"In the last year of the 18th century," "Colonel John Herncastle plundered from India a priceless and most sacred yellow diamond." "Vishnu, the preserver, laid his curse on the thief, commanding three priests to search forever for his moonstone." "But the wicked colonel smuggled the stone to England." "In his will, he bequeathed the diamond to his beautiful young niece, Miss Rachel Verinder." "Rachel's gallant cousin, Mr Franklin Blake, was charged with the gem's delivery." "Rachel was bewitched by her diamond, but the next morning, it was gone." "A year later, Franklin and celebrated detective, Sergeant Cuff, reopened the case and learned that Rosanna Spearman," "Rachel's housemaid and former thief, had left a letter for Franklin before her death." "They turned straight back for London, hoping at last to trace the moonstone and its thief." "Coachman is readying the horses now." " Were you expecting visitors?" " Oh, no." "Oh!" "It has been a long, arduous journey." "Miss Clack, you did not receive my telegram." "I hoped to speak to you in London." "Then you hoped in vain." "I am but a poor relation, a church mouse." "I do not have the wherewithal for permanent lodgings in the city." "I agreed to pay, Miss Clack." "Handsomely, I might add." "And it cost me a hard struggle before Christian humility conquered sinful pride and self-denial forced me to accept your cheque." "But I accepted it on the grounds that we speak in Yorkshire." "If you wish for my testimony, we do it here." " I could go on." " Better that I abandon this interview." "The ground we have to cover in London, you cannot cover alone." "But what about...?" "My contacts are already tracing Lucy Yolland." "When they find her, I could cable you, if need be." "And we must watch the jewel broker, Septimus Luker, also." "And he knows your face, so that must needs be me." "Mr Luker figures in your investigation." "How curious!" "I have news of Septimus Luker." "You have not heard of the outrage perpetrated on the jewel broker?" " No." " Of course, I know the intimate detail as an identical attack was committed on an esteemed friend of mine." "And who might that be?" "Mr Godfrey Ablewhite." "Cousin Godfrey?" "I do not understand you." "What happened?" "Some 10 months since, not long after the events of dear Rachel's birthday and the loss of the diamond," "I had cause to visit Mr Godfrey's lodgings." "What business did you have with him?" "I do not expect you to be aware of the Mothers' Small Clothes Conversion Society, but I am on the select committee of that excellent charity." "And my precious, admirable friend, Mr Godfrey Ablewhite, is associated with the work of moral and material usefulness." "You have dedicated meetings for such matters?" "Well, of course." "I had noticed that Mr Godfrey had been missing some meetings of late, and I was concerned for his health." "And I was right to be so." "Mr Godfrey?" "Mr Godfrey?" "Oh!" "Oh, my dear Mr Godfrey!" "Oh!" "Oh!" "Oh." "Oh." "Oh!" "Oh!" "Oh!" "Oh, my dear Mr Godfrey, what has occurred?" "!" "Free my hands and pass me my clothes, Miss Clack." "Ooo!" "Miss Clack!" "Oh!" "Hm." "How came Godfrey to be bound and gagged?" "It transpires that earlier that day," "Mr Godfrey had cause to visit a banking house on Lombard Street." "On gaining the door, he encountered a gentleman, a perfect stranger to him, who was accidentally leaving the office exactly at the same time as himself." "A momentary contest of politeness ensued between them as to who should be the first to pass through the door." "The stranger insisted on making Mr Godfrey precede him." "Mr Godfrey said a few civil words, they bowed and parted in the street." "But before he had gone many paces, he was apprehended by an unseen hand!" "And he awoke some hours later, in his own rooms, in the state as discussed." "His lodgings had been turned over, and Mr Godfrey himself has been searched, if, as a lady, I may venture to use the expression without ceremony, through and through to his skin." " So, what did they take?" " Oh, nothing." "They had acted in error, making a false association between our friend and the man in the bank." "'Twas but a mistake." "So if I understand you correctly, that man must've been the jewel broker, Septimus Luker himself?" "That is correct." "He, too, was followed from the bank." "But his kidnappers profited more by Luker's abduction than by poor, dear Mr Godfrey's." "So, what did they take from Luker?" "The papers say the receipt was for a valuable of great price that Mr Luker had that day placed in the care of his bankers." "The moonstone?" "Perhaps." "Perhaps not." "It stated a valuable only." "Do they have it, then?" "Did the kidnappers collect the gem?" "Oh, no." "There, the infidels fell down." "The document was useless for the purposes of fraud as it provided that the valuable must be given up only on the personal application of Mr Luker himself." "You say