A Story of the Past

"And no one dare say a word against him," cried Donna Inez with flashing
eyes.

"He has a good defender, my dear," said the widow, patting the girl's
hand.

"I love him," said Donna Inez, as if that explained everything, and
perhaps it did, so far as she was concerned.

Mrs. Jasher smiled indulgently, then turned for further information to
Lucy.

"Can it be possible," she said, "that Widow Anne is guilty?"

"Oh, I don't think so. She would not murder her own son, especially when
she was so very fond of him. Archie told me, just before we came here,
that he had called to see her. She still insists that Sidney borrowed
the clothes, saying that Archie wanted them."

"What do you make of that, my dear?"

"Well," said Miss Kendal, pondering, "either Widow Anne herself was the
woman who talked to Sidney through the Sailor's Rest window, and has
invented this story to save herself, or Sidney did get the clothes and
intended to use them as a disguise when he fled with the emeralds."

"In that case," said Mrs. Jasher, "the woman who talked through the
window still remains a problem. Again, if Sidney Bolton intended to
steal the emeralds, he could have done so in Malta, or on board the
boat."

"No," said Lucy decisively. "The mummy was taken directly from the
seller's house to the boat, and perhaps Sidney did not find the
manuscript until he looked at the mummy. Then Captain Hervey kept an eye
on Sidney, so that he could not open the mummy to steal the emeralds."