conclusions are, Mr. Betteredge. I
haven't brought you out here to draw me like a badger; I have brought
you out here to ask for some information. You might have given it to me
no doubt, in the house, instead of out of it. But doors and listeners
have a knack of getting together; and, in my line of life, we cultivate
a healthy taste for the open air."

Who was to circumvent THIS man? I gave in--and waited as patiently as I
could to hear what was coming next.

"We won't enter into your young lady's motives," the Sergeant went on;
"we will only say it's a pity she declines to assist me, because, by
so doing, she makes this investigation more difficult than it might
otherwise have been. We must now try to solve the mystery of the smear
on the door--which, you may take my word for it, means the mystery of
the Diamond also--in some other way. I have decided to see the servants,
and to search their thoughts and actions, Mr. Betteredge, instead of
searching their wardrobes. Before I begin, however, I want to ask you
a question or two. You are an observant man--did you notice anything
strange in any of the servants (making due allowance, of course, for
fright and fluster), after the loss of the Diamond was found out? Any
particular quarrel among them? Any one of them not in his or her usual
spirits? Unexpectedly out of temper, for instance? or unexpectedly taken
ill?"

I had just time to think of Rosanna Spearman's sudden illness at
yesterday's dinner--but not time to make any answer--when I saw Sergeant
Cuff's eyes suddenly turn aside towards the shrubbery; and I heard him
say softly to himself, "Hullo!"

"What's the matter?" I asked.

"A touch of the rheumatics in my back," said the Sergeant, in a loud
voice, as if he wanted some third person to hear us. "We shall have a
change in the weather before long."

A few steps further brought us to the corner of the house. Turning off
sharp to the right, we entered on the terrace, and went down, by the
steps in the middle, into the garden below. Sergeant Cuff stopped there,
in the open space, where we could see round us on every side.

"About that young person, Rosanna Spearman?" he said. "It isn't very
likely, with her personal appearance, that she has got a lover. But,
for the girl's own sake, I must ask you at once whether SHE has provided
herself with a sweetheart, poor wretch, like the rest of them?"

What on earth did he mean, under present circumstances, by putting su