infidels." "Who were these kidnappers?" "Have they been identified?" "Mr Luker's landlord could say only that they appeared to be gentlemen of eastern derivation." "Ah!" "Sergeant Cuff's exact prediction, sir." "The guardians closing in on the jewel broker." "But he did not foresee them closing in on cousin Godfrey Ablewhite." "Indeed not!" "Because it was a trifle, a chance encounter with Mr Luker that led those heathens to make a false association with him." "The sergeant said the thief would have a link to Luker, but I never expected this!" "Can it be it could be Mr Godfrey who stole the moonstone?" "It all seems to point to Mr Godfrey." "Our Christian hero, a gentleman of independent wealth with modest outgoings." "A barrister, a true friend to the poor." "No." "I would ask you to look upon more specific predictions than that." "What else did the sergeant say?" "I see you have heard the rumours, Miss Clack." "I had the whole story from the mouth of my aunt herself." "And I understood there was not a shadow of a suspicion on anybody but dear Rachel." "In the mind of Sergeant Cuff." "He did not know her as we do." "Really?" "I am but a... dispassionate observer." "Knowing Rachel's spirit to be essentially unregenerate from childhood upwards, there is very little in this world that would shock me as regards my cousin." "Events might pass from bad to worse, till they end in murder." "And yet I might say to myself," ""Ah, the natural result." ""Oh, dear, dear." "The natural result."" "Nothing of what you have told us is pointed towards Rachel as thief." "Everything, shocking and upsetting as that may be, points towards Godfrey." "I have not finished yet." "You might change your view when you hear dear Rachel's response to the events in question." "I do not understand." "I thought you should know before you next saw dear Mr Godfrey." "You imagine that the jewel this broker was depositing, the motivation for these kidnappings, you believe it to be my diamond?" "Oh, it is not I who believes." "The whole of London is abuzz with talk of the moonstone." "But cloistered as you are, dear cousin," "I..." "I suspected that news might not have reached you." "I imagined you would want to know that the diamond, and, perchance, its thief, seem close to being found out." "Thank you, Mr Bruff." "I'm sure those arrangements will be..." "How did that come to be here?" "!" "It doesn't matter, Mama." "You need protect me no longer." "Please send word to Godfrey, I must see him today." "What to make of this reaction from Rachel." "Like us, she hopes to find her moonstone." "Like us, she's in consternation and panic at the thought that the thief could be someone as close as her cousin Godfrey." "I am sure it does you great credit, Mr Betteredge, that you view it thus." "But I can tell, Mr Franklin Blake, like your great London detective, can see quite a different reading of it." "'I'll wager the diamond is in London.'" "Pledged to Septimus Luker." "And it was Miss Rachel herself that took it there 'and pledged it.'" "I don't presume to argue with a clever man like you, but is it quite fair, sir, to pass over the opinion of the famous detective who investigated this case?" "I judge the sergeant, brilliant though he is, to have been utterly wrong." "Had he but known Rachel's character as I know it, he would've suspected everybody in the house but her." " Oh!" "If you'll excuse my interruption," "Miss Rachel has her faults, she can be secret and self-willed, odd and wild, but I have known her since birth, and she's true as steel." "High-minded and generous to a fault." "If the plainest evidence in the world pointed one way and nothing but Rachel's word of honour pointed the other," "I would take her word before the evidence." " She is so absolutely to be relied on as that?" " She is." "Then permit me to inform you that Mr Godfrey Ablewhite's entire innocence was declared that day during my visit by Miss Verinder herself in the strongest language" "I ever heard used by a young lady in my life." "Tell me... word for word, what exactly did Rachel say?" "My Lady, Mr Godfrey Ablewhite." "Godfrey." "I am charmed to see you." "I wish you had brought Mr Luker with you." "It seems that you and he, as long as our present excitement lasts, are the most interesting men in London." "I think I should take my leave, My Lady." " No." "Stay." " Yes, stay." "I am unfortunate, Rachel." "No man knows less of Mr Luker than I." "And yet I learn that you were both kidnapped in identical circumstances." "It is thought, is it not, that these kidnappers are the same as those entertainers that came to our house in the country?" "Some people think so." "Please, Rachel, leave the matter be." "I cannot, Mama." "Tell me plainly, Godfrey, do these people also say that Mr Luker's valuable gem is the moonstone?" "They do." "Mr Luker has, over and over, solemnly declared that until this scandal assailed him, he'd never