"Poor Sid!
Why, I knew him. He was at school with me, and now he's dead.
Who killed him?"
None of his listeners could answer this question.
CHAPTER VI
THE INQUEST
Like a geographical Lord Byron, the isolated village of Gartley
awoke one morning to find itself famous. Previously unknown,
save to the inhabitants of Brefort, Jessum, and the surrounding
country, and to the soldiers stationed in the Fort, it became a
nine days' centre of interest. Inspector Date of Pierside
arrived with his constables to inquire into the reported crime,
and the local journalists, scenting sensation, came flying to
Gartley on bicycles and in traps. Next morning London was duly
advised that a valuable mummy was missing, and that the assistant
of Professor Braddock, who had been sent to fetch it from Malta,
was murdered by strangulation. In a couple of days the three
kingdoms were ringing with the news of the mystery.
And a mystery it proved, to be, for, in spite of Inspector Date's
efforts and the enterprise of Scotland Yard detectives summoned
by the Professor, no clue could be found to the identity of the
assassin. Briefly, the story told by the newspapers ran as
follows:
The tramp steamer Diver--Captain George Hervey in command--had
berthed alongside the Pierside jetty at four o'clock on a
Wednesday afternoon in mid-September, and some two hours later
Sidney Bolton removed the case, containing the green mummy,
ashore.
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