"I"ve lived a goodish long time in the world," said this best and dearest of all old servants--"but the like of this, I never did expect to see. There stands the house, and here stands Mr. Franklin Blake--and, Damme, if one of them isn"t turning his back on the other, and going to sleep in a lodging!"
He led the way out, wagging his head and growling ominously. "There"s only one more miracle that CAN happen," he said to me, over his shoulder. "The next thing you"ll do, Mr. Franklin, will be to pay me back that seven-and-sixpence you borrowed of me when you were a boy."
This stroke of sarcasm put him in a better humour with himself and with me. We left the house, and pa.s.sed through the lodge gates. Once clear of the grounds, the duties of hospitality (in Betteredge"s code of morals) ceased, and the privileges of curiosity began.
He dropped back, so as to let me get on a level with him. "Fine evening for a walk, Mr. Franklin," he said, as if we had just accidentally encountered each other at that moment. "Supposing you had gone to the hotel at Frizinghall, sir?"
"Yes?"
"I should have had the honour of breakfasting with you, to-morrow morning."
"Come and breakfast with me at Hotherstone"s Farm, instead."
"Much obliged to you for your kindness, Mr. Franklin. But it wasn"t exactly breakfast that I was driving at. I think you mentioned that you had something to say to me? If it"s no secret, sir," said Betteredge, suddenly abandoning the crooked way, and taking the straight one, "I"m burning to know what"s brought you down here, if you please, in this sudden way."
"What brought me here before?" I asked.
"The Moonstone, Mr. Franklin. But what brings you now, sir?"
"The Moonstone again, Betteredge."
The old man suddenly stood still, and looked at me in the grey twilight as if he suspected his own ears of deceiving him.
"If that"s a joke, sir," he said, "I"m afraid I"m getting a little dull in my old age. I don"t take it."
"It"s no joke," I answered. "I have come here to take up the inquiry which was dropped when I left England. I have come here to do what n.o.body has done yet--to find out who took the Diamond."
"Let the Diamond be, Mr. Franklin! Take my advice, and let the Diamond be! That cursed Indian jewel has misguided everybody who has come near it. Don"t waste your money and your temper--in the fine spring time of your life, sir--by meddling with the Moonstone. How can YOU hope to succeed (saving your presence), when Sergeant Cuff himself made a mess of it? Sergeant Cuff!" repeated Betteredge, shaking his forefinger at me sternly. "The greatest policeman in England!"
"My mind is made up, my old friend. Even Sergeant Cuff doesn"t daunt me. By-the-bye, I may want to speak to him, sooner or later. Have you heard anything of him lately?"
"The Sergeant won"t help you, Mr. Franklin."
"Why not?"
"There has been an event, sir, in the police-circles, since you went away. The great Cuff has retired from business. He has got a little cottage at Dorking; and he"s up to his eyes in the growing of roses. I have it in his own handwriting, Mr. Franklin. He has grown the white moss rose, without budding it on the dog-rose first. And Mr. Begbie the gardener is to go to Dorking, and own that the Sergeant has beaten him at last."
"It doesn"t much matter," I said. "I must do without Sergeant Cuff"s help. And I must trust to you, at starting."
It is likely enough that I spoke rather carelessly.
At any rate, Betteredge seemed to be piqued by something in the reply which I had just made to him. "You might trust to worse than me, Mr. Franklin--I can tell you that," he said a little sharply.
The tone in which he retorted, and a certain disturbance, after he had spoken, which I detected in his manner, suggested to me that he was possessed of some information which he hesitated to communicate.
"I expect you to help me," I said, "in picking up the fragments of evidence which Sergeant Cuff has left behind him. I know you can do that. Can you do no more?"
"What more can you expect from me, sir?" asked Betteredge, with an appearance of the utmost humility.
"I expect more--from what you said just now."
"Mere boasting, Mr. Franklin," returned the old man obstinately. "Some people are born boasters, and they never get over it to their dying day. I"m one of them."
There was only one way to take with him. I appealed to his interest in Rachel, and his interest in me.
"Betteredge, would you be glad to hear that Rachel and I were good friends again?"
"I have served your family, sir, to mighty little purpose, if you doubt it!"
"Do you remember how Rachel treated me, before I left England?"
"As well as if it was yesterday! My lady herself wrote you a letter about it; and you were so good as to show the letter to me. It said that Miss Rachel was mortally offended with you, for the part you had taken in trying to recover her jewel. And neither my lady, nor you, nor anybody else could guess why.
