The Moonstone - Page 132/404

I went round with him to the servants' hall. It is very disgraceful,

but it is not the less true, that I had another attack of the

detective-fever, when he said those last words. I forgot that I hated

Sergeant Cuff. I seized him confidentially by the arm. I said, "For

goodness' sake, tell us what you are going to do with the servants now?"

The great Cuff stood stock still, and addressed himself in a kind of

melancholy rapture to the empty air.

"If this man," said the Sergeant (apparently meaning me), "only

understood the growing of roses he would be the most completely perfect

character on the face of creation!" After that strong expression of

feeling, he sighed, and put his arm through mine. "This is how it

stands," he said, dropping down again to business. "Rosanna has done one

of two things. She has either gone direct to Frizinghall (before I

can get there), or she has gone first to visit her hiding-place at the

Shivering Sand. The first thing to find out is, which of the servants

saw the last of her before she left the house."

On instituting this inquiry, it turned out that the last person who had

set eyes on Rosanna was Nancy, the kitchenmaid.

Nancy had seen her slip out with a letter in her hand, and stop the

butcher's man who had just been delivering some meat at the back door.

Nancy had heard her ask the man to post the letter when he got back to

Frizinghall. The man had looked at the address, and had said it was a

roundabout way of delivering a letter directed to Cobb's Hole, to

post it at Frizinghall--and that, moreover, on a Saturday, which would

prevent the letter from getting to its destination until Monday morning,

Rosanna had answered that the delivery of the letter being delayed till

Monday was of no importance. The only thing she wished to be sure of was

that the man would do what she told him. The man had promised to do

it, and had driven away. Nancy had been called back to her work in the

kitchen. And no other person had seen anything afterwards of Rosanna

Spearman.

"Well?" I asked, when we were alone again.

"Well," says the Sergeant. "I must go to Frizinghall."

"About the letter, sir?"

"Yes. The memorandum of the hiding-place is in that letter. I must see

the address at the post-office. If it is the address I suspect, I shall

pay our friend, Mrs. Yolland, another visit on Monday next."

I went with the Sergeant to order the pony-chaise. In the stable-yard we

got a new light thrown on the missing girl.