I have decided to see the servants, and to search their thoughts and actions, Mr.Betteredge, instead of searching their wardrobes.

Before I begin, however, I want to ask you a question or two.

You are an observant man--did you notice anything strange in any of the servants (making due allowance, of course, for fright and fluster), after the loss of the Diamond was found out?
Any particular quarrel among them?
Any one of them not in his or her usual spirits?
Unexpectedly out of temper, for instance?
or unexpectedly taken ill ?" I had just time to think of Rosanna Spearman's sudden illness at yesterday's dinner--but not time to make any answer--when I saw Sergeant Cuff's eyes suddenly turn aside towards the shrubbery; and I heard him say softly to himself, "Hullo!" "What's the matter ?" I asked.
"A touch of the rheumatics in my back," said the Sergeant, in a loud voice, as if he wanted some third person to hear us.

"We shall have a change in the weather before long." A few steps further brought us to the corner of the house.

Turning off sharp to the right, we entered on the terrace, and went down, by the steps in the middle, into the garden below.