“Yes?”
“I should have had the honour of breakfasting with you, tomorrow morning.”
“Come and breakfast with me at Hotherstone’s Farm, instead.”
“Much obliged to you for your kindness, Mr. Franklin. But it wasn’t exactly breakfast that I was driving at. I think you mentioned that you had something to say to me? If it’s no secret, sir,” said Betteredge, suddenly abandoning the crooked way, and taking the straight one, “I’m burning to know what’s brought you down here, if you please, in this sudden way.”
“What brought me here before?” I asked.
“The Moonstone, Mr. Franklin. But what brings you now, sir?”
“The Moonstone again, Betteredge.”
The old man suddenly stood still, and looked at me in the grey twilight as if he suspected his own ears of deceiving him.
“If that’s a joke, sir,” he said, “I’m afraid I’m getting a little dull in my old age. I don’t take it.”
“It’s no joke,” I answered. “I have come here to take up the inquiry which was dropped when I left England. I have come here to do what nobody has done yet—to find out who took the Diamond.”