for forcing me
to tell her foolish story at second hand. However, there was no help for
it now but to mention the circumstances. Mr. Franklin's merriment all
died away as I went on. He sat knitting his eyebrows, and twisting his
beard. When I had done, he repeated after me two of the questions which
the chief juggler had put to the boy--seemingly for the purpose of
fixing them well in his mind.

"'Is it on the road to this house, and on no other, that the English
gentleman will travel to-day?' 'Has the English gentleman got It about
him?' I suspect," says Mr. Franklin, pulling a little sealed paper
parcel out of his pocket, "that 'It' means THIS. And 'this,' Betteredge,
means my uncle Herncastle's famous Diamond."

"Good Lord, sir!" I broke out, "how do you come to be in charge of the
wicked Colonel's Diamond?"

"The wicked Colonel's will has left his Diamond as a birthday present
to my cousin Rachel," says Mr. Franklin. "And my father, as the wicked
Colonel's executor, has given it in charge to me to bring down here."

If the sea, then oozing in smoothly over the Shivering Sand, had been
changed into dry land before my own eyes, I doubt if I could have been
more surprised than I was when Mr. Franklin spoke those words.

"The Colonel's Diamond left to Miss Rachel!" says I. "And your father,
sir, the Colonel's executor! Why, I would have laid any bet you like,
Mr. Franklin, that your father wouldn't have touched the Colonel with a
pair of tongs!"

"Strong language, Betteredge! What was there against the Colonel. He
belonged to your time, not to mine. Tell me what you know about him, and
I'll tell you how my father came to be his executor, and more besides.
I have made some discoveries in London about my uncle Herncastle and his
Diamond, which have rather an ugly look to my eyes; and I want you to
confirm them. You called him the 'wicked Colonel' just now. Search your
memory, my old friend, and tell me why."

I saw he was in earnest, and I told him.

Here follows the substance of what I said, written out entirely for your
benefit. Pay attention to it, or you will be all abroad, when we get
deeper into the story. Clear your mind of the children, or the dinner,
or the new bonnet, or what not. Try if you can't forget politics,
horses, prices in the City, and grievances at the club. I hope you won't
take this freedom on my part amiss; it's only a way I have of appealing
to the gentle reader. Lord! haven't I seen you