Braddock at first denied having been to Pierside, but Mrs. Jasher insisted that she would tell the police, so he was forced to make a clean breast of it to the woman.
“Now for it,” said Random, settling himself to hear details of the crime, for he had often wondered how it had been executed.
“Braddock,” read Archie from the confession, for Mrs. Jasher did not trouble herself with a polite prefix--“Braddock explained that when he received a letter from Sidney stating that he would have to remain with the mummy for a night in Pierside, he guessed that his treacherous assistant intended to effect the robbery. It seems that Sidney by mistake had left behind the disguise in which he intended to escape. Aware of this through me”--Mrs. Jasher referred to herself--“he made Cockatoo assume the dress and row up the river to the Sailor's Rest. The Kanaka easily could be mistaken for a woman, as he also, like Sidney, was slender and smooth-chinned. Also, he wore the shawl over his head to disguise his mop of frizzy hair as much as possible, and for the purpose of concealing his tattooed face. In the darkness--it was after nine o'clock--he spoke to Sidney through the window, as he had seen him there earlier, when searching for him. Cockatoo said that Sidney was much afraid when he heard that his purpose had been discovered by the Professor. He offered a share of the plunder to the Kanaka, and Cockatoo agreed, saying he would come back late, and that Sidney was to admit him into the bedroom so that they could open the mummy and steal the jewels. Sidney quite believed that Cockatoo was heart and soul with him, especially as the cunning Kanaka swore that he was weary of his master's tyranny. It was when Cockatoo was talking thus that he was seen by Eliza Flight, who mistook him--very naturally--for a woman. Cockatoo then returned by boat to the Gartley jetty and told his master. Afterwards, the Professor, at a much later hour, went down to the jetty and was rowed up to Pierside by the Kanaka.”
“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.”
“Why didn't they take it up to the house?” asked Random, on hearing this.
“That would have been dangerous,” said Hope, looking up from the manuscript, “seeing that the mummy was supposed to have been stolen by the murderer. It was easier to hide it amongst the grasses under the jetty, as no one ever goes there. Well”--he turned over a few pages--“that is practically all. The rest is after events.”
“I want to hear them,” said Random, taking another cup of coffee.
Hope ran his eyes swiftly over the remaining portion of the paper, and gave further details rapidly to his friend.
“You know all that happened,” he said, “the Professor's pretended surprise when he found the corpse he had himself helped to pack and--”
“Yes! yes! But why was the mummy placed in Mrs. Jasher's garden?”
“That was Braddock's idea. He fancied that the mummy might be found under the jetty and that inconvenient inquiries might be made. Also, he wished if possible to implicate Mrs. Jasher, so as to keep her from telling to the police what he had told her. He and Cockatoo went down to the river one night and removed the mummy to the arbor silently. Afterwards he pretended to be astonished when I found it. I must say he acted his part very well,” said Hope reflectively, “even to accusing Mrs. Jasher. That was a bold stroke of genius.”
“A very dangerous one.”
“Not at all. He swore to Mrs. Jasher that if she said anything, he would tell the police that she had taken the clothes provided by Sidney from the Pyramids and had gone to speak through the window, in order to fly with Sidney and the emeralds. As the fact of the mummy being found in Mrs. Jasher's garden would lend color to the lie, she was obliged to hold her tongue. And after all, as she says, she didn't mind, since she was engaged to the Professor, and possessed at least one of the emeralds.”
“Ah! the one she passed along to me. How did she get that?”
Hope referred again to the manuscript.
“She insisted that Braddock should give it to her as a pledge of good faith. He had to do it, or risk her splitting. That was why he placed the mummy in her garden, so as to bring her into the matter, and render it more difficult for her to speak.”
“What of the other emerald?”
“Braddock took that to Amsterdam, when he went to London that time--if you remember, when Don Pedro arrived. Braddock sold the emerald for three thousand pounds, and it is now on its way to an Indian rajah. I fear Don Pedro will never set eyes on that again.”
“Where is the money?”
“He banked it in a feigned name in Amsterdam, and intended to account for it when he married Mrs. Jasher by saying it was left to her by that mythical Pekin merchant brother of hers. Savvy!”
“Yes. What an infernal little villain! And I expect he sent Cockatoo down last night for the other emerald.”
“That is not related in the manuscript,” said Archie, laying down the last sheet and taking up his coffee. “The confession ends abruptly--at the time Cockatoo tapped at the window, I expect. But she said, when dying, that the Kanaka asked for the second emerald. If she had not sent it to you in a fit of weakness, I expect she would have passed it along. I can't make out,” added Archie musingly, “why Mrs. Jasher confessed when everything was so safe.”
“Well,” said Random, nursing his chin, and staring into the fire, “she made a mistake in trying to blackmail me, though why she did so I can't tell, seeing she had the whiphand of Braddock. Perhaps she wanted the five thousand to spend herself, knowing that the Professor's plunder would be wasted on his confounded expedition. At any rate she gave herself away by the blackmail, and I expect she grew frightened. If the house had been searched--and it might have been searched by the police, had I arrested her for blackmail the emerald would have been found and she would have been incriminated. She therefore got rid of it cleverly, by passing it along to me as a wedding gift. Then she again grew afraid and wrote out this confession to exonerate herself.”
“But it doesn't,” insisted Hope. “She makes herself out plainly as an accessory after the fact.”
“A woman doesn't understand these legal niceties. She wrote that out to clear herself in case she was arrested for the blackmail, and perhaps in case Braddock refused to help her--as he certainly did, if you remember.”