"The late Mrs. Betteredge possessed a good many defects, sir," says I.

"One of them (if you will pardon my mentioning it) was never keeping to

the matter in hand. She was more like a fly than a woman: she couldn't

settle on anything."

"She would just have suited me," says Mr. Franklin. "I never settle

on anything either. Betteredge, your edge is better than ever. Your

daughter said as much, when I asked for particulars about the jugglers.

'Father will tell you, sir. He's a wonderful man for his age; and he

expresses himself beautifully.' Penelope's own words--blushing divinely.

Not even my respect for you prevented me from--never mind; I knew her

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when she was a child, and she's none the worse for it. Let's be serious.

What did the jugglers do?"

I was something dissatisfied with my daughter--not for letting Mr.

Franklin kiss her; Mr. Franklin was welcome to THAT--but for forcing me

to tell her foolish story at second hand. However, there was no help for

it now but to mention the circumstances. Mr. Franklin's merriment all

died away as I went on. He sat knitting his eyebrows, and twisting his

beard. When I had done, he repeated after me two of the questions which

the chief juggler had put to the boy--seemingly for the purpose of

fixing them well in his mind.

"'Is it on the road to this house, and on no other, that the English

gentleman will travel to-day?' 'Has the English gentleman got It about

him?' I suspect," says Mr. Franklin, pulling a little sealed paper

parcel out of his pocket, "that 'It' means THIS. And 'this,' Betteredge,

means my uncle Herncastle's famous Diamond."

"Good Lord, sir!" I broke out, "how do you come to be in charge of the

wicked Colonel's Diamond?"

"The wicked Colonel's will has left his Diamond as a birthday present

to my cousin Rachel," says Mr. Franklin. "And my father, as the wicked

Colonel's executor, has given it in charge to me to bring down here."

If the sea, then oozing in smoothly over the Shivering Sand, had been

changed into dry land before my own eyes, I doubt if I could have been

more surprised than I was when Mr. Franklin spoke those words.

"The Colonel's Diamond left to Miss Rachel!" says I. "And your father,

sir, the Colonel's executor! Why, I would have laid any bet you like,

Mr. Franklin, that your father wouldn't have touched the Colonel with a

pair of tongs!"

"Strong language, Betteredge! What was there against the Colonel. He

belonged to your time, not to mine. Tell me what you know about him, and

I'll tell you how my father came to be his executor, and more besides.

I have made some discoveries in London about my uncle Herncastle and his

Diamond, which have rather an ugly look to my eyes; and I want you to

confirm them. You called him the 'wicked Colonel' just now. Search your

memory, my old friend, and tell me why."




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