How could you!"

"It is horrible--horrible!" said the Professor. "I don't wonder at
your feelings. Take me to your room."

"But this shall not be left exposed!" cried Mortimer. He picked the
breastplate up and carried it tenderly in his hand, while I walked
beside the Professor, like a policeman with a malefactor. We passed
into Mortimer's chambers, leaving the amazed old soldier to understand
matters as best he could. The Professor sat down in Mortimer's
arm-chair, and turned so ghastly a colour that for the instant all our
resentment was changed to concern. A stiff glass of brandy brought the
life back to him once more.

"There, I am better now!" said he. "These last few days have been too
much for me. I am convinced that I could not stand it any longer. It
is a nightmare--a horrible nightmare--that I should be arrested as a
burglar in what has been for so long my own museum. And yet I cannot
blame you. You could not have done otherwise. My hope always was that
I should get it all over before I was detected. This would have been
my last night's work."

"How did you get in?" asked Mortimer.

"By taking a very great liberty with your private door. But the object
justified it. The object justified everything. You will not be angry
when you know everything--at least, you will not be angry with me. I
had a key to your side door and also to the museum door. I did not
give them up when I left. And so you see it was not difficult for me
to let myself into the museum. I used to come in early before the
crowd had cleared from the street. Then I hid myself in the mummy-case,
and took refuge there whenever Simpson came round. I could always hear
him coming. I used to leave in the same way as I came."

"You ran a risk."

"I had to."

"But why? What on earth was your object--YOU to do a thing like that!"
Mortimer pointed reproachfully at the plate which lay before him on the
table.

"I could devise no other means. I thought and thought, but there was
no alternate except a hideous public scandal, and a private sorrow
which would have clouded our lives. I acted for the best, incredible
as it may seem to you, and I only ask your attention to enable me to
prove it."

"I will hear what you have to say before I take any further steps,"
said Mortimer, grimly.

"I am determined to hold back nothing, and to take you both completely
into my confidence. I will leave it to your own generosity how far you