"Light or heavy whatever goes into the Shivering Sand is sucked down, and seen no more." "Does Rosanna Spearman know that ?" "She knows it as well as I do." "Then," says the Sergeant, "what on earth has she got to do but to tie up a bit of stone in the stained dress and throw it into the quicksand?
There isn't the shadow of a reason why she should have hidden it--and yet she must have hidden it.

Query," says the Sergeant, walking on again, "is the paint-stained dress a petticoat or a night-gown?
or is it something else which there is a reason for preserving at any risk?
Mr.
Betteredge, if nothing occurs to prevent it, I must go to Frizinghall to-morrow, and discover what she bought in the town, when she privately got the materials for making the substitute dress.

It's a risk to leave the house, as things are now--but it's a worse risk still to stir another step in this matter in the dark.

Excuse my being a little out of temper; I'm degraded in my own estimation--I have let Rosanna Spearman puzzle me." When we got back, the servants were at supper.

The first person we saw in the outer yard was the policeman whom Superintendent Seegrave had left at the Sergeant's disposal.