poor fellow's body then. He is dead, murdered."

"By whom?"

"Hang you, sir, how should I know?"

"In what way has he been murdered? Stabbed, shot, or--"

"I don't know--I don't know! Such a nuisance to lose a man like
Bolton--an invaluable assistant. What I shall do without him I really
don't know. And his mother has been here, making no end of a fuss."

"Can you blame her?" said the doctor, recovering his breath. "She is his
mother, after all, and poor Bolton was her only son."

"I am not denying the relationship, confound you!" snapped the
Professor, ruffling his hair until it stood up like the crest of a
parrot. "But she needn't--ah!" He glanced through the open door, and
then rushed to the threshold. "Here is Hope and Painter. Come in--come
in. I have the doctor here. Hope, you have the key. You observe,
constable, that Mr. Hope has the key. Open the door: open the door, and
let us see the meaning of this dreadful crime."

"Crime, sir?" queried the constable, who had heard all that was known
from Hope, but now wished to hear what Braddock had to say.

"Yes, crime: crime, you idiot! I have lost my mummy."

"But I thought, sir, that a murder--"

"Oh, of course--of course," gabbled the Professor, as if the death was
quite a minor consideration. "Bolton's dead--murdered, I suppose, as he
could scarcely have nailed himself down in a packing case. But it's my
precious mummy I am thinking of, Painter. A mummy--if you know what a
mummy is--that cost me nine hundred pounds. Go in, man. Go in and don't
stand there gaping. Don't you see that Mr. Hope has opened the door. I
have sent Cockatoo to Pierside to notify the police. They will soon be
here. Meanwhile, doctor, you can examine the body, and Painter here can
give his opinion as to who stole my mummy."

"The assassin stole the mummy," said Archie, as the four men entered the
museum, "and substituted the body of the murdered man."

"That is all A B C," snapped Braddock, issuing into the vast room, "but
we want to know the name of the assassin, if we are to revenge Bolton
and get back my mummy. Oh, what a loss!--what a loss! I have lost nine
hundred pounds, or say one thousand, considering the cost of bringing
Inca Caxas to England."

Archie forebore to remind the Professor as to who had really lost
the money, as the scientist was not in a fit state to be talked to
reasonably, and seemed much more concerned because his Peruvian relic of
humanity had been lost