 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. Prologue. The Storming of Serengetta Pam, 1799. Extract from a family paper. I address these lines, written in India, to my relatives in England. My object is to explain the motive which has induced me to refuse the right hand of friendship to my cousin, John Hearncastle. The reserve, which I have hitherto maintained in this matter, has been misinterpreted by members of my family whose good opinion I cannot consent to forfeit. I request them to suspend their decision until they have read my narrative. And I declare, upon my word of honour, that what I am now about to write is strictly and literally the truth. The private difference between my cousin and me took its rise in a great public event in which we were both concerned. The Storming of Serengetta Pam under General Baird on the 4th of May 1799. In order that the circumstances may be clearly understood, I must revert for a moment to the period before the assault, and to the stories current in our camp of the treasure in jewels and gold stored up in the palace of Serengetta Pam. One of the wildest of these stories related to a yellow diamond, a famous gem in the native annals of India. The earliest known traditions describe the stone as having been set in the forehead of the four-handed Indian god, who typifies the moon. Partly from its peculiar colour, partly from a superstition which represented it as feeling the influence of the deity whom it adorned, and growing and lessening and luster with the waxing and waning of the moon, it first gained the name by which it continues to be known in India to this day, the name of the Moonstone. A similar superstition was once prevalent, as I have heard, in ancient Greece and Rome, not applying, however, as in India, to a diamond devoted to the service of a god, but to a semi-transparent stone of the inferior order of gems, supposed to be affected by the lunar influences, the moon, in this latter case also, giving the name by which the stone is still known to collectors of our own time. The adventures of the yellow diamond began with the 11th century of the Christian era. At that date, the Muhammadan conqueror Mahmud of Gijni crossed India, seized on the holy city of Somnath, and stripped of its treasures the famous temple which had stood for centuries, the shrine of Hindu pilgrimage and the wonder of the eastern world. Of all the deities worshipped in the temple, the moon god alone escaped the rapacity of the conquering Muhammadans. Preserved by three Brahmins, the inviolate deity, bearing the yellow diamond in its forehead, was removed by night, and was transported to the second of the sacred cities of India, the city of Benares. Here, in a new shrine, in a hall inlaid with precious stones, under a roof supported by pillars of gold, the moon god was set up and worshipped. Here, on the night when the shrine was completed, Vishnu, the preserver, appeared to the three Brahmins in a dream. The deity breathed the breath of his divinity on the diamond in the forehead of the god, and the Brahmins knelt and hid their faces in their robes. The deity commanded that the moon stone should be watched from that time forth by three priests in turn, night and day, to the end of the generations of men. And the Brahmins heard and bowed before his will. The deity predicted certain disaster to the presumptuous mortal who laid hands on the sacred gem, and to all of his house and name who received it after him. And the Brahmins caused the prophecy to be written over the gates of the shrine in letters of gold. One age followed another, and still, generation after generation, the successors of the three Brahmins watched their priceless moon stone night and day. One age followed another, until the first years of the eighteenth century saw the reign of Arangzebe, emperor of the moguls. At his command Havok and Rapin were let loose once more among the temples of the worship of Brahma. The shrine of the four-handed god was polluted by the slaughter of the sacred animals. The images of the deities were broken in pieces, and the moon stone was seized by an officer of rank in the army of Arangzebe. Powerless to recover their lost treasure by open force, the three guardian priests followed and watched it in disguise. The generations succeeded each other. The warrior who had committed the sacrilege perished miserably. The moon stone passed, carrying its curse with it, from one lawless Muhammadan hand to another, and still, through all chances and changes, the successors of the three guardian priests kept their watch, waiting the day when the will of Vishnu the Preserver should restore to them their sacred gem. Time rolled on from the first to the last years of the eighteenth Christian century. The diamond fell into the possession of Tipu, Sultan of Serangatapam, who caused it to be placed as an ornament in the handle of a dagger, and who commanded it to be kept among the choicest treasures of his armory. Even then, in the palace of the Sultan himself, the three guardian priests still kept their watch in secret. There were three officers of Tipu's household, strangers to the rest, who had won their master's confidence by conforming, or appearing to conform, to the Muslim faith. And to those three men, report pointed as the three priests in disguise. So, as told in our camp, ran the fanciful story of the moon stone. It made no serious impression on any of us, except my cousin, whose love of the marvellous induced him to believe it. On the night before the assault on Serangatapam, he was absurdly angry with me and with others, for treating the whole thing as a fable. A foolish wrangle followed, and Heron Castle's unlucky temper got the better of him. He declared in his boastful way that we should see the diamond on his finger if the English army took Serangatapam. The sally was saluted by a roar of laughter, and there, as we all thought that night, the thing ended. Let me now take you on to the day of the assault. My cousin and I were separated at the outset. I never saw him when we forded the river, when we planted the English flag in the first breach, when we crossed the ditch beyond and, fighting every inch of our way, entered the town. It was only at dusk when the place was ours, and after General Baird himself had found the dead body of Tipu under a heap of the slain that Heron Castle and I met. We were each attached to a party sent out by the general's orders to prevent the plunder and confusion which followed our conquest. The camp followers committed deplorable excesses, and, worse still, the soldiers found their way by a guarded door into the treasury of the palace and loaded themselves with gold and jewels. It was in the court outside the treasury that my cousin and I met to enforce the laws of discipline on our own soldiers. Heron Castle's fiery temper had been, as I could plainly see, exasperated to a kind of frenzy by the terrible slaughter through which we had passed. He was very unfit, in my opinion, to perform the duty that had been entrusted to him. There was riot and confusion enough in the treasury, but no violence that I saw. The men, if I may use such an expression, disgraced themselves good-humidly. All sorts of rough jests and catch words were banded about among them, and the story of the diamond turned up again unexpectedly in the form of a mischievous joke. Whose Got the Moonstone was the rallying cry which perpetually caused the plundering as soon as it was stopped in one place to break out in another. While I was still vainly trying to establish order I heard a frightful yelling on the other side of the courtyard and at once ran towards the cries in dread of finding some new outbreak of the pillage in that direction. I got to an open door and saw the bodies of two Indians by their dress, I guessed, officers of the palace lying across the entrance dead. A cry inside hurried me into a room which appeared to serve as an armory. A third Indian, mortally wounded, was sinking at the feet of a man whose back was towards me. The man turned at the instant when I came in and I saw John Herncastle with a torch in one hand and a dagger dripping with blood in the other. A stone set like a pommel in the end of the dagger's handle flashed in the torchlight as he turned on me like a gleam of fire. The dying Indian sank to his knees, appointed to the dagger in Herncastle's hand and said in his native language, the Moonstone will have its vengeance yet on you and yours. He spoke those words and fell dead on the floor. Before I could stir in the matter the men who had followed me across the courtyard crowded in. My cousin rushed to meet them like a madman. Clear the room, he shouted to me, and set a guard on the door. The men fell back as he threw himself on them with his torch and his dagger. I put two sentinels of my own company on whom I could rely to keep the door. Through the remainder of the night I saw no more of my cousin. Early in the morning, the plunder still going on, General Baird announced publicly by beat of drum that any thief detected in the fact, be he whom he might, should be hung. The provost Marshall was in attendance to prove that the general wasn't earnest and in the throng that followed the proclamation, Herncastle and I met again. He held out his hand to me as usual and said good morning. I waited before I gave him my hand in return. Tell me first, I said, how the Indian in the armory met his death and what those last words meant when he pointed to the dagger in your hand. The Indian met his death, as I suppose, by a mortal wound, said Herncastle. What his last words mean I know no more than you do. I looked at him narrowly. His frenzy of the previous day had all calmed down. I determined to give him another chance. Is that all you have to tell me? I asked. He answered, that is all. I turned my back on him and we have not spoken since. I beg it to be understood that what I write here about my cousin unless some necessity should arise from making it public is for the information of the family only. Herncastle had said nothing that can justify me in speaking to our commanding officer. He has been taunted more than once about the diamond by those who recollect his angry outbreak before the assault. But, as may easily be imagined, his own remembrance of the circumstances under which I surprised him in the armory has been enough to keep him silent. It is reported that he means to exchange into another regiment, particularly for the purpose of separating himself from me. Whether this be true or not I cannot prevail upon myself to become his accuser and I think with good reason. If I made the matter public I have no evidence but moral evidence to bring forward. I have not only no proof that he killed the two men at the door I cannot even declare that he killed the third man inside for I cannot say that my own eyes saw the deed committed. It is true that I heard the dying Indians' words but if those words were pronounced to be the ravings of delirium how could I contradict this assertion from my own knowledge? Let our relatives on either side form their own opinion of what I have written and decide for themselves whether the aversion which I now feel towards this man is well or ill founded. Although I attach no sort of credit to the fantastic Indian legend of the gem I must acknowledge before I conclude that I am influenced by a certain superstition of my own in this matter. It is my conviction or my delusion no matter which that crime brings its own fatality with it. I am not only persuaded of Herne Castle's guilt I am even fanciful enough to believe that he will live to regret it in his diamond and that others will live to regret taking it from him if he gives the diamond away. End of Prologue. 