“Well,” he said after reflection, “let us agree.  I shall open the case and examine the mummy, which after all is the reason why I bought it.  When I have satisfied myself as to the difference between the modes of embalming, Don Pedro can give me a check and take away the mummy.  I only hope that he will have less trouble with it than I have had,” and, so speaking, Braddock, signing to Cockatoo to bring all the necessary tools, laid hands on the case.

“I am content,” said Don Pedro briefly, and seated himself in a chair beside the young Daniel who had delivered judgment.

Hope offered to assist the Professor to open the case, but was dismissed with an abrupt refusal.

“Though I am glad you are present to see the mummy unpacked,” said Braddock, laboring at the lid of the case, “for if the emeralds are missing, Don Pedro might accuse me of stealing them.”

“Why should the emeralds be missing?” asked Hope quickly.

Braddock shrugged his shoulders.

“Sidney Bolton was killed,” said he in a low voice, “and it was not likely that any one would commit a murder for the sake of this mummy, and then leave it stranded in Mrs. Jasher’s garden.  I have my doubts about the safety of the emeralds, else I would not have consented to sell the thing back again.”

With this honest speech, the Professor vigorously attacked the lid of the case, and inserted a steel instrument into the cracks to prize up the covering.  The lid was closed with wooden pegs in an antique but perfectly safe manner, and apparently had not been opened since the dead Inca had been laid to rest therein hundreds of years ago among the Andean mountains.  Don Pedro winced at this desecration of the dead, but, as he had given his consent, there was nothing left to do but to grin and bear it.  In a wonderfully short space of time, considering the neatness of the workmanship and the holding power of the wooden pegs, the lid was removed.  Then the four on-lookers saw that the mummy had been tampered with.  Swathed in green-stained llama wool, it lay rigid in its case.  But the swathings had been cut; the hands protruded and the emeralds were gone—­torn rudely from the hard grip of the dead.

CHAPTER XV

AN ACCUSATION

Both Don Pedro and Professor Braddock were amazed and angry at the disappearance of the jewels, but Hope did not express much surprise.  Considering the facts of the murder, it was just what he expected, although it must be confessed that he was wise after the event.

“I refer you to your own words immediately before the case was opened, Professor,” he remarked, after the first surprise had subsided.

“Words! words!” snapped Braddock, who was anything but pleased.  “What words of mine do you mean, Hope?”

“You said that it was not likely that any one would commit a murder for the sake of the mummy only, and then leave it stranded in Mrs. Jasher’s garden.  Also, you declared that you had your doubts about the safety of the emeralds, else you would not have consented to sell the mummy again to its rightful owner.”