"
"May I ask for what purpose?"
"Mr. Bruff, the assistance I innocently rendered to the inquiry after
the Diamond was an unpardoned offence, in Rachel's mind, nearly a year
since; and it remains an unpardoned offence still. I won't accept that
position! I am determined to find out the secret of her silence towards
her mother, and her enmity towards me. If time, pains, and money can do
it, I will lay my hand on the thief who took the Moonstone!"
The worthy old gentleman attempted to remonstrate--to induce me to
listen to reason--to do his duty towards me, in short. I was deaf to
everything that he could urge. No earthly consideration would, at that
moment, have shaken the resolution that was in me.
"I shall take up the inquiry again," I went on, "at the point where I
dropped it; and I shall follow it onwards, step by step, till I come to
the present time. There are missing links in the evidence, as I left it,
which Gabriel Betteredge can supply, and to Gabriel Betteredge I go!"
Towards sunset that evening I stood again on the well-remembered
terrace, and looked once more at the peaceful old country house. The
gardener was the first person whom I saw in the deserted grounds.
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