1848 Events related by Gabriel Betteridge House-Steward in the service of Julia Lady Verinder Chapter 1 In the first part of Robinson Crusoe at page 129 you will find it thus written Now I saw, though too late, the folly of beginning a work before we count the cost and before we judge rightly of our own strength to go through with it. Only yesterday I opened my Robinson Crusoe at that place. Only this morning May 21st, 1850 came my lady's nephew Mr. Franklin Blake and held a short conversation with me as follows. Betteridge says Mr. Franklin I have been to the lawyers about some family matters and, among other things we have been talking of the loss of the Indian Diamond house in Yorkshire two years since. Mr. Brough thinks, as I think, that the whole story ought, in the interest of truth, to be placed on record in writing, and the sooner the better. Not perceiving his drift yet and thinking it always desirable for the sake of peace and quietness to be on the lawyer's side, I said I thought so too. Mr. Franklin went on. In this matter of the Diamond, he said, the characters of innocent people have suffered under suspicion already, as you know. The memories of innocent people may suffer hereafter for want of a record of the facts to which those who come after us can appeal. There can be no doubt that this strange family story of ours ought to be told. And I think, Betteridge, Mr. Brough and I together have hit on the right way of telling it. Very satisfactory to both of them, no doubt, but I failed to see what I myself had to do with this so far. We have certain events to relate, Mr. Franklin proceeded, and we have certain persons concerned in those events who are capable of relating them. Starting from these plain facts, the idea is that we should all write the story of the Moonstone in turn, as far as our own personal experience extends, and no further. We must begin by showing how the diamond first fell into the hands of my Uncle Hun Castle when he was serving in India fifty years since. This perfectly narrative I have already got by me in the form of an old family paper which relates the necessary particulars on the authority of an eye-witness. The next thing to do is to tell how the diamond found its way into my aunt's house in Yorkshire two years ago and how it came to be lost in little more than twelve hours afterwards. Nobody knows as much as you do betterage about what went on in the house at that time, so you must take the pen in hand and start the story. In those terms I was informed of what my personal concern was with the matter of the diamond. If you are curious to know what course I took under the circumstances, I beg to inform you that I did what you would probably have done in my place. I modestly declared myself to be quite unequal to the task imposed upon me, and I privately felt all the time that I was quite clever enough to perform it if I only gave my own abilities a fair chance. Mr. Franklin, I imagine, must have seen my private sentiments in my face. He declined to believe in my modesty, and he insisted on giving my abilities a fair chance. Two hours have passed since Mr. Franklin left me. As soon as his back was turned I went to my writing desk to start the story. There I have sat helpless in spite of my abilities ever since, seeing what Robinson Crusoe saw as quoted above, namely the folly of beginning a work before we count the cost, and before we judge rightly of our own strength to go through with it. Please remember I opened that book by accident at that pit only the day before I rashly undertook the business now in hand, and allow me to ask if that is in prophecy, what is? I am not superstitious. I have read a heap of books in my time. I am a scholar in my own way. Although turned seventy I possess an active memory and legs to correspond. You are not to take it, if you please, there's a saying of an ignorant man when I express my opinion that a book such as Robinson Crusoe never was written and never will be written again. I have tried that book for years, generally in combination with a pipe of tobacco, and I have found it my friend in need in all the necessities of this mortal life. When my spirits are bad Robinson Crusoe when I want advice Robinson Crusoe In past times when my wife played me in present times when I have had a drop too much in Robinson Crusoe I have worn out six stout Robinson Crusoe with hard work in my service. On my lady's last birthday she gave me a seventh. I took a drop too much on the strength of it and Robinson Crusoe put me right again. Price, four shillings and sixpence bound in blue and with a picture into the bargain. Still, this doesn't look much like starting the story of the Diamond, does it? I seem to be wandering off in search of Lord knows what, Lord knows where. We will take a new sheet of paper, if you please and begin all over again with my best respects to you. End of Chapter 1 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins Chapter 2 I spoke of my lady a line or two back. Now the Diamond could never have been in our house where it was lost if it had not been made a present of to my lady's daughter and my lady's daughter would never have been in existence to have the present if it had not been for my lady who, with pain and travail produced her into the world. Consequently, if we begin with my lady we are pretty sure of beginning far enough back and that, let me tell you you've got such a job as mine in hand is a real comfort at starting. If you know anything of the fashionable world you have heard tell of the three beautiful Miss Hearncastles Miss Adelaide Miss Caroline and Miss Julia, the last being the youngest and best of the three sisters in my opinion and I had opportunities of judging as you shall presently see. I went into the service of the old lord, their father thank God we got nothing to do with him in this business of the diamond he had the longest tongue and the shortest temper of any man high or low I ever met with. I say I went into the service of the old lord as page-boy in waiting on the three honourable young ladies at the age of fifteen years. There I lived till Miss Julia married the late Sir John Verinder an excellent man who only wanted somebody to manage him and between ourselves he found somebody to do it and what is more he throwed on it and grew fat on it and lived happy and died easy on it dating from the day when my lady took him in church to be married to the day when she relieved him of his last breath and closed his eyes forever. I have omitted to state that I went with the bride to the bride's husband's house and lands down here Sir John she says I cannot do without Gabriel Betteridge my lady says Sir John I can't do without him either it was his way with her and that was how I went into his service it was all one to me where I went so long as my mistress and I were together seeing that my lady took an interest in the out-of-door work and the farms and such like I took an interest in them too with all the more reason that I was a small farmer's seventh son myself my lady got me put under the bailiff and I did my best and got promotion accordingly some years later on the Monday as it might be my lady says Sir John your bailiff is a stupid old man pensioned him liberally and let Gabriel Betteridge have his place on the Tuesday as it might be Sir John says my lady the bailiff is pensioned liberally and Gabriel Betteridge has got his place you hear more than enough of married people living together miserably for example to the contrary let it be a warning to some of you and an encouragement to others in the meantime I will go on with my story well there I was in Clover you will say placed in a position of trust and honour with a little cottage of my own to live in with my rounds on the estate to occupy me in the morning and my accounts in the afternoon and my pipe and my Robinson Crusoe in the evening what more could I possibly want to make me happy remember what Adam wanted when he was alone in the Garden of Eden and if you don't blame it on Adam don't blame it on me the woman I fixed my eye on was the woman who kept house for me at my cottage her name was Selena Gobi I agree with the late William Cobbett about picking a wife see that he choose her food well and sets her foot down firmly on the ground when she walks and you're all right Selena Gobi was all right in both of these respects which was one reason for marrying her I had another reason likewise entirely of my own discovering Selena being a single woman made me pay so much a week for her board and services Selena being my wife couldn't charge for her board and would have to give me her services for nothing that was the point of view I looked at it from economy with a dash of love to my mistress, as in duty bound just as I put it to myself I have been turning Selena Gobi over in my mind I said and I think my lady it will be cheaper to marry her than to keep her my lady burst out laughing and said she didn't know which to be most shocked at my language or my principles some joke tickled her I suppose of the sort you can't take unless you are a person of quality understanding nothing myself but that I was free to put it next to Selena I went and put it accordingly and what did Selena say Lord how little you must know of women if you have to ask that of course she said yes as my time drew nearer and there got to be talk of my having a new coat for the ceremony my mind began to misgive me I have compared notes with other men what they have felt while they were in my interesting situation and they have all acknowledged that about a week before it happened they privately wished themselves out of it I went a trifle further than that myself I actually rose up as it were and tried to get out of it not for nothing I was too just a man to expect that she would let me off for nothing compensation to the woman when the man gets out of it in obedience to the laws and after turning it over carefully in my mind I offered Selena Gobi a feather bed and 50 shillings to be off the bargain you will hardly believe it but it is nevertheless true that she was full enough to refuse after that it was all over with me of course I got the new coat as cheap as I could and I went through with all the rest of it as cheap as I could we were not a happy couple we were six of one and half a dozen of the other how it was I don't understand but we always seemed to be getting with the best of motives in each other's way when I wanted to go upstairs there was my wife coming down or when my wife wanted to go down there was I coming up that is married life according to my experience of it after five years of misunderstandings on the stairs it pleased an all wise providence to relieve us of each other by taking my wife I was left with my little girl Penelope and with no other child shortly afterwards Sir John died and my lady was left with her little girl Miss Rachel and no other child I have written to very poor purpose of my lady if you require to be told that my little Penelope was taken care of under my good mistress's own eye and was sent to school and taught girl and promoted when old enough to be Miss Rachel's own maid as for me I went on with my business as bailiff year after year up to Christmas 1847 when there came a change in my life on that day my lady invited herself to a cup of tea alone with me in my cottage she remarked that reckoning from the year when I started as a page boy in the time of the old lord I had been more than 50 years in her service and she put into my hands a beautiful waistcoat