After hearing from the Yollands on the Monday, I had now heard of the
Indians, and heard of the money-lender, in the news from London--Miss
Rachel herself remember, being also in London at the time. You see, I
put things at their worst, even when they tell dead against my own view.
If you desert me, and side with the Sergeant, on the evidence before
you--if the only rational explanation you can see is, that Miss Rachel
and Mr. Luker must have got together, and that the Moonstone must be
now in pledge in the money-lender's house--I own, I can't blame you for
arriving at that conclusion. In the dark, I have brought you thus far.
In the dark I am compelled to leave you, with my best respects.
Why compelled? it may be asked. Why not take the persons who have gone
along with me, so far, up into those regions of superior enlightenment
in which I sit myself?
In answer to this, I can only state that I am acting under orders,
and that those orders have been given to me (as I understand) in the
interests of truth. I am forbidden to tell more in this narrative than
I knew myself at the time. Or, to put it plainer, I am to keep strictly
within the limits of my own experience, and am not to inform you of what
other persons told me--for the very sufficient reason that you are to
have the information from those other persons themselves, at first hand.
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