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
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.