of wool that she had worked herself to keep me warm in the bitter winter weather I received this magnificent present quite as a loss to find the words to thank my mistress with for the honour she had done me to my great astonishment as it turned out however that the waistcoat was not an honour but a bribe my lady had discovered it myself and she had come to my cottage to weedle me if I may use such an expression into giving up my hard out-of-door work as a bailiff and taking my ease for the rest of my days as steward in the house I made as good a fight of it against the indignity of taking my ease as I could but my mistress knew the weak side of me she put it as a favour to herself the dispute between us ended after that in my wiping my eyes like an old fool with my new wool and waistcoat and saying I would think about it the perturbation in my mind in regard to thinking about it being truly dreadful after my lady had gone away I applied the remedy which I have never yet found to fail me in cases of doubt and emergency I smoked a pipe and took a turn at Robinson Crusoe before I had occupied myself with that extraordinary book Five Minutes and a long bit, page 158 as follows Today we love what tomorrow we hate I saw my way clear directly Today I was all for continuing to be farm bailiff Tomorrow, on the authority of Robinson Crusoe I should be all the other way Take myself tomorrow while in tomorrow's humour and the thing was done My mind, being relieved in this matter I went to sleep that night in the character of Lady Verrinda's farm bailiff and I awoke the next morning in the character of Lady Verrinda's house steward all quite comfortable and all through Robinson Crusoe My daughter Penelope has just looked over my shoulder to see what I have done so far She remarks that it is beautifully written and every word of it true, but she points out one objection She says that what I have done so far isn't in the least what I was wanted to do I am asked to tell the story of the diamond and, instead of that I have been telling the story of my own self curious and quite beyond me to account for I wonder whether gentlemen who make a business and are living out of writing books ever find their own selves getting in the way of their subjects like me If they do, I can feel for them In the meantime here is another full start and more waste of good writing paper What's to be done now? Nothing that I know of except for you to keep your temper and for me to begin all over again for the third time End of Chapter 2 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins Chapter 3 The question of how I am to start the story properly I have tried to settle in two ways First, by scratching my head which has led to nothing Second, by consulting my daughter Penelope which has resulted in an entirely new idea Penelope's notion is that I should set down what happened regularly, day by day beginning with the day when we first got the news that Mr. Franklin Blake was expected to visit to the house When you come to fix your memory with a date in this way it is wonderful what your memory will pick up for you upon that compulsion The only difficulty is to fetch out the dates in the first place This Penelope offers to do for me by looking into her own diary which she was taught to keep when she was at school and which she has gone on keeping ever since In answer to an improvement on this notion, devised by myself namely that she should tell the story instead of me out of her own diary Penelope observes with a fierce look and a red face that her journal is for her own private eye and that no living creature shall ever know what is in it but herself When I inquire what this means Penelope says fiddlesticks I say sweethearts Beginning then on Penelope's plan I beg to mention that I was specially called one Wednesday morning at his own sitting-room the date being the 24th of May 1848 Gabriel says my lady here is news that will surprise you Franklin Blake has come back from abroad He's been staying with his father in London and he's coming to us tomorrow to stop till next month and keep Rachel's birthday If I had had a hat in my hand nothing but respect would have prevented me from throwing that hat I had not seen Mr. Franklin since he was a boy living along with us in this house He was out of all sight as I remember him the nicest boy that ever spun a top or broke a window Miss Rachel, who was present and to whom I made that remark observed in return that she remembered him as the most atrocious tyrant that ever tortured a doll and the hardest driver of an exhausted little girl in string harness that England could produce I burn with indignation and I ache with fatigue was the way Miss Rachel summed it up when I think of Franklin Blake Hearing now what I tell you you will naturally ask how it was that Mr. Franklin should have passed all the years from the time when he was a boy to the time when he was a man out of his own country I answer because his father had the misfortune to be next heir to a dukedom and not be able to prove it In two words this was how the thing happened My lady's elder sister married the celebrated Mr. Blake equally famous for his great riches and his great suit at law How many years he went on worrying the tribunals of his country to turn out the duke in possession and put himself in the duke's place How many lawyers' purses he filled to bursting and how many otherwise harmless people he set by the ears together disputing whether he was right or wrong is more by a great deal than I can reckon up His wife died, and two of his three children died before the tribunals could make up their minds to show him the door and take no more of his money When it was all over and the duke in possession was left in possession Mr. Blake discovered that the only way of being even with his country for the manner in which it had treated him was not to let his country have the honour of educating his son How can I trust my native institutions with the form in which he put it after the way in which my native institutions have behaved to me Add to this that Mr. Blake disliked all boys his own included, and you will admit that it could only end in one way Master Franklin was taken from us in England and he was sent to institutions which his father could trust in that superior country, Germany Mr. Blake himself you will observe remaining snug in England to improve his fellow countrymen in the Parliament House to publish a statement on the subject of the duke in possession which has remained an unfinished document from that day to this There, thank God that's told Now, neither you nor I need trouble our heads any more about Mr. Blake's senior Leave him to the dukedom and lets you and I stick to the diamond The diamond takes us back to Mr. Franklin who was the innocent means of bringing that unlucky jewel into the house Our nice boy didn't forget us after he went abroad He wrote every now and then Sometimes to my lady, sometimes to Miss Rachel and sometimes to me We had a transaction together before he left which consisted in his borrowing of me a ball of string a four-bladed knife and seven and sixpence in money the colour of which last I have not seen and never expect to see again His letters to me chiefly related to borrowing more I heard, however, from my lady how he got on abroad as he grew in years and stature After he had learnt what the institutions of Germany could teach him he gave the French a turn next and the Italians a turn after that They made him, among them a sort of universal genius as well as I could understand it He wrote a little He painted a little He sang and played and composed a little borrowing, as I suspect in all these cases, just as he had borrowed from me His mother's fortune seven hundred a year fell to him when he came of age ran through him as it might through a sieve The more money he had the more he wanted There was a hole in Mr Franklin's pocket that nothing would sew up Wherever he went the lively, easy way of him made him welcome He lived here, there and everywhere his address, as he used to put it himself being post office Europe to be left till called for Twice over he made up his mind to come back to England and see us and twice over, saving your presence some unmentionable woman stood in the way and stopped him His third attempt succeeded as you know already from what my lady told me On Thursday the 25th of May we were to see for the first time what our nice boy had grown up to be as a man He came of good blood had high courage and he was five and twenty years of age by our reckoning Now you know as much of Mr Blake as I did before Mr Franklin Blake came down to our house The Thursday was as fine a summer's day as ever you saw and my lady, and Miss Rachel not expecting Mr Franklin till dinner time drove out to lunch with some friends in the neighbourhood When they were gone I went and had a look at the bedroom which had been got ready for our guest and saw that all was straight then being butler in my lady's establishment as well as steward at my own particular request mind and because it vexed me to see anybody but myself to the late Sir John Sellar Then as I say I fetched up some of our famous Latour Claret and set it in the warm summer air to take the chill off before dinner concluding to set myself in the warm summer air next seeing that what is good for Claret is equally good for old age I took out my beehive chair to go out to the back court when I was stopped by hearing a sound like the soft beating of a drum on the terrace in front of my lady's residence Going round to the terrace I found three mahogany coloured Indians in white linen frocks and trousers looking up at the house The Indians as I saw on looking closer had small hand-rums slung in front of them behind them stood a little delicate looking light-haired English boy carrying a bag I judged the fellows to be strolling conjurers and the boy with the bag to be carrying the tools of their trade One of the three who spoke English and who exhibited I must own the most elegant manners presently informed me that my judgment was right He requested permission to show his tricks in the presence of the lady of the house Now, I am not a sour old man I am generally all for amusement and the last person in the world to distrust another person because he happens to be a few shades darker than myself But the best of us have our weaknesses and my weakness I know a family plate-basket to be out on the pantry-table is to be instantly reminded of that basket by the sight of a strolling stranger whose manners are superior to my own I accordingly informed the Indian that the lady of the house was out and I warned him and his party off the premises He made me a beautiful bow in return and he and his party went off the premises On my side I returned to my beehive-chair and set myself down on the sunny side of the court and fell, if the truth must be owned, not exactly into a sleep but into the next best thing to it I was roused by my daughter Penelope running out at me as if the house was on fire What do you think she wanted? She wanted to have the three Indian jugglers instantly taken up for this reason namely that they knew who was coming from London to visit us and that they meant some mischief to Mr Franklin Blake Mr Franklin's name roused me I opened my eyes and made my girl explain herself It appeared that Penelope had just come from my lodge where she had been having a gossip with the lodgekeeper's daughter The two girls had seen the Indians pass out after I had worn them off followed by their little boy Taking it into their heads that the boy was ill-used by the foreigners for