Chapter 2
A Surprise in the Garden
Harry could not think of anything to say. All he could do was look at the diamonds. The man was silent for a long time, too, before he finally spoke.
'Now I understand. You stole these and ran away. But don't worry, I see there are enough for two here.'
He went down on his knees and started to quickly pick up the diamonds and put them back in the hatbox.
'Let's go inside where no one can see us,' said the man, getting up.
The two men walked across the garden. Harry was so afraid he still could not speak. He understood that he was in big trouble.
The idea that Lady Vandeleur was doing something dishonest made Harry sad. He thought, 'Now I understand why Sir Thomas shouted at his wife before I left the house. She's spending too much money. She probably wanted to sell her diamonds to pay her bills.'
Just as Harry and the man were about to go into the man's house, a young man came into the garden. By the way he was dressed, Harry could see he was either a priest or studying to become a priest.
The older man touched Harry's arm and whispered, 'Don't say a word.'
Then he said, 'Hello, Mr Rolles, this is a young friend of mine who came to see my beautiful roses.'
'How do you do? Oh, but haven't we met before?' asked Mr Rolles. 'Aren't you Mr Hartley?'
The man did not give Harry time to answer. He quickly pushed Harry inside the house and said, 'I'm sorry, Mr Rolles, but my friend can't stay long; we really must go now.'
So Harry and the man went inside and left Mr Rolles outside in the garden.
The man immediately closed the curtains and then he sat down at the table. He divided Lady Vandeleur's diamonds into two unequal piles. He gave the smaller one to Harry.
'Now leave and don't ever come here again!' he said angrily.
Harry did not know what to do, but he knew he could not fight this man. The man then pushed him into the street and he fell to the ground. The diamonds in his pocket were now all over the road. As he lay there a man in dark clothes appeared and quickly picked up most of the diamonds and ran off. Now what could he say to Lady Vandeleur?
When Harry got back to the Vandeleur house he found Sir Thomas, Lady Vandeleur and Charlie Pendragon waiting for him. Obviously Sir Thomas now knew everything about his wife's plans to sell the diamonds. Harry gave Sir Thomas the few diamonds he still had, but Sir Thomas was so angry, both with his wife and Harry, that he didn't believe the story of the man in the garden.
Finally, when he was a bit calmer he said, 'And now, Mr Hartley, I'm going to take you straight to the police station. You can tell them everything.'
Harry knew he had no choice but to go with Sir Thomas. When they got there, Harry told his story to an inspector.
The inspector listened carefully and after Harry stopped talking said, 'I'll take you back to that man's house again. If what you say is true, we must find this man and get the diamonds back immediately.'
But while Harry and the inspector were walking back to the man's house, Mr Rolles was still in the garden, thinking.
After meeting his landlord's friend, Mr Rolles was certain that it was Sir Thomas Vandeleur's private secretary, Harry Hartley. This made him curious about why Harry was there. He could not believe that Harry really was a friend of his dishonest landlord, Mr Raeburn.
So Mr Rolles decided to look around the garden. He noticed some damaged roses near the garden wall and was curious to find out why. This was very strange because Mr Raeburn loved his roses. Near them he saw a piece of material and recognised it as the same material as that of Harry's trousers. Now he knew how Harry got into the garden and how the roses were damaged.
'Well, well, this is becoming quite interesting,' thought Mr Rolles.
Just then, he noticed something buried under the roses. He quickly dug it out with his foot. It was a leather jewellery box. Clearly, his landlord and Harry did not know about it.
Mr Rolles turned the box in his hands. He then opened it and was amazed to see what was inside. On a piece of soft, green velvet was the largest diamond Mr Rolles ever saw. He knew very little about diamonds, but he knew at once that this was very probably the most precious diamond in the world.