The Green Mummy [81]
Also, I dropped my cigarette case and forced you to pick it up, so that, when you stretched your arm, I might see what mark was on your left wrist. It is a serpent encircling the sun, which Lola Farjados induced you to have tattooed when you were in Lima thirty years ago. Your eyes are blue and full of light, and as you were twenty when I knew you, the lapse of years has made you fifty - your present age."
"Shucks!" said Hervey coolly, and sat down to smoke.
Don Pedro turned to Archie and Braddock.
"Mr. Hope! Professor!" he remarked, "if you remember the description I gave of Gustav Vasa, I appeal to you to see if it does not exactly fit this man?"
"It does," said Archie unhesitatingly, "although I cannot see the tattooed left wrist to which you refer."
Hervey, still smoking, made no offer to show the symbol, but Braddock unexpectedly came to the assistance of Don Pedro.
"The man is Vasa right enough," he remarked abruptly. "Whether he is Swedish or American I cannot say. But he is the same man I met when I was in Lima thirty years ago, after the war."
Hervey slowly turned his blue eyes on the scientist with a twinkle in their depths.
"So you recognized me?" he observed, with his Yankee drawl.
"I recognized you at the moment I hired you to take The Diver to Malta to bring back that mummy," retorted Braddock, "but it didn't suit my book to let on. Didn't you recognize me?"
"Wal, no," said Hervey, his drawl more pronounced than ever. "I haven't got the memory for faces that you and the Don here seem to posses. Huh!" He wheeled his chair and faced Braddock squarely. "I'd have thought you wiser not to back up the Don, sir."
Braddock's little eyes sparkled.
"I am not afraid of you," said he with great contempt. "I never did anything for which you could get money out of me for, Captain Hervey or Gustav Vasa, or whatever your name might be."
"You were always a mighty spry man," assented the skipper coolly, "but spry men, I take it, make mistakes from being too almighty smart."
Braddock shrugged his shoulders, and Don Pedro intervened.
"This is all beside the point," he remarked angrily. "Captain Hervey, do you deny that you are Gustav Vasa in the face of this evidence?"
Hervey drew up the left sleeve of his reefer jacket, and showed on his bared wrist the symbol of the sun and the encircling serpent.
"Is that enough?" he drawled, "or do you want to look at this?" and he turned his head to reveal his scarred right temple.
"Then you admit that you are Vasa?"
"Wal," drawled the captain again, "that's one of my names, I guess, though I haven't used it since I traded that blamed mummy in Paris, thirty years ago. There's nothing like owning up."
"Are you not Swedish?" asked Lucy timidly.
"I am a citizen of the world, I guess," replied Hervey with great politeness for him, "and America suits me for headquarters as well as any other nation. I might be Swedish or Danish or a Dago for choice. Vasa may be my name, or Hervey, or anything you like. But I guess I'm a man all through."
"And a thief!" cried Don Pedro, who had resumed his seat, but seas keeping quiet with difficulty.
"Not of those emeralds," rejoined the skipper coolly: "Lord, to think of the chance I missed! Thirty years ago I could have looted them, and again the other day. But I never knew - I never knew," cried Hervey regretfully, with his vividly blue eyes on the mummy. "I could jes' kick myself, gentlemen, when I think of the miss."
"Then you didn't steal the manuscript along with the emeralds?"
"Wal, I did," cried Hervey, turning to Archie, who had spoken, "but it was in a furren lingo, to which I didn't catch on. If I'd known I'd have learned about those blamed emeralds."
"What did you do with the copy of the manuscript you stole?" asked Don Pedro sharply. "I know there, was a copy, as my father told me so. I have the original myself, but the transcript - and not a translation, as I fancied - appeared in Sir Frank Random's room to-day, hidden behind some books."
"Shucks!" said Hervey coolly, and sat down to smoke.
Don Pedro turned to Archie and Braddock.
"Mr. Hope! Professor!" he remarked, "if you remember the description I gave of Gustav Vasa, I appeal to you to see if it does not exactly fit this man?"
"It does," said Archie unhesitatingly, "although I cannot see the tattooed left wrist to which you refer."
Hervey, still smoking, made no offer to show the symbol, but Braddock unexpectedly came to the assistance of Don Pedro.
"The man is Vasa right enough," he remarked abruptly. "Whether he is Swedish or American I cannot say. But he is the same man I met when I was in Lima thirty years ago, after the war."
Hervey slowly turned his blue eyes on the scientist with a twinkle in their depths.
"So you recognized me?" he observed, with his Yankee drawl.
"I recognized you at the moment I hired you to take The Diver to Malta to bring back that mummy," retorted Braddock, "but it didn't suit my book to let on. Didn't you recognize me?"
"Wal, no," said Hervey, his drawl more pronounced than ever. "I haven't got the memory for faces that you and the Don here seem to posses. Huh!" He wheeled his chair and faced Braddock squarely. "I'd have thought you wiser not to back up the Don, sir."
Braddock's little eyes sparkled.
"I am not afraid of you," said he with great contempt. "I never did anything for which you could get money out of me for, Captain Hervey or Gustav Vasa, or whatever your name might be."
"You were always a mighty spry man," assented the skipper coolly, "but spry men, I take it, make mistakes from being too almighty smart."
Braddock shrugged his shoulders, and Don Pedro intervened.
"This is all beside the point," he remarked angrily. "Captain Hervey, do you deny that you are Gustav Vasa in the face of this evidence?"
Hervey drew up the left sleeve of his reefer jacket, and showed on his bared wrist the symbol of the sun and the encircling serpent.
"Is that enough?" he drawled, "or do you want to look at this?" and he turned his head to reveal his scarred right temple.
"Then you admit that you are Vasa?"
"Wal," drawled the captain again, "that's one of my names, I guess, though I haven't used it since I traded that blamed mummy in Paris, thirty years ago. There's nothing like owning up."
"Are you not Swedish?" asked Lucy timidly.
"I am a citizen of the world, I guess," replied Hervey with great politeness for him, "and America suits me for headquarters as well as any other nation. I might be Swedish or Danish or a Dago for choice. Vasa may be my name, or Hervey, or anything you like. But I guess I'm a man all through."
"And a thief!" cried Don Pedro, who had resumed his seat, but seas keeping quiet with difficulty.
"Not of those emeralds," rejoined the skipper coolly: "Lord, to think of the chance I missed! Thirty years ago I could have looted them, and again the other day. But I never knew - I never knew," cried Hervey regretfully, with his vividly blue eyes on the mummy. "I could jes' kick myself, gentlemen, when I think of the miss."
"Then you didn't steal the manuscript along with the emeralds?"
"Wal, I did," cried Hervey, turning to Archie, who had spoken, "but it was in a furren lingo, to which I didn't catch on. If I'd known I'd have learned about those blamed emeralds."
"What did you do with the copy of the manuscript you stole?" asked Don Pedro sharply. "I know there, was a copy, as my father told me so. I have the original myself, but the transcript - and not a translation, as I fancied - appeared in Sir Frank Random's room to-day, hidden behind some books."