no reason that I could discover except that he was pretty and delicate looking The two girls had stolen along the inner side of the hedge between us and the road and had watched the proceedings of the foreigners on the other side Those proceedings resulted in the performance of the following extraordinary tricks They first looked up the road and down the road and made sure that they were alone Then they all three faced about and stared hard in the direction of our house Then they jabbered and disputed in their own language and looked at each other like men in doubt Then they all turned to the little English boy as if they expected him to help them Then the chief Indian who spoke English said to the boy Hold out your hand On hearing those dreadful words my daughter Penelope said she didn't know what prevented her heart from flying straight out of her I thought privately it might have been her stays you make my flesh creep Not a penny women like these little compliments Well, when the Indian said hold out your hand the boy shrank back and shook his head and said he didn't like it The Indian thereupon asked him not at all unkindly whether he would like to be sent back to London and left where they had found him sleeping in an empty basket in a market a hungry, ragged and forsaken little boy This, it seems, ended the difficulty The little chap unwillingly held out his hand Upon that the Indian took a bottle from his bosom and poured out of it some black stuff like ink into the palm of the boy's hand The Indian, first touching the boy's head and making signs over it in the air then said look The boy became quite stiff and stood like a statue looking into the ink in the palm of his hand so far it seemed to me to be juggling accompanied by a foolish waste of ink I was beginning to feel sleepy again when Penelope's next words stirred me up The Indians looked up the road and down the road once more and then the chief Indian said these words to the boy See the English gentleman from foreign parts The boy said I see him The Indian said Is it on the road to this house and on no other that the English gentleman will travel today The boy said It is on the road to this house and on no other that the English gentleman will travel today The Indian put a second question after waiting a little first He said Has the English gentleman got it about him? The boy answered after waiting a little first Yes The Indian put a third and last question Will the English gentleman come here as he has promised to come at the close of the day The boy said I can't tell The Indian asked why The boy said I am tired The mist rises in my head and puzzles me I can see no more today With that the catechism ended The chief Indian said something in his own language to the other two pointing to the boy and pointing towards the town in which, as we afterwards discovered, they were lodged He then, after making more signs on the boy's head, blew on his forehead and so woke him up with the start After that they all went on their way towards the town and the girl saw them no more Most things they say have a moral if only you look for it What was the moral of this? The moral was, as I thought first, that the chief juggler had heard Mr. Franklin's arrival talked of among the servants out of doors and saw his way to making a little money by it Second, that he and his men and boy with a view to making the said money meant to hang about until they saw my lady drive home and then come back and foretell Mr. Franklin's arrival by magic Third, that Penelope had heard them rehearsing their hocus pocus like actors rehearsing a play Fourth, that I should do well to have an eye that evening on the plate basket Fifth, that Penelope would do well to cool down and leave me, her father to doze off again in the sun That appeared to me to be the sensible view If you know anything of the ways of young women you won't be surprised to hear that Penelope wouldn't take it The moral of the thing was serious to my daughter She particularly reminded me of the Indian's Third Question Has the Englishman got it about him? Oh, father, says Penelope clasping her hands Don't joke about this, what does it mean? We'll ask Mr. Franklin, my dear I said, if you can wait till Mr. Franklin comes I winked to show that I meant that in joke Penelope took it quite seriously My girl's earnestness quite tickled me What on earth should Mr. Franklin know about it? I inquired Ask him, says Penelope and see whether he thinks it's a laughing matter too With that parting shot my daughter left me I settled it with myself when she was gone that I really would ask Mr. Franklin mainly to set Penelope's mind at rest What was said between us when I did ask him later on the same day you will find set out fully in its proper place But as I don't wish to raise your expectations and then disappoint them I will take leave to warn you here before we go any further that you won't find the ghost of a joke in our conversation on the subject of the jugglers To my great surprise Mr. Franklin, like Penelope took the thing very seriously How seriously you will understand when I tell you that in his opinion it meant the Moonstone End of Chapter 3 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins Chapter 4 I am truly sorry to detain you over me and my beehive chair A sleepy old man in a sunny backyard is not an interesting object I am well aware of my place as things actually happened and you must please to jog on a little while longer with me in expectation of Mr. Franklin Blake's arrival later in the day Before I had time to doze off again after my daughter Penelope had left me I was disturbed by a rattling of plates and dishes in the servants' hall which meant that dinner was ready Taking my own meals in my own sitting room to do with the servants' dinner except to wish them a good stomach to it all round Previous to composing myself once more in my chair I was just stretching my legs when out bounced another woman on me Not my daughter again only Nancy the kitchen made this time I was straight in her way out and I observed as she asked me to let her by that she had a sulky face which as head of the servants I never allow on principle to pass me without inquiry What are you turning your back on your dinner for? I asked What's wrong now Nancy? Nancy tried to push by without answering upon which I rose up and took her by the ear She is a nice plump young lass and it is customary with me to adopt that manner of showing that I personally approve of a girl What's wrong now? Nancy said once more Rosanna is late again for dinner says Nancy and I am sent to fetch her in All the hard work falls on my shoulders in this house Let me alone Mr. Betteridge The person here mentioned as Rosanna was our second housemaid Having a kind of pity for our second housemaid Why you shall presently know and seeing in Nancy's face that she would fetch her fellow servant in with more hard words that might be needful under the circumstances It struck me that I had nothing in particular to do and that I might as well fetch Rosanna myself giving her a hint to be punctual in future which I knew she would take kindly from me Where is Rosanna? I inquired At the sands of course said Nancy with a toss of her head She had another of her fainting fits and she asked to go out and get a breath of fresh air I have no patience with her You go back to your dinner my girl I said I have patience with her and I'll fetch her in Nancy who has a fine appetite looked pleased When she looks pleased she looks nice When she looks nice I chuck her under the chin It isn't immorality it's only a habit Well, I took my stick and set off for the sands No It won't do to set off yet I'm sorry again to detain you but you really must hear the story of the sands and the story of Rosanna for this reason that the matter of the diamond touches them both nearly How hard I try to get on with my statement without stopping by the way and how badly I succeed But there Persons and things do turn up so vexatiously in this life and will in a manner insist on being noticed Let us take it easy and let us take it short and we shall be in the thick of this mystery soon I promise you Rosanna, to put the person before the thing, which is but common politeness was the only new servant in our house About four months before the time I am writing of I had been in London and had gone over a reformatory intended to save for lawn women from drifting back into bad ways after they had got released from prison The matron seeing my lady took an interest in the place pointed out a girl to her named Rosanna Spearman and told her a most miserable story which I haven't the heart to repeat here for I don't like to be made wretched without any cause and no more do you The upshot of it was that Rosanna Spearman had been a thief and not being of the sort that get up companies in the city and robbed from thousands instead of only robbing from one the law laid hold of her and the prison and the reformatory followed the lead of the law The matron's opinion of Rosanna was in spite of what she had done that the girl was one in a thousand and that she only wanted a chance to prove herself worthy of any Christian woman's interest in her My lady being a Christian woman if ever there was one yet said to the matron upon that Rosanna Spearman shall have her chance in my service A week afterwards Rosanna Spearman entered this establishment as our second housemate Not a soul was told the girl's story but she was more spiritual than me My lady doing me the honour to consult me about most things consulted me about Rosanna Having fallen a good deal laterally into the late Sir John's way of always agreeing with my lady I agreed with her heartily about Rosanna Spearman A fairer chance no girl could have had than was given to this poor girl of ours None of the servants could cast her past life in her teeth for none of the servants knew what it had been She had her wages and her privileges like the rest of them And every now and then a friendly word from my lady in private to encourage her In return she showed herself, I am bound to say well worthy of the kind treatment bestowed upon her though far from strong and troubled occasionally with those fainting fits already mentioned she went about her work doing it carefully and doing it well but somehow she failed to make friends among the other women servants accepting my daughter Penelope who was always kind to Rosanna although never intimate with her I hardly know what the girl did to offend them There was certainly no beauty about her to make the others envious She was the plainest woman in the house with the additional misfortune of having one shoulder bigger than the other What the servants chiefly resented I think was her silent tongue and her solitary ways She read or worked in leisure hours when the rest gossiped and when it came to her turn to go out nine times out of ten she quietly put on her bonnet and had her turn by herself She never quarrelled never took offence She only kept a certain distance obstinately and civilly between the rest of them and herself Add to this that plain as she was there was just a dash of something that wasn't like a housemaid and that was like a lady about her It might have been in her voice or it might have been in her face All I can say is that the other women pounced on it like lightning the first day she came into the house and said, which was most unjust that Rosanna Spearman gave herself airs Having now told the story of Rosanna I have only to notice one of the many queer ways of this strange girl to get on next to the story of the sands Our house is high up on the Yorkshire