heard of the moonstone." "And these vile people reply without a shadow of proof that he has his reasons for concealment, and decline to believe him on his oath." "Shameful!" "Shameful." "An unlucky accident has associated you in people's minds with Mr Luker." "You have told me what scandal says of him, what does scandal say of you?" "Don't ask me." "It is better forgotten, Rachel, it is." " I will hear it!" " Oh, tell her, Godfrey." "Nothing can do her such harm as you do by your silence now." "If you will have it, Rachel." "Scandal says the gem in pledge to Mr Luker is the moonstone and that I am the man who's pawned it." "This gossip, this stain on your name," "Godfrey, it is my fault." "I have sacrificed myself." "I had the right to do that if I liked but to let an innocent man be ruined, that I cannot bear." "Dear Rachel, you exaggerate." "My reputation stands too high to be destroyed by a miserable passing scandal like this." "Let us never speak of it again." "I must and will stop it." "Mama, Mr Bruff, Miss Clack, hear what I say." "I know the hand that took the moonstone." "What?" "Who?" "The very question on the lips of all who heard her speak, Mr Blake." "Well, then, Rachel, you must tell us who he is." "Give us a name." "I cannot." "But I know..." "I know Godfrey Ablewhite is innocent." "Mr Bruff, please draw up a declaration of Godfrey's innocence on paper and I will sign it." "Do as I say or I'll write it to the newspapers." "I'll go out and cry it in the streets." "Aunt Verinder, let me comfort you." "It is not comfort that I need." "Quick, six drops in water." "You have surprised a secret, Drusilla." "But I trust once I tell you the circumstance that I can be sure of your discretion?" "Oh, dear aunt, you can trust me absolutely." "The truth of the matter is that I have been seriously ill for some time past and, strange to say, without knowing it myself." "When I came to London, I consulted a doctor on Rachel's health." "However, he proved more seriously concerned with my own." "For some years, it transpires," "I have been suffering under an insidious form of heart disease which has fatally broken me down." "Oh, dearest aunt." "I have come to realise I am lucky to have the chance with Mr Bruff to set my affairs in order." "I may not have long... ..but my one great anxiety is that Rachel should not learn the truth." "You do promise not to tell her, don't you, my dear?" "Oh, yes." "Oh, dear aunt, I do." "If she should learn of my condition, she should at once attribute it to anxiety over the diamond and would reproach herself bitterly, poor child, for whatever secret she has burdened herself with these past weeks." "Please do not worry, aunt." "Rachel shall remain in absolute ignorance." "You have me here now to tend your soul." "'I left my aunt recovering there with a helpful tract 'and re-joined Rachel and her heathen lawyer.'" "Show it everywhere." "Don't think of me." "I'm afraid, Godfrey, I have not done you justice hitherto in my thoughts." "You are a better man than I believed you to be." "Come here when you can and I will try to repair the wrong I have done you." "Rachel..." "I know I am over anxious." "I must go calm myself with a book." "I fear I have made you anxious too." "Ooh, you have no need to worry about me." "Mr Godfrey..." "You wish me to go against dear Rachel's wishes." "Well, let's just call it a pious fraud if you will." "Let Rachel suppose that you accept the generous self-sacrifice with which she signed that letter." "Mr Godfrey!" "A trifling inconvenience that I may suffer is as nothing compared to the importance of preserving that pure name from the contaminating contact of the world." "You've reduced it to a harmless little heap of ashes." "And our dear impulsive Rachel will never know what we have done." "Why would Godfrey burn a document exonerating him, even under duress?" "Well, a true gentleman always protects a lady's honour above his own." "Begging your pardon, sir, what lady, whose honour?" "What Miss Clack implies, Betteredge, is that if Rachel can state absolutely that the thief was not Godfrey, if she admits she knows the identity of the thief..." "There must be a reason, surely, for this extraordinary conduct on Rachel's part." "She admits she is keeping a sinful secret." "She admits she is guilty of allowing an innocent man to be painted a thief." "She is horrified by and yet obsessed with every detail of Mr Luker's abduction." "Could this be because HER secret is threatened with discovery?" "When first you arrived, Miss Clack," "I thought your need for money drove you and then perhaps your admiration for Godfrey led you to imagine yourself closer to him by means of being his defence." "I do not understand." "But now... ..I see that it is hatred of Rachel that makes you seek to bring her down." "Why do you hate her so?" "Is it jealousy that eats at you?" "Jealousy?" "Hatred?" "Oh, I wish I could find