The Moonstone - Page 399/404

THE FINDING OF THE DIAMOND The Statement of SERGEANT CLIFF'S MAN (1849)

On the twenty-seventh of June last, I received instructions from

Sergeant Cuff to follow three men; suspected of murder, and described as

Indians. They had been seen on the Tower Wharf that morning, embarking

on board the steamer bound for Rotterdam.

I left London by a steamer belonging to another company, which sailed

on the morning of Thursday the twenty-eighth. Arriving at Rotterdam,

I succeeded in finding the commander of the Wednesday's steamer. He

informed me that the Indians had certainly been passengers on board his

vessel--but as far as Gravesend only. Off that place, one of the three

had inquired at what time they would reach Calais. On being informed

that the steamer was bound to Rotterdam, the spokesman of the party

expressed the greatest surprise and distress at the mistake which he and

his two friends had made. They were all willing (he said) to sacrifice

their passage money, if the commander of the steamer would only put them

ashore. Commiserating their position, as foreigners in a strange land,

and knowing no reason for detaining them, the commander signalled for a

shore boat, and the three men left the vessel.

This proceeding of the Indians having been plainly resolved on

beforehand, as a means of preventing their being traced, I lost no time

in returning to England. I left the steamer at Gravesend, and discovered

that the Indians had gone from that place to London. Thence, I again

traced them as having left for Plymouth. Inquiries made at Plymouth

proved that they had sailed, forty-eight hours previously, in the BEWLEY

CASTLE, East Indiaman, bound direct to Bombay.

On receiving this intelligence, Sergeant Cuff caused the authorities at

Bombay to be communicated with, overland--so that the vessel might be

boarded by the police immediately on her entering the port. This step

having been taken, my connection with the matter came to an end. I have

heard nothing more of it since that time.