coast close by the sea We have got beautiful walks all around us in every direction but one That one I acknowledge to be a horrid walk It leads for a quarter of a mile through a melancholy plantation of furs and brings you out between low cliffs on the loneliest and ugliest little bay on all our coast The sand hills here run down to the sea and end in two spits of rock jutting out opposite each other until you lose sight of them in the water One is called the north spit and one the south Between the two shifting backwards and forwards in certain seasons of the year lies the most horrible quicksand on the shores of Yorkshire At the turn of the tide something goes on in the unknown deeps below which sets the whole face of the quicksand shivering and trembling in a manner most remarkable to see and which has given it among the people in our parts the name of the shivering sand A great bank half a mile out of the bay breaks the force of the main ocean coming in from the offing Winter and summer when the tide flows over the quicksand the sea seems to leave the waves behind it on the bank and rolls its waters in smoothly with a heave and covers the sand in silence A lonesome and a horrid retreat I can tell you No boat ever ventures into this bay No children from the fishing village called Cobbs Hole ever come here to play The very birds of the air as it seems to me give the shivering sand a wide berth That a young woman with dozens of nice walks to choose from and company to go with her if she only said come should prefer this place and should sit and work or read in it all alone when it's her turn out I grant you pass's belief It's true nevertheless account for it as you may that this was Rosanna Spearman's favourite walk except when she went once or twice to Cobbs Hole to see the only friend she had in all our neighbourhood of whom more and on It's also true that I was now setting out for this same place to fetch the girl in to the dinner which brings us round happily to our former point on our way to the sands I saw no sign of the girl in the plantation When I got out through the sand hills onto the beach there she was all alone looking out on the quicksand and the sea She started when I came up with her and turned her head away from me Not looking me in the face being another of the proceedings which as head of the servants I never allow on principle to worry I turned her round my way and saw that she was crying My bandanna handkerchief one of six beauties given to me by my lady was handy in my pocket I took it out and said to Rosanna come and sit down my dear on the slope of the beach along with me I'll dry your eyes for you first and then I'll make so bold as to ask what you have been crying about I find sitting down on the slope of a beach a much longer job than you think it now By the time I was settled Rosanna had dried her own eyes with a very inferior handkerchief to mine cheap cambrick She looked very quiet and very wretched but she sat down by me like a good girl when I told her When you want to comfort a woman by the shortest way take her on your knee I thought of this golden rule but there and I wasn't Nancy and that's the truth of it Now tell me my dear what are you crying about About the years that are gone Mr. Betteridge says Rosanna quietly My past life still comes back to me sometimes Come come my girl I said your past life is all sponged out Why can't you forget it She took by one of the lapets of my coat I am a slovenly old man and a good deal of my meat and drink gets splashed about on my clothes Sometimes one of the women and sometimes another cleans me of my grease The day before Rosanna had taken out a spot for me on the lapet of my coat with a new composition warranted to remove anything The grease was gone but there was a little dull place left on the nap of the cloth where the grease had been The girl pointed to that place and shook her head The stain is taken off, she said But the place shows, Mr. Betteridge The place shows A remark which takes a man unawares by means of his own coat is not an easy remark to answer Something in the girl herself, too made me particularly sorry for her just then She had nice brown eyes plain as she was in other ways and she looked at me with a sort of respect for my happy old age and my good character as things forever out of her own reach which made my heart heavy for us our second house made Not feeling myself able to comfort her there was only one other thing to do and that thing was to take her into dinner Help me up, I said You are late for dinner, Rosanna and I have come to fetch you in You, Mr. Betteridge, says she They told Nancy to fetch you I said You might like your scolding better, my dear if it came from me Instead of helping me up the poor thing stole her hand into mine and gave it a little squeeze She tried hard to keep from crying again and succeeded for which I respected her You're very kind, Mr. Betteridge She said I don't want any dinner today Let me bide a little longer here What makes you like to be here? I asked What is it that brings you everlastingly to this miserable place? Something draws me to it, says the girl making images with her finger in the sand I try to keep away from it and I can't Sometimes, says she in a low voice as if she was frightened at her own fancy Sometimes, Mr. Betteridge I think my grave is waiting for me here There's roast mutton and suet pudding waiting for you I says I This is what comes, Roseanna of thinking on an empty stomach I spoke severely being naturally indignant at my time of life to hear a young woman of 5 and 20 talking about her latter end She didn't seem to hear me She put her hand on my shoulder and kept me where I was sitting by her side I think the place has laid a spell on me, she said I dream of it night after night I think of it when I sit stitching at my work You know I am grateful, Mr. Betteridge You know I try to deserve your kindness and my lady's confidence in me But I wonder sometimes whether the life here is too quiet and too good for a woman such as I am after all I have gone through, Mr. Betteridge after all I have gone through It's more lonely to me to be among the other servants knowing that I am not what they are than it is to be here My lady doesn't know the matron at the reformatory doesn't know what a dreadful approach honest people are in themselves to a woman like me Don't scold me, there's a dear good man I do my work, don't I? Please not to tell my lady I am discontented I am not My mind's unquiet sometimes that's all She snatched her hand off my shoulder and suddenly pointed down to the quicksand Look, she said Isn't it wonderful? Isn't it terrible? I have seen it dozens of times and as always as new to me as if I had never seen it before I looked to where she pointed The tide was on the turn and the horrid sand began to shiver The broad brown face of it heaved slowly and then dimpled and quivered all over Do you know what it looks like to me? says Rosanna catching me by the shoulder again It looks as if it had hundreds of suffocating people under it all struggling to get to the surface all sinking lower and lower into the dreadful deeps Throw a stone in, Mr. Betteridge Throw a stone in and let's see the sand suck it down Here was unwholesome talk Here was an empty stomach feeding an unquiet mind My answer, a pretty sharp one in the girl's own interests, I promise you was at my tongue's end when it was snapped off short the voice among the sand-hills shouting for me by name Betteridge cries the voice Where are you? Here I shouted out in return without a notion in my mind of who it was Rosanna started to her feet and stood looking towards the voice I was just thinking of getting on my own legs next when I was staggered by a sudden change in the girl's face Her complexion turned of a beautiful red which I had never seen in it before She brightened all over with a kind of speechless and breathless surprise Who is it? I asked Rosanna gave me back my own question Oh, who is it? She said softly more to herself than to me I twisted round on the sand and looked behind me There, coming out on us from among the hills was a bright-eyed young gentleman dressed in a beautiful, fawn-colored suit with gloves and hat to match with a rose in his buttonhole and a smile on his face that might have set the shivering sand itself smiling at him in return Before I could get on my legs he plumped down on the sand by the side of me put his arm around my neck foreign fashion and gave me a hug that fairly squeezed the breath out of my body Dear old Betteridge says he I owe you seven and sixpence Lord bless and save us Here, four good hours before we expected him was Mr. Franklin Blake Before I could say a word I saw Mr. Franklin a little surprised to all appearance look up from me to Rosanna Following his lead I looked at the girl too She was blushing of a deeper red than ever seemingly at having caught Mr. Franklin's eye and she turned and left us suddenly in a confusion quite unaccountable to my mind without either making her curtsy to the gentleman or saying a word to me very unlike her usual self a civiler and better behaved servant in general you never met with That's an odd girl said Mr. Franklin I wonder what she sees in me to surprise her I suppose sir, I answered drolling on a young gentleman's continental education it's the varnish from foreign parts I sat down here Mr. Franklin's careless question and my foolish answer as a consolation and encouragement to all stupid people it being as I have remarked a great satisfaction to our inferior fellow creatures to find their betters are on occasions no brighter than they are neither Mr. Franklin with his wonderful foreign training nor I with my age experience in natural mother wit had the ghost of an idea what Rosanna Spearman's unaccountable behavior really meant was out of our thoughts poor soul before we had seen the last flutter of a little grey cloak among the sand hills and what of that you will ask naturally enough read on good friend as patiently as you can and perhaps you will be as sorry for Rosanna Spearman as I was when I found out the truth This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins Chapter 5 The first thing I did after we were left alone together was to make a third attempt to get up from my seat on the sand Mr. Franklin stopped me There is one advantage about this horrid place, he said we have got it all to ourselves stay where you are Betridge there is something to say to you While he was speaking I was looking at him trying to see something of the boy I remembered in the man before me the man put me out look as I might I could see no more of his boys rosy cheeks than of his boys trim little jacket his complexion had got pale his face at the lower part was covered to my great surprise and disappointment with a curly brown beard and mustachios he had a lively touch and go way with him very pleasant and engaging I admit but nothing to compare with his free and easy manners of other times to make matters worse he had promised to be tall and had not kept his promise he was neat and slim and well made but he wasn't by an inch or two up to the middle height in short he baffled me all together the years that had passed had left nothing of his old self a bright straightforward look in his eyes there I found our nice boy again and there I concluded to stop in my investigation welcome back to the old place Mr Franklin I said and the more welcome sir that you have come some hours before we expected you I have a reason for coming before you expected me answered Mr Franklin I suspect betterage that I have been followed and watched in London