“No! no!  I was heated last night.  I spoke rashly and hastily.  Forgive and forget, Selina.  You are innocent—­quite innocent, in spite of the mummy being in your confounded garden.  After all, the evidence is stronger against Random than against you.  Perhaps he put it there:  it’s on his way to the Fort, you see.  Never mind.  He has exonerated himself, and no doubt, when confronted with Hervey, will be able to silence that blackguard.  And I am quite sure that Hervey is a blackguard,” ended Braddock, rubbing his bald head.

The two ladies looked at one another in amazement, not knowing what to say.  They were ignorant of the theft of the emeralds and of the accusation of Sir Frank by the Yankee skipper.  But, with his usual absentmindedness, Braddock had forgotten all about that, and sat in his chair rubbing his head quite pink and rattling on cheerfully.

“I went down with Hope to the embankment,” he continued, “but neither of us could see any sign of a boat.  There’s the rude, short jetty, of course, and if a boat came, a boat could go away without leaving any trace.  Perhaps that is so.  However, we must wait until we see Don Pedro and Hervey again, and then—­”

Lucy broke in desperately.

“What are you talking about, father?  Why do you bring in Sir Frank’s name in that way?”

“What do you expect me to say?” retorted the little man.  “After all, the manuscript was found in his room, and the emeralds are gone.  I saw that for myself, as did Hope and Don Pedro, in whose presence I opened the mummy case.”

Mrs. Jasher rose in her astonishment.

“Are the emeralds gone?” she gasped.

“Yes! yes! yes!” cried Braddock irritably.  “Am I not telling you so?  I almost believe in Hervey’s accusation of Random, and yet the boy exonerated himself very forcibly—­very forcibly indeed.”

“Will you explain all that has happened, father?” said Lucy, who was becoming more and more perplexed by this rambling chatter.  “We are quite in the dark.”

“So am I:  so is Hope:  so is every one,” chuckled Braddock.  “Ah, yes:  of course, you were not present when these events took place.”

“What events?—­what events?” demanded Mrs. Jasher, now quite exasperated.

“I am about to tell you,” snapped her future husband, and related all that had taken place since the arrival of Captain Hervey in the museum at the Pyramids.  The women listened with interest and with growing astonishment, only interrupting the narrator with a simultaneous exclamation of indignation when they heard that Sir Frank was accused.

“It is utterly and wholly absurd,” cried Lucy angrily.  “Sir Frank is the soul of honor.”

“So I think, my dear,” chimed in Mrs. Jasher.  “And what does he say to—?”

Braddock interrupted.

“I am about to tell you, if you will stop talking,” he cried crossly.  “That is so like a woman.  She asks for an explanation and then prevents the man from giving it.  Random offers a very good defense, I am bound to say,” and he detailed what Sir Frank had said.