Candy. You have only to recover your health, and I will answer for your sleeping as quietly as any man living. Let us return to the other question, which you put to me just now. You have asked if I can find the lost diamond?
Franklin. Yes.
Mr. Candy. You have asked if I can prove your innocence of the theft?
Franklin. Well!
Mr. Candy. I may be able to do both the one and the other, if you will consent to be guided by me. (RACHEL'S voice is heard outside.)
Rachel (speaking in great agitation). I don't want to hear any more! I insist on seeing him!
Franklin (quietly to MR. CANDY). If you wish to speak further with me, you will find me in my room. (He ascends the stairs deliberately, careless whether RACHEL sees him or not.)
Mr. Candy (following and remonstrating with him). Mr. Blake--!
Rachel (outside). Let me go! How dare you stand between me and the door. (She appears at the hall door, hurriedly entering the room). Where is he? (MR. CANDY returns to RACHEL. FRANKLIN reaches the top of the stairs.) Mr. Candy, I must see him! I must ask his pardon on my knees!
Mr. Candy. You can't see him now, Miss Rachel. He has just gone upstairs.
Rachel (seeing FRANKLIN open his bedroom door). To avoid me! (She calls entreatingly.) Franklin! (FRANKLIN enters his room, and closes the door. RACHEL turns in tears to MR. CANDY.) Not a word of answer! Not even a look! I deserve it.
Mr. Candy (surprised). You deserve it?
Rachel (with the keenest self-reproach). I was alone in the hall last night, when the house was shut up, and there was no light but the moon. I saw him take the diamond, and I put the vilest construction on what I saw!
Mr. Candy. My dear young lady, how could you possibly suspect that he was sleeping and dreaming, when you couldn't see him plainly, and when you never heard of such a thing as his walking in his sleep?
Rachel. I don't care! I have treated him cruelly--I who love him with all my heart and soul! Oh Mr. Candy, I have lost him! He will never forgive me--he will never forget what I said to him!
Mr. Candy (earnestly). Miss Rachel, he may yet forgive and forget! He may yet be nearer and dearer to you than ever! (RACHEL starts.) Compose yourself, and tell me one thing. After he had taken the Moonstone, what did he do with it?
Rachel. He took it upstairs with him to his own room.
Mr. Candy. It is at least possible that he has hidden it there in his sleep--dreaming, of course, that he was putting it in a place of safety. You follow me, so far?
Rachel. I don't follow you at all! I want to hear about the happy time you have promised me--the time when Franklin is to be nearer and dearer to me than ever. Get on to that!
Mr. Candy. A moment's patience, Miss Rachel. I am getting to it now. (BETTEREDGE enters by the hall door.)
Rachel (to BETTEREDGE). What do you want? Don't interrupt us! Go away!
Betteredge. I beg your pardon, miss. I have got a message for you, and I must indeed deliver it.
Rachel. Go away!
Mr. Candy (to RACHEL). One moment! (to BETTEREDGE.) Does your message relate to the Moonstone?
Betteredge. Knowing the person who gave me the message, sir, I haven't a doubt of it.
Mr. Candy. Let him speak, Miss Rachel. (RACHEL signs to BETTEREDGE to speak.)
Betteredge. I won't be long, miss. Since you left me I have been having a little talk with a person in the grounds.
Rachel. Who is the person?
Betteredge. You will be angry if I mention his name.
Rachel. Sergeant Cuff?
Betteredge. Right, miss, at the first guess.
Rachel. That man still in the house! What does he mean? What is he doing? What does he want?
Betteredge. That's exactly what I've been trying to tell you, miss, ever since I came into the room. As to what he means, he keeps it to himself. As to what he is doing, he has just had a long private conversation behind the stables with a strange gentleman who came from the railway in a fly. As to what he wants, he wants two minutes' talk immediately, Miss Rachel, with you.
Rachel. I refuse to see him! I insist on his leaving the house. (CUFF appears at the hall door. RACHEL points to him indignantly.) Mr. Candy! Betteredge! do you see that man? This is a downright insult. I appeal to your protection.
Betteredge. Don't be angry, miss. I'll take him away. (He attempts to approach CUFF, and is stopped by MR. CANDY.)
Mr. Candy. Wait a minute! (to CUFF.) You will find pen and ink in the servants' hall. Tell Miss Rachel, in writing, what you want.
Cuff. Might I whisper one word in your ear, sir? (He whispers. MR. CANDY starts back with a cry of astonishment.)
Rachel (observing him). What is it?
Mr. Candy (excitedly). Something that you must hear, Miss Rachel! Something that makes the Sergeant's presence at our conference indispensable. Take a seat, Sergeant Cuff.
Cuff (looking at BETTEREDGE). I have an order to give, sir, to the policeman who is waiting outside. (to RACHEL.) Might I ask Mr. Betteredge to take another message for me?
Rachel. Certainly! Betteredge, take the message!
Betteredge (coming forward unwillingly). Yes, miss. (Aside.) Just as I wanted to hear what they're going to say next! Just as my curiosity is thirsting as it were for a drop more!
Cuff (to BETTEREDGE). You will find the policeman on the drive in front of the house. He is on no account to go back to the town before I have seen him again. The man is hungry and tired, Mr. Betteredge. Will you please see that he has some supper?
Betteredge (aside). I wish his supper may choke him! (He goes out by the hall door.)
Rachel. Now, Mr. Candy, what does this mean?
Mr. Candy. Ask Sergeant Cuff.
Rachel (to CUFF). You wish to speak to me? What do you want?
Cuff (quietly). A little matter of business, miss. I only want to give you back your diamond.
Rachel (thunderstruck).What!!!
Cuff. There is the Moonstone. (He hands it to RACHEL. RACHEL stands petrified. CUFF, smiling grimly, waits to hear what she will say to him. RACHEL, recovering herself, turns to MR. CANDY, and shows him the diamond.)
Rachel. Can I believe my own eyes!
Cuff (to RACHEL). I won't intrude on you any longer, miss. I'll be off by the next train.
Rachel. Don't talk of going away (suddenly changing to perfect amiability.) I owe you an apology, Mr. Cuff. Pray excuse the hasty words I said to you earlier in the day--and, for Heaven's sake, tell me how the Moonstone found its way into your hands!
Cuff. You will please keep it a secret, miss, from every soul in the house; Mr. Betteredge, in particular, must know nothing about it. That good man is of too liberal a nature to keep anything to himself. (to MR. CANDY.) He told me, sir, of your notion about Mr. Blake, and the diamond, within hearing of all the men at the stables.
Rachel (impatiently). We quite understand you. Go on! go on!
Cuff. Very good, miss. Thus it happened: Earlier in the day I received information of a visit paid by a money-borrowing person, to a money-lending person in London.
Rachel. What are their names?
Cuff. Sorry to disappoint you, miss.