for the last three or four days and I have travelled by the morning train because I wanted to give certain dark looking stranger the slip these words did more than surprise me they brought back to my mind in a flash the three jugglers and Penelope's notion that they meant some mischief to Mr Franklin Blake who's watching you sir and why I inquired tell me about the three Indians that you've had at the house today says Mr Franklin without noticing my question it's just possible betterage that my stranger and your three jugglers may turn out to be pieces of the same puzzle how do you come to know about the jugglers sir I asked putting one question on top of another which is bad manners I own but you don't expect much from poor human nature so don't expect much from me I saw Penelope at the house says Mr Franklin and Penelope told me your daughter promised to be a pretty girl on betterage and she's kept her promise Penelope has got a small ear and a small foot did the late Mrs Betteridge possess these inestimable advantages the late Mrs Betteridge possessed a good many defects sir says I one of them, if you'll pardon by mentioning it was never keeping to the matter in hand she was more like a fly than a woman she wouldn't settle on anything she would just have suited me says Mr Franklin I never settle on anything either Betteridge, your edge is better than ever Betteridge, when I ask for particulars about the jugglers father will tell you sir he's a wonderful man for his age and he expresses himself beautifully Penelope's own words, blushing divinely not even my respect for you prevented me from, well, never mind I knew her when she was a child and she's none the worse for it let's be serious, what did the jugglers do I was something dissatisfied with my daughter not for letting Mr Franklin kiss her Mr Franklin was welcome to that but for forcing me to tell her foolish story at second hand however there was no help for it now but to mention the circumstances Mr Franklin's merriment all died away as I went on he sat, knitting his eyebrows and twisting his beard when I had done he repeated after me two of the questions with the chief juggler had put to the boy seemingly for the purpose of fixing them well in his mind is it on this road and on no other that the English gentleman will travel today has the English gentleman got it about him I suspect says Mr Franklin, pulling a little sealed paper parcel out of his pocket that it means this and this, betterage means my uncle Hermcastle's famous diamond good lord sir I broke out how do you come to be in charge of the wicked colonel's diamond the wicked colonel has left his diamond as a birthday present to my cousin Rachel says Mr Franklin and my father as the wicked colonel's executor has given it in charge to me to bring down here if the sea then oozing in smoothly over the shivering sand had been changed into dry land before my own eyes I doubt if I could have been more surprised than I was when Mr Franklin spoke those words the colonel's diamond left to miss Rachel, says I and your father sir the colonel's executor why, I would have laid any bet you like Mr Franklin that your father wouldn't have touched the colonel with a pair of tongs strong language, betterage what was there against the colonel he belonged to your time, not to mine tell me what you know about him and I'll tell you how my father came to be his executor and more besides I've made some discoveries in London about my uncle Hermcastle and his diamond which have a rather ugly look to my eyes and I want you to confirm them you called in the wicked colonel just now search your memory, my old friend and tell me why I saw he was an earnest and I told him here follows the substance of what I said written out entirely for your benefit pay attention to it or you'll be all abroad when we get deeper into the story clear your mind of the children or the dinner or the new bonnet or what not try if you can't remember or what not try if you can't forget politics, horses prices in the city and grievances at the club I hope you won't take this freedom on my part amiss it's only a way I have of appealing to the gentle reader Lord, haven't I seen you with the greatest authors in your hands and don't I know how ready your attention is to wonder when there's a book that asks for it instead of a person I spoke a little way back of my lady's father who taught temper and the long tongue he had five children in all two sons to begin with then after a long time his wife broke out breeding again and the three young ladies came briskly one after the other as fast as the nature of things would permit my mistress, as before mentioned being the youngest and best of the three of the two sons the eldest Arthur inherited the title and the estates the second, the honorable John got a fine fortune left for him by relative and went into the army it's an ill bird they say that fouls its own nest I look on the noble family of the herncastles as being my nest and I shall take it as a favour if I'm not expected to enter into particulars on the subject of the honorable John he was, I honestly believe one of the greatest blaggards that ever lived I can hardly say more or less for him than that he went into the army beginning in the guards he had to leave the guard before he was two and twenty but never mind why they are very strict in the army and they were too strict for the honorable John he went out to India to see whether they were equally strict there and to try a little active service in the matter of bravery to give him his due he was a mixture of bulldog and gamecock with a dash of the savage he was at the taking of Seringatapam shortly afterwards he changed into another regiment and in the course of time changed into a third in the third he got his last step as Lieutenant Colonel in getting that got also a sunstroke and came home to England he came back with a character that closed the doors of all his family against him my lady, just then married taking the lead and declaring with Ser John's approval of course that her brother should never enter any house of hers there was more than one slur on the Colonel that made people shy of him but the blot of the diamond is all I need to mention here it was said that he had got possession of his Indian Jewel by means which, bold as he was he didn't dare acknowledge he never attempted to sell it not being in need of money and not to give him his due again making money an object he never gave it away he never even showed it to any living soul some said he was afraid of it's getting him into a difficulty with the military authorities others, very ignorant indeed of the real nature of the man said that he was afraid if he showed it of its costing him his life there was perhaps a grain of truth mixed up with this last report it was false to say that he was afraid but it was a fact that his life had been twice threatened in India and it was firmly believed that the Moonstone was at the bottom of it when he came back to England and found himself avoided by everybody the Moonstone was thought to be at the bottom of it again the mystery of the Colonel's life got in the Colonel's way and outlawed him, as you may say among his own people the men wouldn't let him into their clubs the women, more than one whom he wanted to marry, refused him friends and relations got too near sighted to see him in the street some men in this mess would have tried to set themselves right with the world but to give in even when he was wrong and had all society against him was not the way of the honourable John he had kept the diamond in flat defiance of assassination in India he kept the diamond in flat defiance of public opinion in England there you have the portrait of the man before you, as in a picture a character that braved everything and a face, handsome as it was that looked possessed by the devil we heard different rumours about him from time to time sometimes they said he was given up to smoking opium and collecting old books sometimes he was reported to be trying strange things in chemistry sometimes he was seen carousing and amusing himself among the lowest people in the lowest slums of London anyhow, a solitary vicious underground life was the life that the Colonel led once and once only after his return to England I saw him myself face to face about two years before the time of which I am now writing and about a year and a half before the time of his death the Colonel came unexpectedly to my lady's house in London it was the night of Miss Rachel's birthday, the 21st of June and there was a party in honour of it as usual I received a message from the footman to say that a gentleman wanted to see me going up into the hall there I found the Colonel wasted and worn and old and shabby and as wild and wicked as ever go up to my sister says he and say that I have called to wish my niece many happy returns of the day he had made attempts by letter, more than once already to be reconciled with my lady for no other purpose I am firmly persuaded than to annoy her but this was the first time he had actually come to the house I had it on the tip of my tongue to say that my mistress had a party that night but the devilish look of him daunted me I went upstairs with his message and left him by his own desire waiting in the hall the servants stood staring at him at a distance as if he was a walking engine of destruction loaded with powder and shot and liked to go off among them at a moment's notice my lady had a dash, no more of the family temper tell Colonel Hearncastle, she said when I gave her her brother's message that Miss Verinder is engaged in the time I declined to see him I tried to plead for a similar answer than that knowing the Colonel's constitutional superiority to the restraints which govern gentlemen in general quite useless the family temper flashed out at me directly when I want your advice says my lady you know that I always ask for it I don't ask for it now I went downstairs with the message of which I took the liberty of presenting a new and amended version of my own contriving as follows my lady and Miss Rachel regret that they are engaged Colonel accused having the honour of seeing you I expected him to break out even at that polite way of putting it to my great surprise he did nothing of the sort he alarmed me by taking the thing with an unnatural quiet his eyes of a glittering bright grey just settled on me for a moment and he laughed not out of himself like other people but into himself in a soft, chuckling horribly mischievous way thank you Betteridge he said I shall remember my niece's birthday with that he turned on his heel and walked out of his house the next birthday came around and we heard he was ill in bed six months afterwards that is to say six months before the time I'm now writing of there came a letter from a highly respectable clergyman to my lady it communicated two wonderful things in the way of family news first that the Colonel had forgiven his sister on his deathbed second that he had forgiven everybody else and had made a most edifying end I have myself in spite of the bishops and the clergy an unfamed respect for the church but I am firmly persuaded at the same time that the devil remained in undisturbed possession of the honourable John and that the last abominable act in the life of that abominable man was, saving your presence taking the clergyman in this was the sum total of what I had to tell Mr. Franklin I remarked that he listened more and more eagerly the longer I went on also that the story of the Colonel being sent away from his sister's door on the occasion of his niece's birthday seemed to