CHAPTER XII

A DISCOVERY

Three days went by, and Professor Braddock still remained absent in London, although an occasional letter to Lucy requested such and such an article from the museum to be forwarded, sometimes by post and on other occasions by Cockatoo, who traveled up to town especially.  The Kanaka always returned with the news that his master was looking well, but brought no word of the Professor’s return.  Lucy was not surprised, as she was accustomed to Braddock’s vagaries.

Meanwhile Don Pedro, comfortably established at the Warrior Inn, wandered about Gartley in his dignified way, taking very little interest in the village, but a great deal in the Pyramids.  As the Professor was absent, Lucy could not ask him to dinner, but she did invite him and Donna Inez to afternoon tea.  Don Pedro was anxious to peep into the museum, but Cockatoo absolutely refused to let him enter, saying that his master had forbidden anyone to view the collection during his absence.  And in this refusal Cockatoo was supported by Miss Kendal, who had a wholesome dread of her step-father’s rage, should he return and find that a stranger had been making free of his sacred apartments.  The Peruvian gentleman expressed himself extremely disappointed, so much so, indeed, that Lucy fancied he believed Braddock had the green mummy hidden in the museum, in spite of the reported loss from the Sailor’s Rest.

Failing to get permission to range through the rooms of the Pyramids, Don Pedro paid occasional visits to Pierside and questioned the police regarding the Bolton murder.  From Inspector Date he learned nothing of any importance, and indeed that officer expressed his belief that not until the Day of judgment would the truth become known.  It then occurred to De Gayangos to explore the neighborhood of the Sailor’s Rest, and to examine that public-house himself.  He saw the famous window through which the mysterious woman had talked to the deceased, and noted that it looked across a stony, narrow path to the water’s edge, wherefrom a rugged jetty ran out into the stream for some little distance.  Nothing would have been easier, reflected Don Pedro, than for the assassin to enter by the window, and, having accomplished his deed, to leave in the same way, bearing the case containing the mummy.  A few steps would carry the man and his burden to a waiting boat, and once the craft slipped into the mists on the river, all trace would be lost, as had truly happened.  In this way the Peruvian gentleman believed the murder and the theft had been accomplished, but even supposing things had happened as he surmised, still, he was as far as ever from unraveling the mystery.