"Quite true, Betteredge! And I come back from my travels, and find her mortally offended with me still. I knew that the Diamond was at the bottom of it, last year, and I know that the Diamond is at the bottom of it now. I have tried to speak to her, and she won"t see me. I have tried to write to her, and she won"t answer me. How, in Heaven"s name, am I to clear the matter up? The chance of searching into the loss of the Moonstone, is the one chance of inquiry that Rachel herself has left me."
Those words evidently put the case before him, as he had not seen it yet. He asked a question which satisfied me that I had shaken him.
"There is no ill-feeling in this, Mr. Franklin, on your side--is there?"
"There was some anger," I answered, "when I left London. But that is all worn out now. I want to make Rachel come to an understanding with me--and I want nothing more."
"You don"t feel any fear, sir--supposing you make any discoveries--in regard to what you may find out about Miss Rachel?"
I understood the jealous belief in his young mistress which prompted those words.
"I am as certain of her as you are," I answered. "The fullest disclosure of her secret will reveal nothing that can alter her place in your estimation, or in mine."
Betteredge"s last-left scruples vanished at that.
"If I am doing wrong to help you, Mr. Franklin," he exclaimed, "all I can say is--I am as innocent of seeing it as the babe unborn! I can put you on the road to discovery, if you can only go on by yourself. You remember that poor girl of ours--Rosanna Spearman?"
"Of course!"
"You always thought she had some sort of confession in regard to this matter of the Moonstone, which she wanted to make to you?"
"I certainly couldn"t account for her strange conduct in any other way."
"You may set that doubt at rest, Mr. Franklin, whenever you please."
It was my turn to come to a standstill now. I tried vainly, in the gathering darkness, to see his face. In the surprise of the moment, I asked a little impatiently what he meant.
"Steady, sir!" proceeded Betteredge. "I mean what I say. Rosanna Spearman left a sealed letter behind her--a letter addressed to YOU."
"Where is it?"
"In the possession of a friend of hers, at Cobb"s Hole. You must have heard tell, when you were here last, sir, of Limping Lucy--a lame girl with a crutch."
"The fisherman"s daughter?"
"The same, Mr. Franklin."
"Why wasn"t the letter forwarded to me?"
"Limping Lucy has a will of her own, sir. She wouldn"t give it into any hands but yours. And you had left England before I could write to you."
"Let"s go back, Betteredge, and get it at once!"
"Too late, sir, to-night. They"re great savers of candles along our coast; and they go to bed early at Cobb"s Hole."
"Nonsense! We might get there in half an hour."
"You might, sir. And when you did get there, you would find the door locked. He pointed to a light, glimmering below us; and, at the same moment, I heard through the stillness of the evening the bubbling of a stream. "There"s the Farm, Mr. Franklin! Make yourself comfortable for to-night, and come to me to-morrow morning if you"ll be so kind?""
"You will go with me to the fisherman"s cottage?"
"Yes, sir."
"Early?"
"As early, Mr. Franklin, as you like."
We descended the path that led to the Farm.
CHAPTER III.
I have only the most indistinct recollection of what happened at Hotherstone"s Farm.
I remember a hearty welcome; a prodigious supper, which would have fed a whole village in the East; a delightfully clean bedroom, with nothing in it to regret but that detestable product of the folly of our fore-fathers--a feather-bed; a restless night, with much kindling of matches, and many lightings of one little candle; and an immense sensation of relief when the sun rose, and there was a prospect of getting up.
It had been arranged over-night with Betteredge, that I was to call for him, on our way to Cobb"s Hole, as early as I liked--which, interpreted by my impatience to get possession of the letter, meant as early as I could. Without waiting for breakfast at the Farm, I took a crust of bread in my hand, and set forth, in some doubt whether I should not surprise the excellent Betteredge in his bed. To my great relief he proved to be quite as excited about the coming event as I was. I found him ready, and waiting for me, with his stick in his hand.
"How are you this morning, Betteredge?"
"Very poorly, sir."
"Sorry to hear it. What do you complain of?"
"I complain of a new disease, Mr. Franklin, of my own inventing. I don"t want to alarm you, but you"re certain to catch it before the morning is out."
"The devil I am!"
"Do you feel an uncomfortable heat at the pit of your stomach, sir? and a nasty thumping at the top of your head? Ah! not yet? It will lay hold of you at Cobb"s Hole, Mr. Franklin. I call it the detective-fever; and I first caught it in the company of Sergeant Cuff."
"Aye! aye! and the cure in this instance is to open Rosanna Spearman"s letter, I suppose? Come along, and let"s get it."