strike Mr. Franklin like a shot that had hit the mark though he didn't acknowledge it I saw that I had made him uneasy plainly enough in his face you have had your say, betteridge he remarked it's my turn now before, however, I tell you what discoveries I have made in London and how I came to be mixed up in this matter of the diamond I want to know one thing you look, my old friend, as if you didn't quite understand the object to be answered by this consultation of ours do your looks belie you no, sir, I said my looks, on this occasion, at any rate tell the truth in that case, says Mr. Franklin suppose I put you up to my point of view before we go any further I see three very serious questions involved in the Colonel's birthday gift to my cousin Rachel follow me carefully, betteridge and count me off on your fingers if it will help you, says Mr. Franklin with a certain pleasure in showing how clear-headed he could be which reminded me wonderfully of old times when he was a boy question the first was the Colonel's diamond the object of a conspiracy in India question the second has the conspiracy followed the Colonel's diamond to England question the third did the Colonel know the conspiracy followed the diamond and has he purposely left a legacy of trouble and danger to his sister through the innocent medium of his sister's child that is what I am driving at betteridge, don't let me frighten you it was all very well to say that but he had frightened me if he was right here was our quiet English house suddenly invaded by a devilish Indian diamond bringing after it a conspiracy of living rogues set loose on us by the vengeance of a dead man there was our situation as revealed to me in Mr. Franklin's last words whoever heard the like of it in the nineteenth century mind in an age of progress and in a country which rejoices in the blessings of the British constitution nobody ever heard the like of it and consequently nobody can be expected to believe it I shall go on with my story however in spite of that when you get a sudden alarm of that sort that I had got now nine times out of ten the place you feel it is in your stomach when you feel it in your stomach your attention wanders and you begin to fidget I fidgeted silently in my place on the sand Mr. Franklin noticed me contending with a perturbed stomach or mind which you please they mean the same thing and checking himself just as he was starting with his part of the story he said to me sharply what do you want what did I want I didn't tell him but I'll tell you I wanted a whiff of my pipe and a turn at Robinson Crusoe End of Chapter 5 This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins read by Leanne Howlett Chapter 6 Keeping my private sentiments to myself I respectfully requested Mr. Franklin to go on Mr. Franklin replied don't fidget, Betridge and went on Our young gentleman's first words informed me that his discoveries concerning the wicked colonel and the diamond had begun with a visit which he had paid before he came to us to the family lawyer at Hampstead a chance word dropped by Mr. Franklin when the two were alone one day after dinner revealed that he had been charged by his father with a birthday present to be taken to Miss Rachel one thing led to another and it ended in the lawyer mentioning what the present really was and how the friendly connection between the late colonel and Mr. Blake Sr. had taken its rise The facts here are really so extraordinary that I doubt if I can trust my own language to do justice to them I prefer trying to report Mr. Franklin's discoveries as nearly as may be in Mr. Franklin's own words You remember the time, Betridge he said, when my father was trying to prove his title to that unlucky dukedom Well that was also the time when my uncle Hearncastle returned from India My father discovered that his brother in law was in possession of certain papers which were likely to be of service to him in his lawsuit He called on the colonel on pretense of welcoming him back to England The colonel was not to be deluded in that way You want something, he said or you would never have compromised your reputation by calling on me My father saw that the one chance for him was to show his hand He admitted at once that he wanted the papers The colonel asked for a day to consider his answer His answer came in the shape of a most extraordinary letter which my friend the lawyer showed me The colonel began by saying that he wanted the money of my father and that he begged to propose an exchange of friendly services between them The fortune of war that was the expression he used had placed him in possession of one of the largest diamonds in the world and he had reason to believe that neither he nor his precious jewel was safe in any house in any quarter of the globe which they occupied together Under these alarming circumstances he had determined to place his diamond in the keeping of another person was not expected to run any risk He might deposit the precious stone in any place especially guarded and set apart like a bankers or a jeweler's strong room for the safe custody of valuables of high price His main personal responsibility in the matter was to be of the passive kind He was to undertake either by himself or by a trustworthy representative to receive at a prearranged address on certain prearranged days and every year a note from the colonel simply stating the fact that he was a living man at that date In the event of the date passing over without the note being received the colonel's silence might be taken as a sure token of the colonel's death by murder In that case and in no other certain sealed instructions relating to the disposal of the diamond and deposited with it were to be opened and followed implicitly If my father chose to accept the strange charge the colonel's papers were at his disposal in return That was the letter What did your father do, sir? I asked Do, says Mr. Franklin I'll tell you what he did He brought the invaluable faculty called common sense to bear on the colonel's letter The whole thing he declared was simply absurd Somewhere in his indian wanderings the colonel had picked up with some wretched crystal which he took for a diamond a danger of his being murdered and the precautions devised to preserve his life and his piece of crystal This was the 19th century and any man in his senses had only to apply to the police The colonel had been a notorious opium eater for years past and if the only way of getting at the valuable papers he possessed was by accepting a matter of opium as a matter of fact My father was quite willing to take the ridiculous responsibility imposed on him all the more readily he solved no trouble to himself The diamond in the sealed instructions went into his banker's strong room and the colonel's letters periodically reporting him a living man were received and opened by our family lawyer Mr. Brough as my father's representative No sensible person in a similar position could have viewed the matter in any other way Nothing in this world, Betteridge is probable unless it appeals to our own trumpery experience I only believe in a romance when we see it in a newspaper It was plain to me from this that Mr. Franklin thought his father's notion about the colonel hasty and wrong What is your own private opinion about the matter, sir? I asked Let's finish the story of the colonel first says Mr. Franklin There's a curious want of system Betteridge in the English mind and your question my old friend is an instance of it The machinery we are mentally speaking the most slovenly people in the universe So much I thought to myself for a foreign education He has learned that way of guarding at us in France, I suppose Mr. Franklin took up the lost thread and went on My father, he said got the papers he wanted and never saw his brother-in-law again from that time Year after year on the prearranged days the prearranged letter came from the colonel and was opened by Mr. Brough I have seen the letters in a heap, all of them written in the same brief business-like form of words Sir, this is a certify that I am still a living man Let the diamond be John Hearncastle That was all he ever wrote and that came regularly to the day until some six or eight months since when the form of the letter varied for the first time It ran now They tell me I am dying Come to me and help me to make my will Mr. Brough went and found him in the little suburban villa surrounded by its own grounds in which he had lived alone ever since he had left India He had dogs, cats and birds to keep him company but no human being near him except the person who came daily to do the housework and the doctor at the bedside The will was a very simple matter The colonel had dissipated the greater part of his fortune in his chemical investigations His will began and ended in three clauses which he dictated from his bed in perfect possession of his faculties The first clause provided for the safe keeping and support of his animals The second found that a professorship of experimental chemistry at a northern university The third bequeathed the moonstone as a birthday present to his niece on condition that my father at first refused to act On second thoughts however he gave way partly because he was assured that the executorship would involve him in no trouble partly because Mr. Brough suggested in Rachel's interest that the diamond might be worth something after all Did the colonel give any reason sir, I inquired why he left the diamond to Miss Rachel He not only gave the reason he had the reason written in his will Franklin, I've got an extract which you shall see presently Don't be slovenly minded, Betteridge One thing at a time You've heard about the colonel's will Now you must hear what happened after the colonel's death It was formally necessary to have the diamond valued before the will could be proved All the jewelers consulted at once confirmed the colonel's assertion that he possessed one of the largest diamonds in the world The question of accurately valuing it was one of the most serious difficulties Its size made it a phenomenon in the diamond market Its color placed it in a category by itself And to add to these elements of uncertainty, there was a defect in the shape of a flaw in the very heart of the stone Even with this last serious drawback however, the lowest of the various estimates given was twenty thousand pounds Conceived my father's astonishment He had been within a hair's breath of refusing to act as executor and of allowing this magnificent jewel to be lost to the family The interest he took in the matter now induced him to open the sealed instructions which had been deposited with the diamond Mr. Brough showed this document to me with the other papers and it suggests, to my mind a clue to the nature of the conspiracy which threatened the colonel's life Then you do believe, sir, I said that there was a conspiracy Not possessing my father's excellent common sense answered Mr. Franklin I believe the colonel's life was threatened exactly as the colonel said The sealed instructions, as I think explain how it was that he died after all, quietly in his bed In the event of his death by violence that is to say in the absence of the regular letter from him at the appointed date my father was indirected to send the moonstone secretly to Amsterdam It was to be deposited in that city a famous diamond cutter and it was to be cut up into from four to six separate stones The stones were then to be sold for what they would fetch and the proceeds were to be applied to the founding of that professorship of experimental chemistry which the colonel has since endowed by