As soon as he
got to his own room, he cut the string which bound loosely the
brown paper. Then, in the lamplight, there rolled out from the
carelessly-tied parcel a glorious sea-green emerald of great
size, radiating light like a sun. A scrap of white paper lay in
the brown wrapping. On it was written, "A wedding gift for Sir
Frank Random."
CHAPTER XXIII
JUST IN TIME
Of all the surprises in connection with the tragedy of the green
mummy, this was surely the greatest. Sidney Bolton had
undoubtedly been murdered for the sake of the emeralds, and the
assassin had escaped with the spoil, for which he had sold his
soul. Yet here was one of the jewels returned anonymously to
Random, who could pass on the same to its rightful owner. In the
midst of his amazement Sir Frank could not help chuckling when he
thought how enraged Professor Braddock would be at Don Pedro's
good fortune. At the eleventh hour, as it were, the Peruvian had
got back his own, or at least a portion of his own.
Placing the emerald in his drawer, Random gave orders to his
servant that the sentry, when off duty, should be brought before
him. Just as Random finished dressing for mess--and he dressed
very early, so as to devote his entire attention to solving this
new problem--the soldier who had been on guard appeared.
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