answered the Sergeant, "on the subject of the
inquiry I am conducting here. You detected
the turn that inquiry was really taking, yesterday.
Naturally enough, in your position, you
are shocked and distressed. Naturally enough,
also, you visit your own angry sense of your
own family scandal upon Me."

"What do you want?" Mr. Franklin broke
in, sharply enough.

"I want to remind you, sir, that I have at
any rate, thus far, not been proved to be
wrong. Bearing that in mind, be pleased to
remember, at the same time, that I am an
officer of the law acting here under the sanction
of the mistress of the house. Under these
circumstances, is it, or is it not, your duty as a
good citizen to assist me with any special
information which you may happen to possess?"

"I possess no special information," says Mr.
Franklin.

Sergeant Cuff put that answer by him, as if
no answer had been made.

"You may save my time, sir, from being
wasted on an inquiry at a distance," he went on,
"if you choose to understand me and speak
out."

"I don't understand you," answered Mr.
Franklin; "and I have nothing to say."

"One of the female servants (I won't
mention names) spoke to you privately, sir, last
night."

Once more Mr. Franklin cut him short;
once more Mr. Franklin answered, "I have
nothing to say."

Standing by in silence, I thought of the
movement in the swing-door, on the previous
evening, and of the coat-tails which I had seen
disappearing down the passage. Sergeant Cuff
had, no doubt, just heard enough, before I
interrupted him, to make him suspect that
Rosanna had relieved her mind by confessing
something to Mr. Franklin Blake.

This notion had barely struck me— when who
should appear at the end of the shrubbery walk
but Rosanna Spearman in her own proper
person! She was followed by Penelope, who
was evidently trying to make her retrace her
steps to the house. Seeing that Mr. Franklin
was not alone, Rosanna came to a standstill,
evidently in great perplexity what to do
next. Penelope waited behind her. Mr. Franklin
saw the girls as soon as I saw them. The
Sergeant, with his devilish cunning, took on not
to have noticed them at all. All this happened
in an instant. Before either Mr. Franklin or I
could say a word, Sergeant Cuff struck in
smoothly, with an appearance of continuing the
previous conversation.

"You needn't be afraid of harming the girl,
sir," he said to Mr. Franklin, speaking in a
loud voice, so that Rosanna might hear him.
"On the contrary, I recommend you to honour
me with your confidence, if you feel any
interest in Rosanna Spearman."

Mr. Franklin instantly took on not to have
noticed the girls either. He answered, speaking
loudly on his side:

"I take no interest whatever in Rosanna
Spearman."

I looked towards the end of the walk. All
I saw at the distance was that Rosanna
suddenly turned round, the moment Mr. Franklin
had spoken. Instead of resisting Penelope, as
she had done the moment before, she now let
my daughter take her by the arm and lead her
back to the house.

The breakfast-bell rang as the two girls
disappeared and even Sergeant Cuff was now
obliged to give it up as a bad job! He said to
me quietly, "I shall go to Frizinghall, Mr.
Betteredge; and I shall be back before two." He
went his way, without a word more— and for
some few hours we were well rid of him.

"You must make it right with Rosanna,"
Mr. Franklin said to me, when we were alone.
"I seem to be fated to say or do something
awkward, before that unlucky girl. You must
have seen yourself that Sergeant Cuff laid a trap
for both of us. If he could confuse me, or
irritate her into breaking out, either she or I
might have said something which would
answer his purpose. On the spur of the moment,
I saw no better way out of it than the way I
took. It stopped the girl from saying anything,
and it showed the Sergeant that I saw through
him. He was evidently listening, Betteredge,
when I was speaking to you last night."

He had done worse than listen, as I privately
thought to myself. He had remembered my
telling him that the girl was in love with Mr.
Franklin; and he had calculated on that when
he appealed to Mr. Franklin's interest in
Rosanna— in Rosanna's hearing.

"As to listening, sir," I remarked (keeping
the other point to myself), "we shall all be
rowing in the same boat, if this sort of thing
goes on much longer. Prying, and peeping, and
listening are the natural occupations of people
situated as we are. In another day or two, Mr.
Franklin, we shall all be struck dumb together—
for this reason that we shall all be listening to
surprise each other's secrets, and all know it.
Excuse my breaking out, sir. The horrid
mystery hanging over us in this house gets into my
head like liquor, and makes me wild. I won't
forget what you have told me. I'll take the
first opportunity of making it right with
Rosanna Spearman."

"You haven't said anything to her yet about
last night, have you?" Mr. Franklin asked.

"No, sir."

"Then say nothing now. I had better not
invite the girl's confidence, with the Sergeant
on the look-out to surprise us together. My
conduct is not very consistent, Betteredge— is
it? I see no way out of this business, which
isn't dreadful to think of, unless the Diamond
is traced to Rosanna. And yet I can't, and
won't, help Sergeant Cuff to find the girl out."

Unreasonable enough, no doubt. But it was
my state of mind as well. I thoroughly
understood him. If you will, for once in your life,
remember that you are mortal, perhaps you
will thoroughly understand him too.