Who is Sergeant Cuff?

Sergeant Cuff is the professional detective called when the Moonstone vanishes. He suspects Rachel yet works methodically — studying paint smears, servant movements, and the trampled rose garden. His patience contrasts with household hysteria and Miss Clack’s tracts. He leaves before resolution but returns when truth nears.

Cuff helps invent the long-form detective novel: not only whodunit but how investigation feels over months. His rose hobby humanizes him. Students comparing Cuff to Collins’s later Cuff-less plots or to Sherlock Holmes should note Cuff’s institutional status and willingness to be wrong about Rachel initially.