The Moonstone - Page 334/404

"You have made it so clear," I said, "that I want you to go farther.

You have shown me how I entered the room, and how I came to take the

Diamond. But Miss Verinder saw me leave the room again, with the jewel

in my hand. Can you trace my proceedings from that moment? Can you guess

what I did next?"

"That is the very point I was coming to," he rejoined. "It is a question

with me whether the experiment which I propose as a means of vindicating

your innocence, may not also be made a means of recovering the lost

Diamond as well. When you left Miss Verinder's sitting-room, with

the jewel in your hand, you went back in all probability to your own

room----"

"Yes? and what then?"

"It is possible, Mr. Blake--I dare not say more--that your idea of

preserving the Diamond led, by a natural sequence, to the idea of hiding

the Diamond, and that the place in which you hid it was somewhere in

your bedroom. In that event, the case of the Irish porter may be your

case. You may remember, under the influence of the second dose of

opium, the place in which you hid the Diamond under the influence of the

first."

It was my turn, now, to enlighten Ezra Jennings. I stopped him, before

he could say any more.

"You are speculating," I said, "on a result which cannot possibly take

place. The Diamond is, at this moment, in London."

He started, and looked at me in great surprise.

"In London?" he repeated. "How did it get to London from Lady Verinder's

house?"

"Nobody knows."

"You removed it with your own hand from Miss Verinder's room. How was it

taken out of your keeping?"

"I have no idea how it was taken out of my keeping."

"Did you see it, when you woke in the morning?"

"No."

"Has Miss Verinder recovered possession of it?"

"No."

"Mr. Blake! there seems to be something here which wants clearing up.

May I ask how you know that the Diamond is, at this moment, in London?"

I had put precisely the same question to Mr. Bruff when I made my first

inquiries about the Moonstone, on my return to England. In answering

Ezra Jennings, I accordingly repeated what I had myself heard from the

lawyer's own lips--and what is already familiar to the readers of these

pages.