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

"I know," I said. "It means lowering the value of the stone, and

cheating the rogues in that way!"

"Nothing of the sort," says Mr. Franklin. "I have inquired about that.

The flawed Diamond, cut up, would actually fetch more than the Diamond

as it now is; for this plain reason--that from four to six perfect

brilliants might be cut from it, which would be, collectively, worth

more money than the large--but imperfect single stone. If robbery for

the purpose of gain was at the bottom of the conspiracy, the Colonel's

instructions absolutely made the Diamond better worth stealing. More

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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."

"Lord bless us, sir!" I burst out. "What was the plot, then?"

"A plot organised among the Indians who originally owned the jewel,"

says Mr. Franklin--"a plot with some old Hindoo superstition at the

bottom of it. That is my opinion, confirmed by a family paper which I

have about me at this moment."

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.

"I don't want to force my opinion on you," Mr. Franklin went on. "The

idea of certain chosen servants of an old Hindoo 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 Colonel's death? And

did the Colonel know it, when he left the birthday gift to his niece?"

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

word he said escaped me.

"I was not very willing, when I discovered the story of the Moonstone,"

said Mr. Franklin, "to be the means of bringing it here. But Mr. Bruff

reminded me that somebody must put my cousin's legacy into my cousin's

hands--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 father'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 sound--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

don't waste time and words on their pouring the ink into the boy's hand,

and telling him to look in it for a man at a distance, and for something

in that man's pocket. The thing (which I have often seen done in the

East) is 'hocus-pocus' 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?"




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