"
"Do you mean to say that some one asked you to steal it?"
"No," put in Braddock unexpectedly, "for I was the friend."
"You!" Don Pedro swung round in great astonishment, but the
Professor faced him with all the consciousness of innocence.
"Yes," he remarked quietly, "as I told you, I was in Peru thirty
years ago. I was then hunting for specimens of Inca mummies.
Vasa--this man now called Hervey--told me that he could obtain
a splendid specimen of a mummy, and I arranged to give him one
hundred pounds to procure what I wanted. But I swear to you, De
Gayangos," continued the little man earnestly, "that I did not
know he proposed to steal the mummy from you."
"You knew it was the green mummy?" asked Don Pedro sharply.
"No, I only knew that it was a mummy."
"Did Vasa get it for you?"
"I guess not," said the gentleman who confessed to that name.
"The Professor went to Cuzco and got into trouble--"
"I was carried off to the mountains by some Indians,"
interpolated the Professor, "and only escaped after a year's
captivity. I did not mind that, as it gave me the opportunity of
studying a decaying civilization. But when I returned a free man
to Lima, I found that Vasa had left the country with the mummy.
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