the corpse he had himself helped to pack and--"

"Yes! yes! But why was the mummy placed in Mrs. Jasher's garden?"

"That was Braddock's idea. He fancied that the mummy might be found
under the jetty and that inconvenient inquiries might be made. Also,
he wished if possible to implicate Mrs. Jasher, so as to keep her from
telling to the police what he had told her. He and Cockatoo went down
to the river one night and removed the mummy to the arbor silently.
Afterwards he pretended to be astonished when I found it. I must say
he acted his part very well," said Hope reflectively, "even to accusing
Mrs. Jasher. That was a bold stroke of genius."

"A very dangerous one."

"Not at all. He swore to Mrs. Jasher that if she said anything, he would
tell the police that she had taken the clothes provided by Sidney from
the Pyramids and had gone to speak through the window, in order to fly
with Sidney and the emeralds. As the fact of the mummy being found in
Mrs. Jasher's garden would lend color to the lie, she was obliged to
hold her tongue. And after all, as she says, she didn't mind, since
she was engaged to the Professor, and possessed at least one of the
emeralds."

"Ah! the one she passed along to me. How did she get that?"

Hope referred again to the manuscript.

"She insisted that Braddock should give it to her as a pledge of good
faith. He had to do it, or risk her splitting. That was why he placed
the mummy in her garden, so as to bring her into the matter, and render
it more difficult for her to speak."

"What of the other emerald?"

"Braddock took that to Amsterdam, when he went to London that time--if
you remember, when Don Pedro arrived. Braddock sold the emerald for
three thousand pounds, and it is now on its way to an Indian rajah. I
fear Don Pedro will never set eyes on that again."

"Where is the money?"

"He banked it in a feigned name in Amsterdam, and intended to account
for it when he married Mrs. Jasher by saying it was left to her by that
mythical Pekin merchant brother of hers. Savvy!"

"Yes. What an infernal little villain! And I expect he sent Cockatoo
down last night for the other emerald."

"That is not related in the manuscript," said Archie, laying down the
last sheet and taking up his coffee. "The confession ends abruptly--at
the time Cockatoo tapped at the window, I expect. But she said, when
dying, that the Kanaka asked for the second emerald. If she had not sent
it to you in a fit