his will Now Betteridge, exert those sharp wits of yours and observe the conclusion to which the colonel's instructions point I instantly exerted my wits in the English sort and they consequently muddled it all until Mr. Franklin took them in hand and pointed out what they ought to see Remark says Mr. Franklin that the integrity of the diamond as a whole stone is here artfully made dependent on the preservation from violence of the colonel's life He is not satisfied with saying to the enemies he dreads kill me and you will be no nearer to the diamond than you are now it is where you can't get at it he says instead kill me and the diamond will be the diamond no longer its identity will be destroyed what does that mean 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 from the diamond as it now is for this plain reason that from four to six perfect brilliance 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 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 Mr. Dam Lord bless us sir I burst out what was the plot then A plot organized among the Indians who originally owned the jewels says Mr. Franklin a 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 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 that I am noting I don't want to force my opinion on you Mr. Franklin went on the 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 the incredible realities and 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 in 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. Brough 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 complexion demand 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 is 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 on their pouring the ink into the boy's hand and telling him to look at 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 neither he nor I seem 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 what are you thinking of says Mr. Franklin suddenly I was thinking sir I answered that I should like to shy the diamond and settle the question in that way if you have got the value of the stone in your pocket answered Mr. Franklin say so Betridge and then it goes it's curious to note when your mind'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 my making away with Miss Rachel's lawful property and getting Mr. Blake as executor into dreadful trouble 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 talk's proper purpose he took an envelope out of his pocket opened it and handed to me the paper inside Betridge he said we must face the question of the Colonel's motive in leaving this legacy to his niece for my aunt'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 niece's birthday and read that he gave me the extract from the Colonel's will I have got it by me while I write these words and I copy it as follows for your benefit thirdly and lastly I give him bequeath to my niece Rachel Verinder daughter and only child of my sister Julia Verinder widow if her mother the said Julia Verinder shall be living on the said Rachel Verinder's next birthday after my death the yellow diamond belonging to me and known in the east by the name of the moonstone subject to this condition that her mother the said Julia Verinder shall be living at the time and I hereby desire my executor to give my diamond either by his own hands or by the hands of some trustworthy representative whom he shall appoint and to the personal possession of my said niece Rachel on her next birthday after my death and in the presence if possible of my sister the said Julia Verinder and I desire that my said sister may be informed by means of a true copy of this the third and last clause of my will that I give the diamond to her daughter Rachel in token of my free forgiveness of the injury which her conduct towards me has been the means of inflicting my reputation in my lifetime and especially in proof that I pardon as becomes a dying man the insult offered to me as an officer and a gentleman when her servant by her orders close the door of her house against me on the occasion of her daughter's birthday more words follow these providing if my lady was dead or if miss Rachel was dead at the time of test status deceased for the diamond being sent to Holland in accordance with the sealed instructions originally deposited with it the proceeds of the sale were in that case to be added to the money already left by the will for the professorship of chemistry at the university in the north I handed the paper back to Mr. Franklin so really troubled what to say to him up to that moment my own opinion as you know that the colonel had died as wickedly as he had lived I don't say the copy from his will actually converted me from that opinion I only say it staggered me well says Mr. Franklin now you've read the colonel's own statement what do you say in bringing the moonstone to my aunt's house am I serving his vengeance blindfold or am I vindicating him in the character of a penitent and Christian man it seems hard to say sir I answered that he died with a hard revenge in his heart and a hard lie on his lips God alone knows the truth don't ask me Mr. Franklin sat twisting and turning the extract from the will in his fingers as if he expected to squeeze the truth out of it in that manner he altered quite remarkably at the same time from being brisk and bright he now became most unaccountably a slow, solemn and pondering young man this question has two sides he said an objective side and a subjective side which are we to take he had had a German education as well as a French one of the two had been an undisturbed possession of him as I supposed up to this time and now as well as I could make out the other was taking its place it is one of my rules in life never to notice what I don't understand I steered a middle course between the objective side and the subjective side in plain English I stared hard and said nothing let's extract the inner meaning of this says Mr. Franklin why did my uncle leave the diamond to Rachel why didn't he leave it to my aunt that's not beyond guessing sir at any rate I said, Colonel Herne Castle knew my lady well enough to know that she would have refused to accept any legacy that came to her from him how did he know that Rachel might not refuse to accept it too is there any young lady in existence sir who could resist the temptation of accepting such a birthday present as the Moonstone that's the subjective view says Mr. Franklin it does you great credit betterage to be able to take the subjective view but there's another mystery about the Colonel's legacy which is not accounted for yet how are we to explain his only giving Rachel her birthday present conditionally on her mother being alive I don't want to slander a dead man sir I answered but if he has purposely left a legacy of trouble and danger to his sister by the means of her child it must be a legacy made conditional on his sisters being alive to feel the vexation of it oh that's your interpretation of his motive is it the subjective interpretation again have you ever been in Germany betterage no sir what's your interpretation if you please I can see says Mr. Franklin that the Colonel's object may quite possibly have been not to benefit his niece whom he had never even seen but to prove to his sister that he had died forgiving her and to prove it very prettily by means of a present made to her child there is a totally different explanation from yours betterage taking its rise in a subjective objective point of view from all I can see one interpretation is just as likely to be right as the other having brought matters to this pleasant and comforting issue Mr. Franklin appeared to think that he had completed all that was required of him he laid down flat on his back on the sand and asked what was to be done next he had been so clever and clear-headed before he began to talk the foreign gibberish and had so completely taken the lead in the business up to the present time that I was quite unprepared for such a sudden change as he now exhibited in this hopeless leaning upon me it was not till later that I learned by assistance of Miss Rachel who was the first to make the discovery that these puzzling shifts and transformations in Mr. Franklin were due to the effect on him of his foreign training at the age when we are all of us most apt to take our coloring in the form of reflection from the coloring of other people he had been sent abroad and had been passed on from one nation to another before there was time for anyone coloring more than another to settle itself on him firmly as a consequence of this he had come back with so many different sides to his character all more or less jarring with each other that he seemed to pass his life in a state of perpetual contradiction with himself he could be a busy man and a lazy man cloudy in the head and clear in the head a model of determination and a spectacle of helplessness altogether he had his French side and his German side and his Italian side the original English foundation showing through every now and then as much as to say here I am sorely transmogrified as you see but there's something of me left at the bottom of him still Miss Rachel used to remark that the Italian side of him was uppermost on those occasions when he unexpectedly gave in and asked you in his nice sweet tempered way to take his own responsibilities on your shoulders you will do him no injustice I think if you conclude that the Italian side of him was uppermost now isn't it your business sir I asked to know what to do next surely it can't be mine Mr. Franklin didn't appear to see the force of my question not being in a position at the time to see anything but the sky over his head I don't want to alarm my aunt without reason he said and I don't want to leave her without what may be a needful warning if you were in my place Betteridge tell me in one word what would you do in one word I told him wait with all my heart says Mr. Franklin how long I proceeded to explain myself as I understand it sir I said somebody is bound to put this plaguey diamond in a Miss Rachel's hands on her birthday and you may as well do it as another very good this is the 25th of May and the birthday is on the 21st of June we have got close on four weeks before us let's wait and see what happens in that time and let's warn my lady or not as the circumstances direct us perfect Betteridge as far as it goes says Mr. Franklin but between this and the birthday I'm going to start with the diamond what your father did with it to be sure sir I answered your father put it in the safekeeping of a bank in London you put in the safekeeping of the bank at Frising Hall Frising Hall 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 Frising Hall 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 Betteridge you're worth your weight in gold he said come along and saddle the best horses in the stables directly here God bless it was the original English foundation of him showing through all the foreign varnish at last here was the master Franklin I remembered coming out again in the good old way at the prospect of a ride and reminding me of the good old times saddle a horse for him I would have saddled a dozen horses if he could only have ridden them all we went back to the house in a hurry we had the fleetest horse in the stables saddle in a hurry and Mr. Franklin rattled off in a hurry to lodge the cursed diamond once more in the strong room of a bank when I heard the last of his horse's hoofs on the drive and when I churned about in the yard and found I was alone again I felt half inclined to ask myself if I hadn't woke up from a dream End of chapter 6