As I had promised for them, the other servants followed my lead, sorely

against the grain, of course, but all taking the view that I took. The

women were a sight to see, while the police-officers were rummaging

among their things. The cook looked as if she could grill Mr.

Superintendent alive on a furnace, and the other women looked as if they

could eat him when he was done.

The search over, and no Diamond or sign of a Diamond being found, of

course, anywhere, Superintendent Seegrave retired to my little room to

consider with himself what he was to do next. He and his men had now

been hours in the house, and had not advanced us one inch towards a

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discovery of how the Moonstone had been taken, or of whom we were to

suspect as the thief.

While the police-officer was still pondering in solitude, I was sent for

to see Mr. Franklin in the library. To my unutterable astonishment, just

as my hand was on the door, it was suddenly opened from the inside, and

out walked Rosanna Spearman!

After the library had been swept and cleaned in the morning, neither

first nor second housemaid had any business in that room at any later

period of the day. I stopped Rosanna Spearman, and charged her with a

breach of domestic discipline on the spot.

"What might you want in the library at this time of day?" I inquired.

"Mr. Franklin Blake dropped one of his rings up-stairs," says Rosanna;

"and I have been into the library to give it to him." The girl's face

was all in a flush as she made me that answer; and she walked away with

a toss of her head and a look of self-importance which I was quite at

a loss to account for. The proceedings in the house had doubtless upset

all the women-servants more or less; but none of them had gone clean out

of their natural characters, as Rosanna, to all appearance, had now gone

out of hers.

I found Mr. Franklin writing at the library-table. He asked for a

conveyance to the railway station the moment I entered the room. The

first sound of his voice informed me that we now had the resolute side

of him uppermost once more. The man made of cotton had disappeared; and

the man made of iron sat before me again.

"Going to London, sir?" I asked.

"Going to telegraph to London," says Mr. Franklin. "I have convinced my

aunt that we must have a cleverer head than Superintendent Seegrave's

to help us; and I have got her permission to despatch a telegram to my

father. He knows the Chief Commissioner of Police, and the Commissioner

can lay his hand on the right man to solve the mystery of the Diamond.

Talking of mysteries, by-the-bye," says Mr. Franklin, dropping his

voice, "I have another word to say to you before you go to the stables.

Don't breathe a word of it to anybody as yet; but either Rosanna

Spearman's head is not quite right, or I am afraid she knows more about

the Moonstone than she ought to know."




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