er should be handed over to the
police. But he might have guessed that Sir Frank would refuse to follow
this extreme advice.

"She has acted badly, I admit," said the young man. "All the same, I
think she is a better woman than you may think, Professor."

"Think! think! think!" shouted the fiery little man, getting up once
more to trot up and down like an infuriated poodle. "I think she is a
bad woman, a wicked woman. To deceive me into thinking her rich and--"

"But surely, Professor, you wished to marry her also for love?"

"Nothing of the sort, sir: nothing of the sort. I leave love and
such-like trash to those like yourself and Hope, who have nothing else
to think about."

"But a marriage without love--"

"Pooh! pooh! pooh! Don't argue with me, Random. Love is all moonshine.
I did not love my first wife--Lucy's mother--and yet we were very happy.
Had I made Mrs. Jasher my second, we should have got on excellently,
provided the money was forthcoming for my Egyptian expedition. What am
I to do now, I ask you, Random? Even the thousand pounds you pay for the
mummy goes back to that infernal Hope because of Lucy's silly ideas.
I have nothing--absolutely nothing, and that tomb is amongst those
Ethiopian hills, I swear, waiting to be opened. Oh, what a chance I have
missed!--what a chance! But I shall see Mrs. Jasher myself. She knows
about this murder."

"She declares that she does not."

"Don't tell me! don't tell me!" vociferated the Professor. "She would
not have written that letter had she known nothing."

"That was bluff. I explained all that."

"Bluff be hanged!" cried Braddock, only he used a more vigorous word.
"I do not believe that she would have dared to act on such a slight
foundation. I shall see her myself this very afternoon and force her to
confess. In one way or another I shall find the assassin and make him
disgorge those emeralds under the penalty of being hanged. Then I can
sell them and finance my Egyptian expedition."

"But you forget, Professor, that the emeralds, when found, belong to Don
Pedro."

"They don't," rasped the little man, turning purple with rage. "I refuse
to let him have them. I bought the mummy, and the contents of the mummy,
including those emeralds. They are mine."

"No," said Random sharply. "I buy the mummy, from you, so they pass into
my possession and belong to De Gayangos. I shall give them to him."

"You'll have to find them first," said Braddock savagely; "