Hope recollected that experts had decided the mode in which the mummy
had been removed from the Pierside public-house. It had been passed
through the window, according to Inspector Date and others, and, when
taken across the narrow path which bordered the river, had been placed
in a waiting boat. After that it had vanished until it had re-appeared
in this arbor. But if taken by water once, it could have been taken by
water again. There was a rude jetty behind the embankment, which Hope
could easily see from where he stood. In all probability the mummy had
been landed there and carried to the garden, while Mrs. Jasher was busy
with her supper and her game of cards and her letters. Also, the path
from the shore to the house was very lonely, and if any care had been
exercised, which was probable, no one from the Fort road or from the
village street could have seen the stealthy conspirators bringing their
weird burden. So far Hope felt that he could argue excellently. But who
had brought the mummy to the garden and why had it been brought there?
These questions he could not answer so easily, and indeed not at all.
While thus meditating, he heard, far away in the frosty air, a puffing
and blowing and panting like an impatient motor-car. Before he could
guess what this was, Braddock appeared, simply racing along the marshy
causeway, followed closely by Cockatoo, and at some distance away by
Lucy. The little scientist rushed through the gate, which he flung open
with a noise fit to wake the dead, and lunged forward, to fall with
outstretched arms upon the green case. There he remained, still puffing
and blowing, and looked as though he were hugging a huge green beetle.
Cockatoo, who, being lean and hard, kept his breath more easily, stood
respectfully by, waiting for his master to give orders, and Lucy came
in quietly by the gate, smiling at her father's enthusiasm. At the same
moment Mrs. Jasher, well wrapped up in a coat of sables, emerged from
the cottage.
"I heard you coming, Professor," she called out, hurrying down the path.
"I should think the whole Fort heard the Professor coming," said Hope,
glancing at the dark mass. "The soldiers must think it is an invasion."
But Braddock paid no heed to this jocularity, or even to Mrs. Jasher, to
whom he had been so lately engaged. All his soul was in the mummy case,
and as soon as he recovered his breath, he loudly proclaimed his joy at
this miraculous recovery of the precious article.
"Mine! mine!" he roared, and his words ran violently through the frosty
air.
"Be calm, sir," advised Hope--"be calm."
"Calm! calm!" bellowed Braddock, struggling to a standing position. "Oh,
confound you, sir, how can I be calm when I find what I have lost?
You have a mean, groveling soul, Hope, not the soaring spirit of a
collector."