第43章

T HE Thursday night passed, and nothing happened.With the Friday morning came two pieces of news.

Item the first: the baker's man declared he had met Rosanna Spearman, on the previous afternoon, with a thick veil on, walking towards Frizinghall by the footpath way over the moor.It seemed strange that anybody should be mistaken about Rosanna, whose shoulder marked her out pretty plainly, poor thing--but mistaken the man must have been; for Rosanna, as you know, had been all the Thursday afternoon ill upstairs in her room.

Item the second came through the postman.Worthy Mr.Candy had said one more of his many unlucky things, when he drove off in the rain on the birthday night, and told me that a doctor's skin was waterproof.In spite of his skin, the wet had got through him.He had caught a chill that night, and was now down with a fever.The last accounts, brought by the postman, represented him to be light-headed--talking nonsense as glibly, poor man, in his delirium as he often talked it in his sober senses.We were all sorry for the little doctor; but Mr.Franklin appeared to regret his illness, chiefly on Miss Rachel's account.From what he said to my lady, while Iwas in the room at breakfast-time, he appeared to think that Miss Rachel--if the suspense about the Moonstone was not soon set at rest--might stand in urgent need of the best medical advice at our disposal.

Breakfast had not been over long, when a telegram from Mr.Blake, the elder, arrived, in answer to his son.It informed us that he had laid hands (by help of his friend, the Commissioner) on the right man to help us.

The name of him was Sergeant Cuff; and the arrival of him from London might be expected by the morning train.

At reading the name of the new police-officer, Mr.Franklin gave a start.

It seems that he had heard some curious anecdotes about Sergeant Cuff, from his father's lawyer, during his stay in London.

`I begin to hope we are seeing the end of our anxieties already,' he said.`If half the stories I have heard are true, when it comes to unravelling a mystery, there isn't the equal in England of Sergeant Cuff!'

We all got excited and impatient as the time drew near for the appearance of this renowned and capable character.Superintendent Seegrave, returning to us at his appointed time, and hearing that the Sergeant was expected, instantly shut himself up in a room, with pen, ink, and paper, to make notes of the Report which would be certainly expected from him.I should have liked to have gone to the station myself, to fetch the Sergeant.But my lady's carriage and horses were not to be thought of, even for the celebrated Cuff; and the pony-chaise was required later for Mr.Godfrey.He deeply regretted being obliged to leave his aunt at such an anxious time; and he kindly put off the hour of his departure till as late as the last train, for the purpose of hearing what the clever London police-officer thought of the case.But on Friday night he must be in town, having a Ladies' Charity, in difficulties, waiting to consult him on Saturday morning.

When the time came for the Sergeant's arrival, I went down to the gate to look out for him.

A fly from the railway drove up as I reached the lodge; and out got a grizzled, elderly man, so miserably lean that he looked as if he had not got an ounce of flesh on his bones in any part of him.He was dressed all in decent black, with a white cravat round his neck.His face was as sharp as a hatchet, and the skin of it was as yellow and dry and withered as an autumn leaf.His eyes, of a steely light grey, had a very disconcerting trick, when they encountered your eyes, of looking as if they expected something more from you than you were aware of yourself.His walk was soft;his voice was melancholy; his long lanky fingers were hooked like claws.

He might have been a parson, or an undertaker--or anything else you like, except what he really was.A more complete opposite to Superintendent Seegrave than Sergeant Cuff, and a less comforting officer to look at, for a family in distress, I defy you to discover, search where you may.

`Is this Lady Verinder's?' he asked.

`Yes, sir.'

`I am Sergeant Cuff.'

`This way, sir, if you please.'

On our road to the house, I mentioned my name and position in the family, to satisfy him that he might speak to me about the business on which my lady was to employ him.Not a word did he say about the business, however, for all that.He admired the grounds, and remarked that he felt the sea air very brisk and refreshing.I privately wondered, on my side, how the celebrated Cuff had got his reputation.We reached the house, in the temper of two strange dogs, coupled up together for the first time in their lives by the same chain.

Asking for my lady, and hearing that she was in one of the conservatories, we went round to the gardens at the back, and sent a servant to seek her.

While we were waiting, Sergeant Cuff looked through the evergreen arch on our left, spied out our rosery, and walked straight in, with the first appearance of anything like interest that he had shown yet.To the gardener's astonishment, and to my disgust, this celebrated policeman proved to be quite a mine of learning on the trumpery subject of rose-gardens.

`Ah, you've got the right exposure here to the south and sou'west,'

says the Sergeant, with a wag of his grizzled head, and a streak of pleasure in his melancholy voice.`This is the shape for a rosery--nothing like a circle set in a square.Yes, yes; with walks between all the beds.But they oughtn't to be gravel walks like these.Grass, Mr.Gardener--grass walks between your roses; gravel's too hard for them.That's a sweet pretty bed of white roses and blush roses.They always mix well together, don't they? Here's the white musk rose, Mr.Betteredge--our old English rose holding up its head along with the best and the newest of them.Pretty dear!' says the Sergeant, fondling the Musk Rose with his lanky fingers, and speaking to it as if he was speaking to a child.