the words to describe the... the compassion I feel for this miserable and misguided girl, but, alas, I am almost as poorly provided with words as with money." "It was not I, but the great London detective who said it" " and now the evidence plainly bears it out." " No." "Everything suggests that dear Rachel stole her own diamond." "We are not finished." "What happened next?" "'The next event of any note occurred some months later.'" "Is there something you want, Drusilla?" "Give your attention, dear aunt, to this precious tract and you will give me all I ask." "I'm afraid, my dear, you will have to wait until I'm a little better before I can read that." "The doctor tells me I am not so well this morning." ""Do nothing to weaken your head or to quicken your pulse."" "Those were his words before he left me today." "Then I will leave it with you." "It is my own precious copy, turned down at all the right pages and marked in pencil where you are to stop and ask yourself, "Does this apply to me?"" "I will do what I can to please you, my dear." "Oh, it is not for my pleasure, dear aunt." "No indeed." "I only seek to redeem you from your life of sin." "I only seek to save you from your certain fate - the burning pains of everlasting hell fire." "Water, please, Drusilla." "Miss Clack." "I must to the afternoon service now, dear." "I'll return this evening at our usual time." "Miss Clack..." "The doctor asked you to give Lady Verinder some peace." "Eternal peace is what I seek to give her." "Mr Bruff, is Mama no better?" "Well, she's..." "She's rather out of sorts today." "This must be worse than the doctors imagine." "She shows no improvement in weeks." "She is due to improve any day now, dear Rachel." "I give you my word, your poor mama will be perfectly better any day." "Mama." "Mama!" "What's wrong with her, why doesn't she wake?" "Oh, Rachel, I'm so sorry." "I will go and fetch the doctor back." "Better that you stay." ""Perfectly better."" "I understand you now." "You kept this from me." "Both of you." "We did exactly as your mother requested." "I mistook you." "At last I see it." "I thought you a fool, but you are a devil." "Leave us." "Leave us!" "(Rachel...)" "Mama." "Mama." "I am sorry." "I did not know you were so ill." "I have been so selfish." "I should not have kept you from my innermost thoughts." "I should have told you... ..about the moonstone." "'Tis no matter." "No matter." "'The moonstone?" "What about the moonstone?" "'" "What was she about to say?" "I have worked wonders with murderesses but I have never advanced an inch with cousin Rachel." "Praise the Lord." "Praise him indeed." "What could she have possibly known about the theft that she would want so to tell her mother on her deathbed?" "From Cuff." "He's arrived in London to learn his contacts have a lead on Lucy Yolland." "He hopes to track her down within days and Rosanna's dying secrets with her." "You must make haste, sir." "Was the moonstone never mentioned in the aftermath of my aunt's death?" "I could not say." "'Rachel became quite inaccessible after her mother's death." "'She dropped all pretence of social nicety 'and gave in to her grief in a most selfish and indulgent manner.'" "SOBBING" "My deepest condolences." "It is my fault." "I should never have kept her in the dark." "Worry about the moonstone killed her." "Dear Rachel, I am sure that isn't true." "Do not think that you are all alone in the world." "I will always stand by you." "Drusilla." "I'm so glad you came." "I have been in the habit of speaking very foolishly and very rudely to you on former occasions." "I hope you will forgive me." "I don't know what to say." "In my poor mother's lifetime, her friends were not always my friends too." "Now I have lost her, my heart looks for comfort to the people she liked." "She liked you." "Try to be friends with me, Drusilla, if you can." "My dear, dear cousin, it is a terrible sight here in Christian England to see a young woman with so little idea of where to find true comfort." "Your suckle lies here, dear Rachel." "Take these pamphlets to your heart." "I'm sorry, Drusilla, it would be falsehood to take these." " I shall not read them." " Rachel." "Don't concern yourself, Penelope." "I can find my way out." "You should go home." "But I would not leave you alone." "Who else do you have to support you now?" "There is family." "Miss Clack?" "I am serious." "Better you stay away from this cursed house." "Oh, don't say that, Rachel." "Oh, if only you knew how much happier I am here with you." "It's hard to get over one's bad habits, Godfrey, but do try to get over the habit of paying compliments." "Do, to please me." "I've never paid you a compliment, Rachel, in my life." "A successful love may sometimes use the language of flattery, I admit." "But a hopeless love, dearest, it always speaks the truth." "Have you forgotten?" "We agreed to be cousins and then nothing more." "Oh, I