his dilemma he
remembered that two heads were better than one, and, before going into
dinner, he sent a note to Archie Hope, asking him to come to the Fort as
speedily as possible.

Sir Frank was somewhat dull at dinner on that evening, and scarcely
responded to the joking remarks of his brother officers. These jocularly
put his preoccupation down to love, for it was an open secret that the
baronet admired the fair Peruvian, although no one as yet knew that
Random was legally engaged with Don Pedro's consent. The young man
good-humoredly stood all the chaff hurled at him, but seized the
opportunity to slip away to his quarters as soon as coffee came on the
table and the smoking began. It was nine o'clock before he returned to
his room, and here he found Hope waiting for him impatiently.

"I see you have been dining at the Pyramids," said Random, seeing that
Hope was in evening dress.

Archie nodded.

"Yes. I don't put on this kit to have my humble chop at my lodgings. But
the Professor asked me to dinner to talk over matters."

"What does he say?" asked Random, looking for the cigarette box.

"Oh, he is very angry with Mrs. Jasher, and considers that she has
swindled him. He called to see her this afternoon, and--so he says--had
a stormy interview with her."

"I don't wonder at that, if he speaks as he generally does," said the
other grimly, and pushing along the cigarettes, "There you are! The
whisky and soda are on yonder table. Make yourself comfortable, and tell
me what the Professor intends to do."

"Well," said Archie, turning half round from the side table where he
was pouring out the whisky, "he had already started action, by sending
Cockatoo to live at the Sailor's Rest and spy on Hervey."

"What rubbish! Hervey is, going away to-morrow in The Firefly, bound for
Algiers. Nothing is to be learned from him."

"So I told the Professor," said Hope, returning to the armchair near the
fire, "and I mentioned that Don Pedro had induced the skipper to write
out a full account of the theft of the mummy from Lima thirty years
ago. I also said that the signed paper would be handed in at the Gartley
jetty when The Firefly came down stream to-morrow night."

"Humph! And what did Braddock say to that?"

"Nothing much. He merely stated that whatever Hervey said toward proving
the ownership of your future father-in-law, that he intended to stick
to the embalmed corpse of Inca Caxas, and also that he intended to cl