NEARER THE TRUTH
For a few moments there was silence. Lucy and Archie sat still, as they were too much surprised by Don Pedro's recognition of Captain Hervey as the Swedish sailor Vasa to move or speak. But the Professor did not seem to be greatly astonished, and the sole sound which broke the stillness was his sardonic chuckle.
Perhaps the little man had progressed beyond the point of being surprised at anything, or, like, Moliere's hero, was only surprised at finding virtue in unexpected places.
As for the Peruvian and the skipper, they were both on their feet, eyeing one another like two fighting dogs. Hervey was the first to find his very useful tongue.
"I guess you've got the bulge on me," said he, trying to outstare the Peruvian, for which nationality, from long voyaging on the South American coast, he entertained the most profound contempt.
But in De Gayangos he found a foeman worthy of his steel.
"I think not," said Don Pedro quietly, and facing the pseudo-American bravely. "I never forget faces, and yours is a noticeable one. When you first spoke I fancied that I remembered your voice. All that business with the chair was to get close to you, so that I could see the scar on your right temple. It is still there, I notice. Also, I dropped my cigarette case and forced you to pick it up, so that, when you stretched your arm, Imight see what mark was on your left wrist. It is a serpent encircling the sun, which Lola Farjados induced you to have tattooed when you were in Lima thirty years ago. Your eyes are blue and full of light, and as you were twenty when I knew you, the lapse of years has made you fifty - your present age.""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 Imet 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. "Ihaven't got the memory for faces that you and the Don here seem to posses. 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.""You were always a mighty spry man," assented the skipper coolly, "but spry men, I take it, make mistakes from being too almighty smart."Braddock shrugged his shoulders, and Don Pedro intervened.
"This is all beside the point," he remarked angrily. "Captain Hervey, do you deny that you are Gustav Vasa in the face of this evidence?"Hervey drew up the left sleeve of his reefer jacket, and showed on his bared wrist the symbol of the sun and the encircling serpent.
"Is that enough?" he drawled, "or do you want to look at this?"and he turned his head to reveal his scarred right temple.
"Then you admit that you are Vasa?"
"Wal," drawled the captain again, "that's one of my names, Iguess, though I haven't used it since I traded that blamed mummy in Paris, thirty years ago. There's nothing like owning up.""Are you not Swedish?" asked Lucy timidly.
"I am a citizen of the world, I guess," replied Hervey with great politeness for him, "and America suits me for headquarters as well as any other nation. I might be Swedish or Danish or a Dago for choice. Vasa may be my name, or Hervey, or anything you like. But I guess I'm a man all through.""And a thief!" cried Don Pedro, who had resumed his seat, but seas keeping quiet with difficulty.
"Not of those emeralds," rejoined the skipper coolly: "Lord, to think of the chance I missed! Thirty years ago I could have looted them, and again the other day. But I never knew - I never knew," cried Hervey regretfully, with his vividly blue eyes on the mummy. "I could jes' kick myself, gentlemen, when I think of the miss.""Then you didn't steal the manuscript along with the emeralds?""Wal, I did," cried Hervey, turning to Archie, who had spoken, "but it was in a furren lingo, to which I didn't catch on. If I'd known I'd have learned about those blamed emeralds.""What did you do with the copy of the manuscript you stole?"asked Don Pedro sharply. "I know there, was a copy, as my father told me so. I have the original myself, but the transcript - and not a translation, as I fancied - appeared in Sir Frank Random's room to-day, hidden behind some books."Hervey made no move, but smoked steadily, with his eyes on the carpet. However, Archie, who was observing keenly, saw that he was more startled than he would admit. The explanation had taken him by surprise.
"Explain!" cried the Peruvian sharply.
Hervey looked up and fixed a pair of very evil eyes on the Don.
"See here," he remarked, "if the lady wasn't present, I'd show you that I take no orders from any yellow - that is, from any low-down Don.""Lucy, my dear, leave us," said Braddock, rising, much excited;"we must have this matter sifted to the bottom, and if Hervey can explain better in your absence, I think you should go."Although Miss Kendal was very anxious to hear all that was to be heard, she saw the advisability of taking this advice, especially as Hope gave her arm a meaning nudge.