break that agreement every time I see you." "Then don't see me." "Oh, Rachel... ..how kindly you told me only weeks ago that my place in your estimation was in a higher place than it has ever been yet." "Am I mad to build the dreams I do on those dear words?" "No." "No, don't tell me so if I am." "Leave me my delusions." "I must have that to comfort me if I have nothing else." "Are you really sure you are so fond of me as that?" "I have lost every interest in my life but my interest in you." "My charitable business is an unendurable nuisance to me." "When I see a ladies' committee now," "I wish myself at the uttermost ends of the earth." "You have made your confession." "I wonder whether it would cure you of your unhappy attachment to me if I made mine." "Your confession?" "Would you think to look at me that I am the wretchedest girl living?" "What greater wretchedness can there be than to live degraded in your own estimation?" "She confessed?" "She cannot truly have been confessing to the theft of the moonstone." "What did she go on to say?" "She admitted to dear Godfrey, in the teeth of his declaration of love, that she loved another." "Who?" "She did not say, but since he yet claimed her affections, then despite the futility of her devotions, she could not find any love for poor Godfrey." "Am I mad to dream that she might refer to me?" "Is there hope yet?" "I shall relate what remains of their conversation, and let you be the judge of that." "I have dropped to my right place in your estimation, haven't I?" "Oh, don't pity me, for God's sake." "Go away." "Noble creature." "A woman who will sacrifice her pride, rather than sacrifice an honest man who loves her." "A most priceless of all treasures, and you judge on your place in my estimation is when I implore you, on my knees, to let the cure of your poor, wounded heart be my care." "Rachel, will you honour me, will you bless me by being my wife?" "Godfrey, you must be mad." "No, I have never spoken more reasonably, dearest, in your interest as well as in mine." " How so?" " But look for a moment to the future." "Is your happiness to be sacrificed to a man who has never known how you feel towards him, and whom you have resolved never to see again?" "Is it not your duty to yourself to forget this ill-fated attachment?" "Perhaps, but..." "Forgetfulness cannot be found in the life you are leading now, my point precisely." "You've tried that life." "You're wearying of it already." "Surround yourself with nobler interests than the wretched interests of the world, a..." "A heart... that loves none as you." "A home whose peaceful claims and happy duties win gently on you day by day, try consolation that is to be found there." "Did you not hear me?" "Godfrey, I do not love you." "I do not ask for your love." "I would be content with your respect and admiration." "Let the rest be confidently left to your husband's devotion, and..." " at a time that heals all wounds." " Don't tempt me, Godfrey." "I am wretched and reckless enough as it is." "Do not tempt me to be more wretched and more reckless still." "Just one question, Rachel." "Have you any personal objection to me?" "I always liked you." "After what you have just said to me, it should be insensible indeed if I didn't respect and admire you as well." "Then marry the man, dearest, who is now at your feet, who prizes your respect and admiration over the love of any other woman on the face of the earth." "Gently, Godfrey, I tell you again I am miserable enough and desperate enough, if you say another word, to marry you on your own terms." " Take the warning and go." " I..." "I will not even rise from my knees till you've said yes." "If I agree, you will repent, and I shall repent when it is too late." "No, we shall both bless the day, darling, I pressed and you yielded." "You won't hurry me, Godfrey." "Time shall be yours." "And you won't ask me for more than I can give." "My angel... ..I only ask that you give me yourself." "Then take me." "It has..." "It has not been announced." "I've heard nothing from Bruff, Betteredge." "I've heard nothing of this from Penelope, sir." "Due to her mother's recent death and last year's terrible scandal, of course, the engagement's for family ears only." "Then why reveal it now?" "Mr Blake, I am under oath." "And, of course, I suppose you are family." "When is the wedding?" "Tomorrow." "Why Brighton?" "The Ablewhites have taken a house there for the season." "It is a very quiet event, as you see, or I would be attending myself." "My solicitor meets us in London tonight." "He will see you on your onward journey." "You will miss the last train and travel on at first light." "Even if you arrive before the wedding, you shall not be able to prevent it, you know that." "Why are you glad to see me too late?" "Hmm?" "You do not want them married any more than I." "Or is it just that misery loves company?" "I pity you, Miss