thousand pounds of my money."

"I understood that the Professor bought it himself."

"So he did, but I supplied the purchase money. Therefore I do not intend
that this should be lost sight of again. Lucy, my dear, you run home
again and tell your father what we have found. He had better bring men,
to take it to his museum. When it is there, Mrs. Jasher can then explain
how it came to be in her garden."

Without a word Lucy set off, walking quickly, anxious to fulfill her
mission and gladden the heart of her step-father with the amazing news.

Archie and Mrs. Jasher were left alone, and the former lighted a
cigarette, while he tapped the mummy case, and examined it as closely as
the pale gleam of the moonlight permitted. Mrs. Jasher made no move to
enter the house, much as she had complained of the cold. But perhaps she
found the flimsy skirt of the tea-gown sufficient protection.

"It seems to me, Mr. Hope," said she very tartly, "that you suspect my
having a hand in this," and she tapped the mummy coffin also.

"Pardon me," observed Hope very politely, "but I suspect nothing,
because I have no grounds upon which to base my suspicions. But
certainly it is o