My lady answered the knock, and closed the door behind her. The moment

after we heard it locked inside by Miss Rachel. My mistress came out

among us, looking sorely puzzled and distressed. "The loss of the

Diamond seems to have quite overwhelmed Rachel," she said, in reply to

Mr. Franklin. "She shrinks, in the strangest manner, from speaking

of it, even to ME. It is impossible you can see her for the present."

Having added to our perplexities by this account of Miss Rachel, my

lady, after a little effort, recovered her usual composure, and acted

with her usual decision.

"I suppose there is no help for it?" she said, quietly. "I suppose I

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have no alternative but to send for the police?"

"And the first thing for the police to do," added Mr. Franklin, catching

her up, "is to lay hands on the Indian jugglers who performed here last

night."

My lady and Mr. Godfrey (not knowing what Mr. Franklin and I knew) both

started, and both looked surprised.

"I can't stop to explain myself now," Mr. Franklin went on. "I can only

tell you that the Indians have certainly stolen the Diamond. Give me

a letter of introduction," says he, addressing my lady, "to one of the

magistrates at Frizinghall--merely telling him that I represent your

interests and wishes, and let me ride off with it instantly. Our chance

of catching the thieves may depend on our not wasting one unnecessary

minute." (Nota bene: Whether it was the French side or the English, the

right side of Mr. Franklin seemed to be uppermost now. The only question

was, How long would it last?) He put pen, ink, and paper before his aunt, who (as it appeared to me)

wrote the letter he wanted a little unwillingly. If it had been possible

to overlook such an event as the loss of a jewel worth twenty thousand

pounds, I believe--with my lady's opinion of her late brother, and her

distrust of his birthday-gift--it would have been privately a relief to

her to let the thieves get off with the Moonstone scot free.

I went out with Mr. Franklin to the stables, and took the opportunity of

asking him how the Indians (whom I suspected, of course, as shrewdly as

he did) could possibly have got into the house.

"One of them might have slipped into the hall, in the confusion, when

the dinner company were going away," says Mr. Franklin. "The fellow may

have been under the sofa while my aunt and Rachel were talking about

where the Diamond was to be put for the night. He would only have to

wait till the house was quiet, and there it would be in the cabinet, to

be had for the taking." With those words, he called to the groom to open

the gate, and galloped off.




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