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. But he could tell nothing more than he had
already related. When doing sentry-go immediately outside the gate of
the Fort, the packet had been slipped into the box, while the man was at
the far end of his beat. It was quite dark when this was done, and the
soldier confessed that he had not heard a sound, much less had he seen
anyone. The person who had brought the glorious gem had watched his
opportunity, and, soft-footed as a cat, had stolen forward in the
darkness to drop the precious parcel on the floor of the sentry box.
There the man had found it by the feel of his feet, when he stepped in
some time later to escape a shower. But what time had elapsed from the
placing of the parcel to its discovery by the sentry it was impossible
to say. It must, however, as Random calculated, have been within the
hour, since, before then, it would not have been dark enough to hide
the approach of the person, whether male or female, who carried a king's
ransom in the brown paper parcel.
At first Random was inclined to place the sentry under arrest for having
failed so much in his duty as to allow anyone to approach so near the
Fort; but, as he had already reprimanded the man, and, moreover, wished
to keep the fact of the recovered jewel quiet, he simply dismissed him.
When alone, he sat down before the fire, wondering who could have dared
so very greatly, and for what reason the emerald had been handed to
him. If it had been sent to Don Pedro, or even to Professor Braddock, it
would have been much more reasonable.
It first occurred to him that Mrs. Jasher, out of gratitude for the way
in which he had treated her, had sent him the jewel. Remembering his
former experience, he smelt the parcel, but could detect no sign of the
famous Chinese scent which had proved a clue to the letter. Of course
the direction on the packet and the inscribed slip of paper were in
feigned handwriting, so he could gather nothing from that. Still, he
did not think that Mrs. Jasher had sent the emerald. She was desperately
hard up, and if she had become possessed of the gem by murder--presuming
her to have been the woman who talked to Bolton through the window--she
assuredly would have sold it to supply her own needs. Certainly, if
guilty, she would still possess the other emerald, of equal value; but
undoubtedly, had she risked her neck to gain a fortune, she would
have kept the entire plunder which was likely to cost her so dear. No;
whomsoever it was who had repented at the eleventh hour, Mrs. Jasher was
not the person.