Clack." " Bruff." " Ah." " You received my cable?" " I did." "I entrust Miss Clack to your care." "Please see her to a respectable hotel, and book her safe passage home tomorrow." "Mr Franklin, may I have a few words with you?" "Did you know about the wedding?" "How many times since my return from Italy have I asked you about Rachel?" "Mr Franklin..." "Why did you not tell me she was marrying Godfrey Ablewhite?" "Miss Clack, would you please excuse us?" "It was not my secret to give." "Is there anything else you've been keeping from me?" "No, I swear it." "I shall find another solicitor for my business." "Well, that is your prerogative." "But, Mr Franklin, I did not come halfway across London merely to chaperone Miss Clack." " I have important news." " About the moonstone?" " No, it is..." " Well, then, I bid you goodnight." "News concerning Rachel." "Believe me, Mr Franklin, you WILL want to hear it." "Today, on behalf of another client, I happened to find myself in the doctors' commons, to examine a will." "There, in the ledger, I spied a familiar name in the list of wills viewed." "Someone has examined my Aunt Verinder's will?" "Three months since." "The very day of her funeral, before her body was cold in the ground." "For what reason?" "Well, there's nothing in the will that can be contested, so no-one would have the slightest LEGAL interest in examining it." "Were you able to discover who it was?" "I have come directly from the solicitor's office." "I managed..." "Well, I..." "I persuaded them to release the name of their client." "Who, man?" "Who?" "!" "Godfrey Ablewhite." "Godfrey looked at the will on the morning of my aunt's funeral?" "And then proposed to her daughter that very afternoon." "I take it Rachel is the sole beneficiary?" "She owns everything." "Until she takes a husband." "He wants her for her money alone." "At least we know that Godfrey is not our thief." "If he had taken the moonstone, he wouldn't need to marry for money." "I must ensure Rachel knows before she marries him." "We have no need to wait for the morning train." "I have a coach outside." "The driver has sworn to me he can get us there in four hours." "We can talk to Rachel at first light." "That is, if you're willing to travel with me." "Well, where are you going?" "We cannot stop to talk." "What am I to do?" "You have your money, Miss Clack." "I should let dear Godfrey know it." "It is possible he may yet be in search of a bride." "Miss Clack." "Oh!" "Wait!" "By Jupiter, Mr Blake, you are a hard man to track down." "You received my telegram?" "To say I had a clue as to the whereabouts of Lucy Yolland." " Have you found her?" " I have." "And Rosanna Spearman's letter with her, but she will only hand it to you in person." "I must to Brighton tonight." "And pass up the opportunity to solve this mystery?" "It will wait." "No, no, no, no." "The news that I have for Rachel may well drive her away from Godfrey, but were you to solve the mystery of the moonstone, that could drive Rachel towards you." "Sir, you have to come with me." "I will go and see Rachel." "I will do everything in my power to stop this marriage." "Lucy, I present Franklin Blake." "Miss Yolland, I..." "Stand there." "I want to look at you." "I think you have got a letter to give me." "Say that again." "You..." "You have a letter for me?" "No, can't see it." "Can't see what?" " Murderer." " That is slander." "He has been the death of Rosanna Spearman." "You cannot blame me for that." "I was not even present when she made her fatal slip into the sands." "And they call me crippled." "You are blind, Franklin Blake." "You do not deserve her explanations." "Go back to your denial, and your privilege." " I have nothing for you here." " Miss Yolland," "I do not know the contents of the letter Rosanna sent you, and I..." "I can't imagine the reason why she sent it, but it is her last communication." "A missive, as it were, from the grave." "If it were Rosanna's last wish for Mr Blake to receive the letter..." "Then she was a fool!" "The finger of suspicion fell on Rosanna in her lifetime." "I was always kind to her." "Were you now?" "What a gent" "Mr Blake, the day is not far off when the poor will rise against the rich, and I pray heaven it may begin with you." "You speak as if I have wronged her." "Let me assure you I did Rosanna no wrong." "I was mistaken." "You DO need to hear what she has to say." "Take it." "I never set eyes on you afore." "God Almighty forbid I should ever see you again." "You were right." "She did keep a memorandum." "A map." "And instructions." "To where she sank the box in the sands." "The diamond is yet within my grasp, and Rachel's heart with it." "I go to Yorkshire at first light." "Rosanna Spearman had a hiding place, and here it is." "Have we met before?" "It's a strange thing about the diamond, sir." "It's a cruel trap!" "We are about to meet our thief." "Who is it, sir?" "Who is our thief?"