Franklin returned from Frizinghall.I took his hot water up to his room myself, expecting to hear, after this extraordinary delay, that something had happened.To my great disappointment (and no doubt to yours also), nothing had happened.He had not met with the Indians, either going or returning.He had deposited the Moonstone in the bank--describing it merely as a valuable of great price--and he had got the receipt for it safe in his pocket.I went downstairs, feeling that this was rather a flat ending, after all our excitement about the Diamond earlier in the day.
How the meeting between Mr.Franklin and his aunt and cousin went off, is more than I can tell you.
I would have given something to have waited at table that day.But, in my position in the household, waiting at dinner (except on high family festivals) was letting down my dignity in the eyes of the other servants--a thing which my lady considered me quite prone enough to do already, without seeking occasions for it.The news brought to me from the upper regions, that evening, came from Penelope and the footman.Penelope mentioned that she had never known Miss Rachel so particular about the dressing of her hair, and had never seen her look so bright and pretty as she did when she went down to meet Mr.Franklin in the drawingroom.The footman's report was, that the preservation of a respectful composure in the presence of his betters, and the waiting on Mr.Franklin Blake at dinner, were two of the hardest things to reconcile with each other that had ever tried his training in service.Later in the evening, we heard them singing and playing duets, Mr.Franklin piping high, Miss Rachel piping higher, and my lady, on the piano, following them as it were over hedge and ditch, and seeing them safe through it in a manner most wonderful and pleasant to hear through the open windows, on the terrace at night.Later still, I went to Mr.Franklin in the smoking-room, with the soda-water and brandy, and found that Miss Rachel had put the Diamond clean out of his head.`She's the most charming girl I have seen since I came back to England!' was all I could extract from him, when I endeavoured to lead the conversation to more serious things.
Towards midnight, I went round the house to lock up, accompanied by my second in command (Samuel, the footman), as usual.When all the doors were made fast, except the side door that opened on the terrace, I sent Samuel to bed, and stepped out for a breath of fresh air before I too went to bed in my turn.
The night was still and close, and the moon was at the full in the heavens.
It was so silent out of doors, that I heard from time to time, very faint and low, the fall of the sea, as the ground-swell heaved it in on the sand-bank near the mouth of our little bay.As the house stood, the terrace side was the dark side; but the broad moonlight showed fair on the gravel walk that ran along the next side to the terrace.Looking this way, after looking up at the sky, I saw the shadow of a person in the moonlight thrown forward from behind the corner of the house.
Being old and sly, I forbore to call out; but being also, unfortunately, old and heavy, my feet betrayed me on the gravel.Before I could steal suddenly round the corner, as I had proposed, I heard lighter feet than mine--and more than one pair of them as I thought--retreating in a hurry.
By the time I had got to the corner, the trespassers, whoever they were, had run into the shrubbery at the off side of the walk, and were hidden from sight among the thick trees and bushes in that part of the grounds.
From the shrubbery, they could easily make their way, over our fence into the road.If I had been forty years younger, I might have had a chance of catching them before they got clear of our premises.As it was, I went back to set a-going a younger pair of legs than mine.Without disturbing anybody, Samuel and I got a couple of guns, and went all round the house and through the shrubbery.Having made sure that no persons were lurking about anywhere in our grounds, we turned back.Passing over the walk where I had seen the shadow, I now noticed, for the first time, a little bright object, lying on the clean gravel, under the light of the moon.Picking the object up, I discovered it was a small bottle, containing a thick sweet-smelling liquor, as black as ink.
I said nothing to Samuel.But, remembering what Penelope had told me about the jugglers, and the pouring of the little pool of ink into the palm of the boy's hand, I instantly suspected that I had disturbed the three Indians, lurking about the house, and bent, in their heathenish way, on discovering the whereabouts of the Diamond that night.
