“The Professor slipped silently ashore and into the room.  The two men relighted the candle and pulled down the blind.  They then placed the corpse of Sidney in the packing case, and screwed the same down in silence.  When this was completed, they were about to carry the mummy in its coffin—­the lid of which they had replaced—­to the boat, when they heard distant footsteps, probably those of a policeman on his beat.  At once they extinguished the candle, and—­as Braddock told Mrs. Jasher—­he, for one, sat trembling in the dark.  But the policeman—­if the footsteps were those of a policeman—­passed up another street, and the two were safe.  Without relighting the candle, they silently slipped the mummy through the window, Cockatoo within and Braddock without.  The case and its contents were not heavy, and it was not difficult for the two men to take it to the boat.  When it was safely bestowed, Cockatoo—­who was as cunning as the devil, according to his master returned to the bedroom, and unlocked the door.  He afterwards passed a string through the joining of the upper and lower windows, and managed to shut the snib.  Afterwards he came to the boat and rowed it back to Gartley.  On the way Cockatoo told his master that Sidney had left instructions that the packing case should be taken next morning to the Pyramids, so there was nothing to fear.  The mummy was hidden in a hole under the jetty and covered with grass.”

“Why didn’t they take it up to the house?” asked Random, on hearing this.

“That would have been dangerous,” said Hope, looking up from the manuscript, “seeing that the mummy was supposed to have been stolen by the murderer.  It was easier to hide it amongst the grasses under the jetty, as no one ever goes there.  Well”—­he turned over a few pages—­“that is practically all.  The rest is after events.”

“I want to hear them,” said Random, taking another cup of coffee.

Hope ran his eyes swiftly over the remaining portion of the paper, and gave further details rapidly to his friend.

“You know all that happened,” he said, “the Professor’s pretended surprise when he found the corpse he had himself helped to pack and—­”

“Yes! yes!  But why was the mummy placed in Mrs. Jasher’s garden?”

“That was Braddock’s idea.  He fancied that the mummy might be found under the jetty and that inconvenient inquiries might be made.  Also, he wished if possible to implicate Mrs. Jasher, so as to keep her from telling to the police what he had told her.  He and Cockatoo went down to the river one night and removed the mummy to the arbor silently.  Afterwards he pretended to be astonished when I found it.  I must say he acted his part very well,” said Hope reflectively, “even to accusing Mrs. Jasher.  That was a bold stroke of genius.”

“A very dangerous one.”

“Not at all.  He swore to Mrs. Jasher that if she said anything, he would tell the police that she had taken the clothes provided by Sidney from the Pyramids and had gone to speak through the window, in order to fly with Sidney and the emeralds.  As the fact of the mummy being found in Mrs. Jasher’s garden would lend color to the lie, she was obliged to hold her tongue.  And after all, as she says, she didn’t mind, since she was engaged to the Professor, and possessed at least one of the emeralds.”