Jasher's garden.
I have my doubts about the safety of the emeralds, else I would
not have consented to sell the thing back again."
With this honest speech, the Professor vigorously attacked the
lid of the case, and inserted a steel instrument into the cracks
to prize up the covering. The lid was closed with wooden pegs in
an antique but perfectly safe manner, and apparently had not been
opened since the dead Inca had been laid to rest therein hundreds
of years ago among the Andean mountains. Don Pedro winced at
this desecration of the dead, but, as he had given his consent,
there was nothing left to do but to grin and bear it. In a
wonderfully short space of time, considering the neatness of the
workmanship and the holding power of the wooden pegs, the lid was
removed. Then the four on-lookers saw that the mummy had been
tampered with. Swathed in green-stained llama wool, it lay rigid
in its case. But the swathings had been cut; the hands protruded
and the emeralds were gone--torn rudely from the hard grip of
the dead.
CHAPTER XV
AN ACCUSATION
Both Don Pedro and Professor Braddock were amazed and angry at
the disappearance of the jewels, but Hope did not express much
surprise.
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