The Green Mummy [115]
"I hope they will escape," murmured Lucy.
"Well, I am not sure," said Hope hesitatingly. "Of course, I should like to avoid a scandal for your sake, and yet it is only right that the two of them should be punished. Remember, Lucy dear, how Braddock has acted all along in deceiving us. He knew all, and yet not one of us suspected him."
"While Archie was thus comforting the poor girl, Gartley village was in an uproar. Everyone was talking about this new crime, and everyone was wondering who had stabbed the unlucky woman. As yet the confession of Mrs. Jasher had not been placed in the hands of the police and everyone was ignorant that Cockatoo was the criminal who had escaped in the fog. Inspector Date speedily arrived with his myrmidons on the scene and made the cottage his headquarters. Later in the day, Hope, having taken a cold bath to freshen himself up, came with the confession. This he gave to the officer and explained the whole story of the previous night.
Date was more than astonished: he was astounded. He read the confession and made notes; then he sent for Sir Frank Random, and examined him in the same strict way as he had examined the artist. Jane was also questioned. Widow Anne was put in the witness box, so as to report about the clothes, and in every way Date gathered material for another inquest. At the former one he had only been able to place scanty evidence before the jury, and the verdict had been unsatisfactory to the public. But on this occasion, seeing that the witnesses he could bring forward would solve the mystery of the first death as well as the second, Inspector Date exulted greatly. He saw himself promoted and his salary raised, and his name praised in the papers as a zealous and clever officer. By the time the inquest came to be held, the inspector had talked himself into believing that the whole mystery had been solved by himself. But before that time came another event happened which astonished everyone, and which made the final phase of the green mummy crime even more sensational than it had been. And Heaven knows that from beginning to end there had been no lack of melodrama of the most lurid description.
Don Pedro de Gayangos was exceedingly amazed at the unexpected turn which the case had taken. That he should have been trying to solve a deep mystery for so long, and that the solution, all the time, had been in the hands of the Professor, startled him exceedingly. He admitted that he had never liked Braddock, but explained that he had not expected to hear that the fiery little scientist was such a scoundrel. But, as Don Pedro confessed, it was an ill wind which blew him some good, when the upshot of the whole mysterious tragic business was the restoration of at least one emerald. Sir Frank brought the gem to him on the afternoon of the day succeeding Mrs. Jasher's death, and while the whole village was buzzing with excitement. It was Random who gave all details to Donna Inez and her father, leading from one revelation to another, until he capped the whole extraordinary story by producing the splendid gem.
"Mine! mine!" said Don Pedro, his dark eyes glittering. "Thanks be to the Virgin and the Saints," and he bowed his head to make the sign of the cross devoutly on his breast.
Donna Inez clapped her hands and her eyes flashed, for, like every woman, she had a profound love for jewels.
"Oh, how lovely, Frank! It must be worth no end of money."
"Professor Braddock sold the other to some Indian rajah in Amsterdam - through an agent, I presume for three thousand pounds."
"I shall get more than that," said Don Pedro quickly. "The Professor sold his jewel in a hurry and had no time to bargain. But sooner or later I shall get five thousand pounds for this." He held the gem in the sunlight, where it glowed like an emerald sun. "Why, it is worthy of a king's crown."
"I fear you will never get the other gem," said Random regretfully. "I believe that it is on its way to India, if Mrs. Jasher can be trusted."
"Never mind. I shall be content