“But meanwhile,” said Archie, after kissing her, “the Professor will bother you to marry Random.”

“Oh no.  He has sold me to you for one thousand pounds.  There!  There, do not say a single word.  I am only teasing you.  Let us say that my father has consented to my marriage with you, and cannot withdraw his word.  Not that I care if he does.  I am my own mistress.”

“Lucy!”—­he took her hands again and looked into her eyes—­ “Braddock is a scientific lunatic, and would do anything to forward his aims with regard to this very expensive tomb, which he has set his heart on discovering.  As I can’t lend or give the money, he is sure to apply to Random, and Random—­”

“Will want to marry me,” cried Lucy, rising.  “No, my dear, not at all.  Sir Frank is a gentleman, and when he learns that I am engaged to you, he will simply become a dear friend.  There, don’t worry any more about the matter.  You ought to have told me of your troubles before, but as I have forgiven you, there is no more to be said.  In six months I shall become Mrs. Hope, and meanwhile I can hold my own against any inconvenience that my father may cause me.”

“But—­” He rose and began to remonstrate, anxious to abase himself still further before this angel of a maiden.

She placed her hand over his mouth.  “Not another word, or I shall box your ears, sir—­that is, I shall exercise the privilege of a wife before I become one.  And now,” she slipped her arm within his, “let us go in and see the arrival of the precious mummy.”

“Oh, it has arrived then.”

“Not here exactly.  My father expects it at three o’clock.”

“It is now a quarter to,” said Archie, consulting his watch.  “As I have been to London all yesterday I did not know that The Diver had arrived at Pierside, How is Bolton?”

Lucy wrinkled her brows.  “I am rather worried over Sidney,” she said in an anxious voice, “and so is my father.  He had not appeared.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Well,” she looked at the ground in a pondering manner, “my father got a letter from Sidney yesterday afternoon, saying that the ship with the mummy and himself on board had arrived about four o’clock.  The letter was sent on by special messenger and came at six.”

“Then it arrived in the evening and not in the afternoon?”

“How particular you are!” said Miss Kendal, with a shrug.  “Well, then, Sidney said that he could not bring the mummy to this place last night as it was so late.  He intended—­so he told my father in the letter—­to remove the case containing the mummy ashore to an inn near the wharf at Pierside, and there would remain the night so as to take care of it.”

“That’s all right,” said Hope, puzzled.  “Where’s your difficulty?”

“A note came from the landlord of the inn this morning, saying that by direction of Mr. Bolton—­that is Sidney, you know—­he was sending the mummy in its case to Gartley on a lorry, and that it would arrive at three o’clock this afternoon.”