"But between this and the birthday, what's to be done with the Diamond ?" "What your father did with it, to be sure, sir!" I answered.

"Your father put it in the safe keeping of a bank in London.

You put in the safe keeping of the bank at Frizinghall." (Frizinghall was our nearest town, and the Bank of England wasn't safer than the bank there.) "If I were you, sir," I added, "I would ride straight away with it to Frizinghall before the ladies come back." The prospect of doing something--and, what is more, of doing that something on a horse--brought Mr.Franklin up like lightning from the flat of his back.

He sprang to his feet, and pulled me up, without ceremony, on to mine.

"Betteredge, you are worth your weight in gold," he said.