Location
Bodmin town and Bodmin Moor.
Summary
One June morning, Jeweller Todd is travelling from Launceston to Bodmin by coach, carrying money and a diamond. Also in the coach is Roger Tallis. At the Four Holed Cross, Bolventor, the coach is held up by Gabriel Foot and overturns. Tallis shoots Todd and swallows the diamond, before being shot by Foot. Todd is left by the coach but Tallis is buried in the valley, possibly Colliford, by some lime kilns. The spending of the money brings Foot under suspicion and he is arrested and placed in Bodmin jail. At the trial in October he is acquitted. The barrister suspects that Foot murdered Todd and Tallis, with the diamond lying in the gullet of Tallis. On the night that the barrister is preparing to exhume the body of Tallis, Foot breaks into his house. To prevent Foot from killing him, the barrister takes Foot to the lime kilns and presents him with the diamond. As Foot walks off, the barrister is left with an empty pocket and a clear conscience.