"
"That's so," assented Hervey, waving his hand. "I got a berth as
second mate on a wind-jammer sailing to Europe, and as the
country wasn't healthy for me since I'd looted the green mummy, I
took it abroad and yanked it to Paris, where I sold it for a
couple of hundred pounds. With that, I changed my name and had a
high old time. I never heard of the blamed thing again until the
Professor here turned up with Mr. Bolton at Pierside, asking me
to bring it in The Diver from Malta. It was what you'd call a
coincidence, I reckon," added Hervey lazily; "but I did cry
small when I heard the Professor here had paid nine hundred for a
thing I'd let slip for two hundred. Had I known of those
infernal emeralds, I'd have ripped open the case on board and
would have recouped myself. But I knew nothing, and Bolton never
told me."
"How could he," asked Braddock quietly, "when he did not know
that any jewels were buried with the dead? I did not know
either. And I have explained why I wanted the mummy. But it
never struck me until I hear what you say now, that this mummy,"
he nodded towards the green case, "was the one which you had
stolen at Lima from De Gayangos. But you must do me the justice,
Captain Hervey, to tell Don Pedro that I never countenanced the
theft.
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