Devoting myself once more to the elucidation of the impenetrable
puzzle which my own position presented to me, I now tried to meet the
difficulty by investigating it from a plainly practical point of view.
The events of the memorable night being still unintelligible to me,
I looked a little farther back, and searched my memory of the earlier
hours of the birthday for any incident which might prove of some
assistance to me in finding the clue.
Had anything happened while Rachel and I were finishing the painted
door? or, later, when I rode over to Frizinghall? or afterwards, when I
went back with Godfrey Ablewhite and his sisters? or, later again,
when I put the Moonstone into Rachel's hands? or, later still, when the
company came, and we all assembled round the dinner-table? My memory
disposed of that string of questions readily enough, until I came to the
last. Looking back at the social event of the birthday dinner, I found
myself brought to a standstill at the outset of the inquiry. I was not
even capable of accurately remembering the number of the guests who had
sat at the same table with me.
To feel myself completely at fault here, and to conclude, thereupon,
that the incidents of the dinner might especially repay the trouble of
investigating them, formed parts of the same mental process, in my case.
I believe other people, in a similar situation, would have reasoned as
I did. When the pursuit of our own interests causes us to become objects
of inquiry to ourselves, we are naturally suspicious of what we don't
know. Once in possession of the names of the persons who had been
present at the dinner, I resolved--as a means of enriching the deficient
resources of my own memory--to appeal to the memory of the rest of the
guests; to write down all that they could recollect of the social events
of the birthday; and to test the result, thus obtained, by the light of
what had happened afterwards, when the company had left the house.
This last and newest of my many contemplated experiments in the art
of inquiry--which Betteredge would probably have attributed to the
clear-headed, or French, side of me being uppermost for the moment--may
fairly claim record here, on its own merits. Unlikely as it may seem, I
had now actually groped my way to the root of the matter at last. All I
wanted was a hint to guide me in the right direction at starting. Before
another day had passed over my head, that hint was given me by one of
the company who had been present at the birthday feast!
With the plan of proceeding which I now had in view, it was first
necessary to possess the complete list of the guests. This I could
easily obtain from Gabriel Betteredge. I determined to go back to
Yorkshire on that day, and to begin my contemplated investigation the
next morning.