Our chance of catching the thieves may depend on our not wasting one unnecessary minute." (Nota bene: Whether it was the French side or the English, the right side of Mr.Franklin seemed to be uppermost now.

The only question was, How long would it last ?) He put pen, ink, and paper before his aunt, who (as it appeared to me) wrote the letter he wanted a little unwillingly.

If it had been possible to overlook such an event as the loss of a jewel worth twenty thousand pounds, I believe--with my lady's opinion of her late brother, and her distrust of his birthday-gift--it would have been privately a relief to her to let the thieves get off with the Moonstone scot free.
I went out with Mr.Franklin to the stables, and took the opportunity of asking him how the Indians (whom I suspected, of course, as shrewdly as he did) could possibly have got into the house.
"One of them might have slipped into the hall, in the confusion, when the dinner company were going away," says Mr.Franklin.

"The fellow may have been under the sofa while my aunt and Rachel were talking about where the Diamond was to be put for the night.

He would only have to wait till the house was quiet, and there it would be in the cabinet, to be had for the taking." With those words, he called to the groom to open the gate, and galloped off.
This seemed certainly to be the only rational explanation.