Then came the details of the murder so far as
Mrs. Jasher knew.
One evening--in fact on the evening when the crime was committed
--the woman was walking in her garden late. In the moonlight she
saw Braddock and Cockatoo go down along the cinderpath to the
jetty near the Fort. Wondering what they were doing, she waited
up, and heard and saw them--for it was still moonlight--come
back long after midnight. The next day she heard of the murder,
and guessed that the Professor and his slave--for Cockatoo was
little else--had rowed up to Pierside in a boat and there had
strangled Sidney and stolen the mummy. She saw Braddock and
accused him. The Professor had then opened the case, and had
pretended astonishment when discovering the corpse of the man
whom Cockatoo had strangled, as he knew perfectly well.
Braddock at first denied having been to Pierside, but Mrs. Jasher
insisted that she would tell the police, so he was forced to make
a clean breast of it to the woman.
"Now for it," said Random, settling himself to hear details of
the crime, for he had often wondered how it had been executed.
"Braddock," read Archie from the confession, for Mrs. Jasher did
not trouble herself with a polite prefix--"Braddock explained
that when he received a letter from Sidney stating that he would
have to remain with the mummy for a night in Pierside, he guessed
that his treacherous assistant intended to effect the robbery.
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