But the Professor was not going to let Captain Hervey escape without giving him full information. Before the Yankee skipper could reach the front door, Braddock was at his heels, and blowing like a grampus.  
“Come back, come back. Tell me all.”
 
“I reckon not,” rejoined the , removing Braddock's grip. “You ain't the one to give the money. I'll go to the Don, or to Date of Pierside.”
 
“But Sir Frank must be innocent,” insisted Braddock.
 
“He's got to prove it,” was the dry response. “Let me go.”
 
“No. You must tell me on what grounds—”
 
“Oh, the devil take you!” said Hervey hastily, and sat down on one of the hall chairs. “It's this way, since you won't let me skip until I tell you. This came to Pierside on the same afternoon as I cast anchor. While Bolton was on board, he looked in to have a of sorts.”
 
“What about?”
 
“Now, how in creation should I know?” snapped the skipper. “I wasn't on hand, as I'd enough to do with unloading . But his lordship went with Bolton to the state-room, and they talked for half an hour. When they came out, I saw that his lordship had his hair riz, and heard him saying things to Bolton.”
 
“What sort of things?”
 
“Well, for one, he said, `You'll of this,' and then again, `Your life isn't safe while you keep it.'”
 
“Meaning the mummy?”
 
“I reckon that's so, unless I am mistaken,” said Hervey .
 
“Why didn't you go to the police with this information?”
 
“Me? Not much. Why, I saw no way of making dollars. And then, again, I did not think of putting things together, until I found that his lorship—”
 
“Meaning Sir Frank,” interpolated the Professor, frowning.
 
“I'm talking Queen's, or King's, or Republican , I guess, and I do mean his lorship,” said the skipper dryly—“until I found that his lorship had been in the public-house where the crime was committed.”
 
“The Sailor's Rest? When did he go there?”
 
“In the evening. After his talk with Bolton, and after a row—as they both seemed to have their hair off—he skipped over the side and went back to his yacht, which wasn't far away. Bolton took his blamed mummy and got at the Sailor's Rest. I gathered afterwards, from the second mate of The Diver (which ain't my ship now), that his lorship came into the hotel and had a drink. Afterwards my second mate saw him talking to Bolton through the window.”
 
“In the same place as the woman talked?” questioned the Professor.
 
“That's so, only it was later in the evening that the woman came along to give chin-music through the window. I am bound to say,” added the captain generously, “that no one I can place my hand on saw his lorship loafing about the hotel after dark. But what of that? He may have laid his plans, and arranged for the to be found later, in that blamed packing case.”
 
“Is this all your evidence?”
 
“It's enough, I guess.”
 
“Not to a warrant.”
 
“Why, a man in the States would be electrocuted on half the evidence.”
 
“I daresay,” retorted the little man with contempt, “but we are in a land where justice of the purest prevails. All your evidence is circumstantial. It proves nothing.”
 
The captain was .
 
“I calculate that it proves Sir Frank wanted the mummy, else why did he come on board my ship to see your infernal assistant. The words he used showed that he was warning Bolton how he'd do for him. And then he talked through the window, and was in the public-house, which ain't a place for an almighty aristocrat to shelter in. I guess he's the man wanted by the police. Why,” added Hervey, warming to his tale, “he'd a slap-up yacht laying near the blamed hotel, and could easily ship the corpse, after slipping it through the window. When he got tired of it, and looted the emeralds, he took it by boat, below the Fort, to Mrs. Jasher's garden and left it there, so as to pull the wool over the eyes of the police. It's as clear as mud to me. You search his lorship's , and you'll find the emeralds.”
 
“It is strange,” muttered Braddock .
 
“Strange, but not true,” said a voice from the head of the stairs, and young Hope came down , with a pale face, but a very air. “ is absolutely innocent.”
 
“How do you know?” demanded the skipper contemptuously.
 
“Because he is an English gentleman and my very good friend.”
 
“Huh! I guess that won't save him from being lynched.”
 
Meanwhile Braddock was looking at Archie.
 
“You've been listening to a private conversation, sir. How dare you listen?”
 
“If you hold private conversations at the top of your voices in the hall, you must be expected to be listened to,” said Archie coolly. “I plead guilty, and I am not sorry.”
 
“When did you come?”
 
“In time to hear all that Captain Hervey has explained. I was chatting with Lucy, and had just left her, when I heard your loud voices.”
 
“Has Lucy heard anything?”
 
“No. She is busy in her room. But I'll tell her,” Hope turned to mount the stairs; “she likes Random, and will no more believe him guilty than I do at this present moment.”
 
“Stop!” cried Braddock, flying forward to pull Hope back, as he placed his foot on the first stair. “Tell Lucy nothing just now. We must go to the Fort, you—and I, to see Random. Hervey, you come also, and then you can accuse Sir Frank to his face.”
 
“If he dares to do it!” said Archie, who looked and felt indignant.
 
“Oh, I'll accuse him right enough when the time comes,” said Hervey in his coolest manner, “but the time isn't now. Savy! I am going to see the Don first and make sure of this reward.”
 
“Faugh!” cried Hope with disgust, “Blood-money!”
 
“What of that? Ifs a man is a murderer he should be lynched.”
 
“My friend, Sir Frank Random, is no murderer.”
 
“He's got to prove, that, as I said before,” rejoined the Yankee in a calm way, and strolled to the door. “So-long, gents both. I'll light out for the Inn and play my cards. And I may tell you,” he added, pausing at the door, which he opened, “that I haven't got that blamed wind-jammer, so need money to hold out until another steamer comes along. One hundred pounds English currency will just fill the bill. So now you know the lay I'm on. So-long,” and he walked quietly out of the house, leaving Archie and Braddock looking at one another with pale faces. The assurance of Hervey surprised and them. Still, they could not believe that Sir Frank Random had been guilty of so a crime.
 
“For one thing,” said Hope after a pause, “Random did not know where the emeralds were to be found, or even that they existed.”
 
“I understood that he did know,” said Braddock reluctantly. “In my hearing, and in your own, you heard Don Pedro state that he had related the story of the manuscript to Random.”
 
“You forget that I learned about the emeralds at the same time,” said Hope quietly. “Yet this Yankee skipper does not accuse me. The knowledge of the emeralds came to Random's ears and to mine long after the crime was committed. To have a for Bolton and stealing the emeralds, Random would have had to know when he arrived in England.”
 
“And why should he have not known?” asked the Professor, biting his lip vexedly. “I don't want to accuse Random, or even to doubt him, as he is a very good fellow, even though he refused to assist me with money when I desired a reward to be offered. All the same, he met Don Pedro in Genoa, and it is just possible that the man told him of the jewels buried with the mummy.”
 
Archie shook his head.
 
“I doubt that,” said he thoughtfully. “Random was as astonished as the rest of us, when Don Pedro told his Arabian Night story. However, the point can be easily settled by sending for Random. I daresay he is at the Fort.”
 
“I shall send Cockatoo for him at once,” said the Professor quickly, and walked into the museum to instruct the Kanaka. Archie remained where he was, and seated himself on a chair, with folded arms and knitted brows. It was incredible that an English gentleman with a name and such a well-known soldier should commit so terrible a crime. And the matter of Hervey's was complicated by the fact—of which Hervey was ignorant—that Don Pedro was willing that Random should become his son-in-law. Hope wondered what the , proud Peruvian would say when he heard his friend denounced. His reflections on this point were cut short by the return of the Professor, who appeared at the door of the museum dismissing Cockatoo. When the Kanaka took his departure, Braddock to the young man.
 
“There is no reason why we should talk in the hall, ............