Archie closed the gate after him, and, glancing right and left, walked up the snowy path with Lucy.  To the right was a leafless arbor, also powdered with snow, and against the white bulked a dark form something like a coffin.  Hope out of curiosity went up to it.

“What the deuce is this?” he asked himself; then raised his voice in loud surprise.  “Lucy!  Lucy! come here!”

“What is it?” she asked, running up.

“Look”—­he pointed to the oddly shaped case—­“the green mummy!”

CHAPTER XIII

MORE MYSTERY

Neither Lucy nor Archie Hope had ever seen the mummy, but they knew the appearance which it would present, as Professor Braddock, with the enthusiasm of an archaeologist, had often described the same to them.  It appeared, according to Braddock, that on purchasing the precious corpse in Malta, his dead assistant had written home a full description of the treasure trove.  Consequently, being advised beforehand, Hope had no difficulty in recognizing the oddly shaped case, which was made somewhat in the Egyptian form.  On the impulse of the moment he had proclaimed this to be the long-lost mummy, and when a closer examination by the light of a lucifer match revealed the green hue of the coffin wood, he knew that he was right.

But what was the mummy in its ancient case doing in Mrs. Jasher’s arbor?  That was the mute question which the two young people asked themselves and each other, as they stood in the chilly moonlight, staring at the grotesque thing.  The mummy had disappeared from the Sailor’s Rest at Pierside some weeks ago, and now unexpectedly appeared in a lonely garden, surrounded by marshes.  How it had been brought there, or why it should have been brought there, or who had brought it to such an unlikely place, were questions hard to answer.  However, the most obvious thing to do was to question Mrs. Jasher, since the uncanny object was lying within a stone-throw of her home.  Lucy, after a rapid word or two, went to ring the bell, and summon the lady, while Archie stood by the arbor, wondering how the mummy came to be there.  In the same way George III had wondered how the apples got into the dumplings.

Far and wide spread the marshes, flatly towards the shore of the river on one side, but on the other sloping up to Gartley village, which twinkled with many lights on the rising ground.  Some distance away the Fort rose black and menacing in the moonlight, and the mighty stream of the Thames glittered like polished steel as it flowed seaward.  As there were only a few leafless trees dotted about the marshy ground, and as that same ground, lightly sprinkled with powdery snow, revealed every moving object for quite a mile or so, Hope could not conceive how the mummy case, which seemed heavy, could have been brought into the silent garden without its bearers being seen.  It was not late, and soldiers were still returning