第99章

Half a dozen other people spoke to Mr.Luker that morning.Why were they not followed home too, and decoyed into the trap? No! no! The plain inference is, that Mr.Ablewhite had his private interest in the "valuable" as well as Mr.Luker, and that the Indians were so uncertain as to which of the two had the disposal of it, that there was no alternative but to search them both.Public opinion says that, Miss Clack.And public opinion, on this occasion, is not easily refuted.'

He said those last words, looking so wonderfully wise in his own worldly conceit, that I really (to my shame be it spoken) could not resist leading him a little further still, before I overwhelmed him with the truth.

`I don't presume to argue with a clever lawyer like you,' I said.`But is it quite fair, sir, to Mr.Ablewhite to pass over the opinion of the famous London police-officer who investigated this case? Not the shadow of a suspicion rested upon anybody but Miss Verinder, in the mind of Sergeant Cuff.'

`Do you mean to tell me, Miss Clack, that you agree with the Sergeant?'

`I judge nobody, sir, and I offer no opinion.'

`And I commit both those enormities, ma'am.I judge the Sergeant to have been utterly wrong; and I offer the opinion that, if he had known Rachel's character as I know it, he would have suspected everybody in the house but her.I admit that she has her faults--she is secret, and self-willed; odd and wild, and unlike other girls of her age.But true as steel and high-minded and generous to a fault.If the plainest evidence in the world pointed one way, and if nothing but Rachel's word of honour pointed the other, I would take her word before the evidence, lawyer as I am! Strong language, Miss Clack; but I mean it.'

`Would you object to illustrate your meaning, Mr.Bruff, so that I may be sure I understand it? Suppose you found Miss Verinder quite unaccountably interested in what has happened to Mr.Ablewhite and Mr.Luker? Suppose she asked the strangest questions about this dreadful scandal, and displayed the most ungovernable agitation when she found out the turn it was taking?'

`Suppose anything you please, Miss Clack, it wouldn't shake my belief in Rachel Verinder by a hair's-breadth.'

`She is so absolutely to be relied on as that?'

`So absolutely to be relied on as that.'

`Then permit me to inform you, Mr.Bruff, that Mr.Godfrey Ablewhite was in this house not two hours since, and that his entire innocence of all concern in the disappearance of the Moonstone was proclaimed by Miss Verinder herself, in the strongest language I ever heard used by a young lady in my life.'

I enjoyed the triumph--the unholy triumph, I fear, I must admit--of seeing Mr.Bruff utterly confounded and overthrown by a few plain words from Me.He started to his feet, and stared at me in silence.I kept my seat, undisturbed, and related the whole scene as it had occurred.`And what do you say about Mr.Ablewhite now ?' I asked, with the utmost possible gentleness, as soon as I had done.

`If Rachel has testified to his innocence, Miss Clack, I don't scruple to say that I believe in his innocence as firmly as you do.I have been misled by appearances, like the rest of the world; and I will make the best atonement I can, by publicly contradicting the scandal which has assailed your friend wherever I meet with it.In the meantime, allow me to congratulate you on the masterly manner in which you have opened the full fire of your batteries on me at the moment when I least expected it.You would have done great things in my profession, ma'am, if you had happened to be a man.'

With those words he turned away from me, and began walking irritably up and down the room.

I could see plainly that the new light I had thrown on the subject had greatly surprised and disturbed him.Certain expressions dropped from his lips, as he became more and more absorbed in his own thoughts, which suggested to my mind the abominable view that he had hitherto taken of the mystery of the lost Moonstone.He had not scrupled to suspect dear Mr.Godfrey of the infamy of stealing the Diamond, and to attribute Rachel's conduct to a generous resolution to conceal the crime.On Miss Verinder's own authority--a perfectly unassailable authority, as you are aware, in the estimation of Mr.Bruff--that explanation of the circumstances was now shown to be utterly wrong.The perplexity into which I had plunged this high legal authority was so overwhelming that he was quite unable to conceal it from notice.

`What a case!' I heard him say to himself, stopping at the window in his walk, and drumming on the glass with his fingers.`It not only defies explanation, it's even beyond conjecture.'

There was nothing in these words which made any reply at all needful, on my part--and yet, I answered them! It seems hardly credible that I should not have been able to let Mr.Bruff alone, even now.It seems almost beyond mere mortal perversity that I should have discovered, in what he had just said, a new opportunity of making myself personally disagreeable to him.

But--ah, my friends! nothing is beyond mortal perversity; and anything is credible when our fallen natures get the better of us!

`Pardon me for intruding on your reflections,' I said to the unsuspecting Mr.Bruff.`But surely there is a conjecture to make which has not occurred to us yet.'

`Maybe, Miss Clack.I own I don't know what it is.'