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with saying to the enemies he dreads, ā€˜Kill meā ā€”and you will be no nearer to the Diamond than you are now; it is where you canā€™t get at itā ā€”in the guarded strongroom of a bank.ā€™ He says instead, ā€˜Kill meā ā€”and the Diamond will be the Diamond no longer; its identity will be destroyed.ā€™ What does that mean?ā€

Here I had (as I thought) a flash of the wonderful foreign brightness.

ā€œI know,ā€ I said. ā€œIt means lowering the value of the stone, and cheating the rogues in that way!ā€

ā€œNothing of the sort,ā€ says Mr. Franklin. ā€œI have inquired about that. The flawed Diamond, cut up, would actually fetch more than the Diamond as it now is; for this plain reasonā ā€”that from four to six perfect brilliants might be cut from it, which would be, collectively, worth more money than the largeā ā€”but imperfect single stone. If robbery for the purpose of gain was at the bottom of the conspiracy, the Colonelā€™s instructions absolutely made the Diamond better worth stealing. More money could have been got for it, and the disposal of it in the diamond market would have been infinitely easier, if it had passed through the hands of the workmen of Amsterdam.ā€

ā€œLord bless us, sir!ā€ I burst out. ā€œWhat was the plot, then?ā€

ā€œA plot organised among the Indians who originally owned the jewel,ā€ says Mr. Franklinā ā€”ā€œa plot with some old Hindu superstition at the bottom of it. That is my opinion, confirmed by a family paper which I have about me at this moment.ā€

I saw, now, why the appearance of the three Indian jugglers at our house had presented itself to Mr. Franklin in the light of a circumstance worth noting.

ā€œI donā€™t want to force my opinion on you,ā€ Mr. Franklin went on. ā€œThe idea of certain chosen servants of an old Hindu superstition devoting themselves, through all difficulties and dangers, to watching the opportunity of recovering their sacred gem, appears to me to be perfectly consistent with everything that we know of the patience of Oriental races, and the influence of Oriental religions. But then I am an imaginative man; and the butcher, the baker, and the tax-gatherer, are not the only credible realities in existence to my mind. Let the guess I have made at the truth in this matter go for what it is worth, and let us get on to the only practical question that concerns us. Does the conspiracy against the Moonstone survive the Colonelā€™s death? And did the Colonel know it, when he left the birthday gift to his niece?ā€

I began to see my lady and Miss Rachel at the end of it all, now. Not a word he said escaped me.

ā€œI was not very willing, when I discovered the story of the Moonstone,ā€ said Mr. Franklin, ā€œto be the means of bringing it here. But Mr. Bruff reminded me that somebody must put my cousinā€™s legacy into my cousinā€™s handsā ā€”and that I might as well do it as anybody else. After taking the Diamond out of the bank, I fancied I was followed in the streets by a shabby, dark-complexioned man. I went to my fatherā€™s house to pick up my luggage, and found a letter there, which unexpectedly detained me in London. I went back to the bank with the Diamond, and thought I saw the shabby man again. Taking the Diamond once more out of the bank this morning, I saw the man for the third time, gave him the slip, and started (before he recovered the trace of me) by the morning instead of the afternoon train. Here I am, with the Diamond safe and soundā ā€”and what is the first news that meets me? I find that three strolling Indians have been at the house, and that my arrival from London, and something which I am expected to have about me, are two special objects of investigation to them when they believe themselves to be alone. I donā€™t waste time and words on their pouring the ink into the boyā€™s hand, and telling him to look in it for a man at a distance, and for something in that manā€™s pocket. The thing (which I have often seen done in the East) is ā€˜hocus-pocusā€™ in my opinion, as it is in yours. The present question for us to decide is, whether I am wrongly attaching a meaning to a mere accident? or whether we really have evidence of the Indians being on the track of the Moonstone, the moment it is removed from the safe keeping of the bank?ā€

Neither he nor I seemed to fancy dealing with this part of the inquiry. We looked at each other, and then we looked at the tide, oozing in smoothly, higher and higher, over the Shivering Sand.

ā€œWhat are you thinking of?ā€ says Mr. Franklin, suddenly.

ā€œI was thinking, sir,ā€ I answered, ā€œthat I should like to shy the Diamond into the quicksand, and settle the question in that way.ā€

ā€œIf you have got the value of the stone in your pocket,ā€ answered Mr. Franklin, ā€œsay so, Betteredge, and in it goes!ā€

Itā€™s curious to note, when your mindā€™s anxious, how very far in the way of relief a very small joke will go. We found a fund of merriment, at the time, in the notion of making away with Miss Rachelā€™s lawful property, and getting Mr. Blake, as executor, into dreadful troubleā ā€”though where the merriment was, I am quite at a loss to discover now.

Mr. Franklin was the first to bring the talk back to the talkā€™s proper purpose. He took an envelope out of his pocket, opened it, and handed to me the paper inside.

ā€œBetteredge,ā€ he said, ā€œwe must face the question of the Colonelā€™s motive in leaving this legacy to his niece, for my auntā€™s sake. Bear in mind how Lady Verinder treated her brother from the time when he returned to England, to the time when he told you he should remember his nieceā€™s birthday. And read that.ā€

He gave me the extract from the Colonelā€™s Will. I have got it by me while I write

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