"All right!" said the Sergeant to himself. He turned round to me. "It's
no time for whistling, Mr. Betteredge, as you say. It's time to take
this business in hand, now, without sparing anybody. We'll begin with
Rosanna Spearman. Where is Joyce?"
We both called for Joyce, and received no answer. I sent one of the
stable-boys to look for him.
"You heard what I said to Miss Verinder?" remarked the Sergeant, while
we were waiting. "And you saw how she received it? I tell her plainly
that her leaving us will be an obstacle in the way of my recovering her
Diamond--and she leaves, in the face of that statement! Your young
lady has got a travelling companion in her mother's carriage, Mr.
Betteredge--and the name of it is, the Moonstone."
I said nothing. I only held on like death to my belief in Miss Rachel.
The stable-boy came back, followed--very unwillingly, as it appeared to
me--by Joyce.
"Where is Rosanna Spearman?" asked Sergeant Cuff.
"I can't account for it, sir," Joyce began; "and I am very sorry. But
somehow or other----"
"Before I went to Frizinghall," said the Sergeant, cutting him short, "I
told you to keep your eyes on Rosanna Spearman, without allowing her
to discover that she was being watched.
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