“Well?” asked Hope, still puzzled.

“Well?” she rejoined impatiently.  “Can’t you see show strange it is that Sidney should let the mummy out of his sight, after guarding it so carefully not only from Malta to England, but all the night in Pierside at that hotel?  Why doesn’t he bring the mummy here himself, and come on with the lorry?”

“There is no explanation—­no letter from Sidney Bolton?”

“None.  He wrote yesterday, as I stated, saying that he would keep the case in the hotel, and send it on this morning.”

“Did he use the word `send,’ or the word `bring’?”

“He said ‘send.’”

“Then that shows he did not intend to bring it himself.”

“But why should he not do so?”

“I daresay he will explain when he appears.”

“I am very sorry for him when he does appear,” said Lucy seriously, “for my father is furious.  Why, this precious mummy, for which so much has been paid, might have been lost.”

“Pooh!  Who would steal a thing like that?”

“A thing like that is worth nearly one thousand pounds,” said Lucy in a dry tone, “and if anyone got wind of it, stealing would be easy, since Sidney, as appears likely, has sent on the case unguarded.”

“Well, let us go in and see if Sidney arrives with the case.”

They passed out of the garden and sauntered round to the front of the house.  There, standing in the roadway, they beheld a ponderous lorry with a rough-looking driver standing at the horses’ heads.  The front door of the house was open, so the mummy case had apparently arrived before its time, and had been taken to Braddock’s museum while they were chatting in the kitchen garden.

“Did Mr. Bolton come with the case?” asked Lucy, leaning over the railings and addressing the driver.

“No one came, miss, except myself and my two mates, who have taken the case indoor.”  The driver jerked a coarse thumb over his shoulder.

“Was Mr. Bolton at the hotel, where the case remained for the night?”

“No, miss—­that is, I dunno who Mr. Bolton is.  The landlord of the Sailor’s Rest told me and my mates to take the case to this here house, and we done it.  That’s all I know, miss.”

“Strange,” murmured Lucy, walking to the front door.  “What do you think, Archie?  Isn’t it strange?”

Hope nodded.  “But I daresay Bolton will explain his absence,” said he, following her.  “He will arrive in time to open the mummy case along with the Professor.”

“I hope so,” said Miss Kendal, who looked much perplexed.  “I can’t understand Sidney abandoning the case, when it might so easily have been stolen.  Come in and see my father, Archie,” and she passed into the house, followed by the young man, whose curiosity was now aroused.  As they entered the door, the two men who had taken in the case blundered out and shortly drove away on the lorry towards Jessum railway station.