"That was when Mrs. Jasher saw them," said Random, much interested.
"Yes," said Archie. "And then, if you remember; she watched for the
return of the couple."
"It was nearly midnight when the boat was brought alongside the sloping
stone bank of the alley which ran past the Sailor's Rest. No one was
about at that hour, not even a policeman, and there was no light in
Sidney Bolton's window. Braddock was much agitated as he thought that
Sidney had already escaped. He waited in the boat and sent Cockatoo to
knock at the window. Then a light appeared and the window was silently
opened. The Kanaka slipped in and remained there for some ten minutes
after closing the window. When he returned, the light was extinguished.
He whispered to his master that Sidney had opened the packing case and
the mummy coffin, and had ripped the swathings to get the jewels. When
Sidney would not hand over the jewels to the Kanaka, as the latter
wanted him to, Cockatoo, already prepared with the window cord, which he
had silently taken from the blind, sprang upon the unfortunate assistant
and strangled him. Cockatoo told this to his horrified master, and
wanted him to come back to hide the corpse in the packing case.
Braddock refused, and then Cockatoo told him that he would throw the
jewels--which he had taken from Sidney's body--into the river. The
position of master and servant was reversed, and Braddock was forced to
obey.
"The Professor slipped silently ashore and into the room. The two men
relighted the candle and pulled down the blind. They then placed the
corpse of Sidney in the packing case, and screwed the same down in
silence. When this was completed, they were about to carry the mummy in
its coffin--the lid of which they had replaced--to the boat, when they
heard distant footsteps, probably those of a policeman on his beat.
At once they extinguished the candle, and--as Braddock told Mrs.
Jasher--he, for one, sat trembling in the dark. But the policeman--if
the footsteps were those of a policeman--passed up another street, and
the two were safe. Without relighting the candle, they silently slipped
the mummy through the window, Cockatoo within and Braddock without. The
case and its contents were not heavy, and it was not difficult for
the two men to take it to the boat. When it was safely bestowed,
Cockatoo--who was as cunning as the devil, according to his master
returned to the bedroom, and unlocked the door. He afterwards passed a
string through the joining of the upper and lower windows, and managed
to shut the snib. Afterwards he came to the boat and rowed it back
to Gartley. On the way Cockatoo told his master that Sidney had left
instructions that the packing case should be taken next morning to the
Pyramids, so there was nothing to fear. The mummy was hidden in a hole
under the jetty and covered with grass."