So the Sergeant began, but the repetition of a long narrative not learnt by heart is by no means an easy matter, especially when they to whom it was first told hear it for the second time, but rather as critics than as ordinary listeners.  Besides, the taking of notes was a process that smacked of a court-martial and tended to flurry the narrator, making him feel as if he were upon his oath and liable to be browbeat by the counsel for the other side.  He was heartily glad when he got to the end of what he had to tell.  The postscript to Captain Chillington’s letter was then read by Miss Hope.

Mr. Madgin took copious notes as the Sergeant went on, and afterwards put a few questions to him on different points which he thought not sufficiently clear.  Then he laid down his pen, rubbed his hands, and ran his fingers through his scanty hair.  Lady Chillington rang for her butler, and gave the Sergeant into his keeping, knowing that he could not be in better hands.  Then she said:  “I will leave you, Mr. Madgin, for half-an-hour.  Go carefully through your notes, and let me have your opinion when I come back as to whether, after so long a time, you think it worth while to institute any proceedings for the recovery of the diamond.”

So Mr. Madgin was left alone with what he called his “considering cap.”  As soon as the door was closed behind her ladyship, he tilted back his chair, stuck his feet on the table, buried his hands deep in his pockets and shut his eyes, and so remained for full five-and-twenty minutes.  He was busy consulting his notes when Lady Chillington re-entered the room.  Mr. Madgin began at once.

“I must confess,” he said, “that the case which your ladyship has submitted to me seems, from what I can see of it at present, to be surrounded with difficulties.  Still, I am far from counselling your ladyship to despair entirely.  The few points which, at the first glance, present themselves as requiring solution are these:—­Who was the M. Platzoff who is said to have stolen the diamond? and what position in life did he really occupy?  Is he alive or dead?  If alive, where is he now living?  If he did really steal the diamond, are not the chances as a hundred to one that he disposed of it long ago?  But even granting that we were in a position to answer all these questions; suppose, even, that this M. Platzoff were living in Eastbury at the present moment, and that fact were known to us, how much nearer should we be to the recovery of the diamond than we are now?  Your ladyship must please to bear in mind that as the case is now we have not an inch of legal ground to stand upon.  We have no evidence that would be worth a rush in a court of law that M. Platzoff really purloined the diamond.  We have no trustworthy evidence that the diamond itself ever had an existence.”

“Surely, Mr. Madgin, my son’s letter is sufficient to prove that fact.”