Nearer the Truth

"Shucks!" said Hervey coolly, and sat down to smoke.

Don Pedro turned to Archie and Braddock.

"Mr. Hope! Professor!" he remarked, "if you remember the description I
gave of Gustav Vasa, I appeal to you to see if it does not exactly fit
this man?"

"It does," said Archie unhesitatingly, "although I cannot see the
tattooed left wrist to which you refer."

Hervey, still smoking, made no offer to show the symbol, but Braddock
unexpectedly came to the assistance of Don Pedro.

"The man is Vasa right enough," he remarked abruptly. "Whether he is
Swedish or American I cannot say. But he is the same man I met when I
was in Lima thirty years ago, after the war."

Hervey slowly turned his blue eyes on the scientist with a twinkle in
their depths.

"So you recognized me?" he observed, with his Yankee drawl.

"I recognized you at the moment I hired you to take The Diver to Malta
to bring back that mummy," retorted Braddock, "but it didn't suit my
book to let on. Didn't you recognize me?"

"Wal, no," said Hervey, his drawl more pronounced than ever. "I haven't
got the memory for faces that you and the Don here seem to possess.
Huh!" He wheeled his chair and faced Braddock squarely. "I'd have
thought you wiser not to back up the Don, sir."

Braddock's little eyes sparkled.

"I am not afraid of you," said he with great contempt. "I never did
anything for which you could get money out of me for, Captain Hervey or
Gustav Vasa, or whatever your name might be."