Early as it was, we found the fisherman"s wife astir in her kitchen. On my presentation by Betteredge, good Mrs. Yolland performed a social ceremony, strictly reserved (as I afterwards learnt) for strangers of distinction. She put a bottle of Dutch gin and a couple of clean pipes on the table, and opened the conversation by saying, "What news from London, sir?"
Before I could find an answer to this immensely comprehensive question, an apparition advanced towards me, out of a dark corner of the kitchen. A wan, wild, haggard girl, with remarkably beautiful hair, and with a fierce keenness in her eyes, came limping up on a crutch to the table at which I was sitting, and looked at me as if I was an object of mingled interest and horror, which it quite fascinated her to see.
"Mr. Betteredge," she said, without taking her eyes off me, "mention his name again, if you please."
"This gentleman"s name," answered Betteredge (with a strong emphasis on GENTLEMAN), "is Mr. Franklin Blake."
The girl turned her back on me, and suddenly left the room. Good Mrs. Yolland--as I believe--made some apologies for her daughter"s odd behaviour, and Betteredge (probably) translated them into polite English. I speak of this in complete uncertainty. My attention was absorbed in following the sound of the girl"s crutch. Thump-thump, up the wooden stairs; thump-thump across the room above our heads; thump-thump down the stairs again--and there stood the apparition at the open door, with a letter in its hand, beckoning me out!
I left more apologies in course of delivery behind me, and followed this strange creature--limping on before me, faster and faster--down the slope of the beach. She led me behind some boats, out of sight and hearing of the few people in the fishing-village, and then stopped, and faced me for the first time.
"Stand there," she said, "I want to look at you."
There was no mistaking the expression on her face. I inspired her with the strongest emotions of abhorrence and disgust. Let me not be vain enough to say that no woman had ever looked at me in this manner before. I will only venture on the more modest a.s.sertion that no woman had ever let me perceive it yet. There is a limit to the length of the inspection which a man can endure, under certain circ.u.mstances. I attempted to direct Limping Lucy"s attention to some less revolting object than my face.
"I think you have got a letter to give me," I began. "Is it the letter there, in your hand?"
"Say that again," was the only answer I received.
I repeated the words, like a good child learning its lesson.
"No," said the girl, speaking to herself, but keeping her eyes still mercilessly fixed on me. "I can"t find out what she saw in his face. I can"t guess what she heard in his voice." She suddenly looked away from me, and rested her head wearily on the top of her crutch. "Oh, my poor dear!" she said, in the first soft tones which had fallen from her, in my hearing. "Oh, my lost darling! what could you see in this man?" She lifted her head again fiercely, and looked at me once more. "Can you eat and drink?" she asked.
I did my best to preserve my gravity, and answered, "Yes."
"Can you sleep?"
"Yes."
"When you see a poor girl in service, do you feel no remorse?"
"Certainly not. Why should I?"
She abruptly thrust the letter (as the phrase is) into my face.
"Take it!" she exclaimed furiously. "I never set eyes on you before. G.o.d Almighty forbid I should ever set eyes on you again."
With those parting words she limped away from me at the top of her speed. The one interpretation that I could put on her conduct has, no doubt, been antic.i.p.ated by everybody. I could only suppose that she was mad.
Having reached that inevitable conclusion, I turned to the more interesting object of investigation which was presented to me by Rosanna Spearman"s letter. The address was written as follows:--"For Franklin Blake, Esq. To be given into his own hands (and not to be trusted to any one else), by Lucy Yolland."
I broke the seal. The envelope contained a letter: and this, in its turn, contained a slip of paper. I read the letter first:-- "Sir,--If you are curious to know the meaning of my behaviour to you, whilst you were staying in the house of my mistress, Lady Verinder, do what you are told to do in the memorandum enclosed with this--and do it without any person being present to overlook you. Your humble servant, "ROSANNA SPEARMAN."
I turned to the slip of paper next. Here is the literal copy of it, word for word: "Memorandum:--To go to the Shivering Sand at the turn of the tide. To walk out on the South Spit, until I get the South Spit Beacon, and the flagstaff at the Coast-guard station above Cobb"s Hole in a line together. To lay down on the rocks, a stick, or any straight thing to guide my hand, exactly in the line of the beacon and the flagstaff. To take care, in doing this, that one end of the stick shall be at the edge of the rocks, on the side of them which overlooks the quicksand. To feel along the stick, among the sea-weed (beginning from the end of the stick which points towards the beacon), for the Chain. To run my hand along the Chain, when found, until I come to the part of it which stretches over the edge of the rocks, down into the quicksand. AND THEN TO PULL THE CHAIN."