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 vas 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."
