The Moonstone - Page 242/404

I understood the allusion to my experience.

"The first chance they got," I replied, "was clearly offered to them by

Colonel Herncastle's death. They would be aware of his death, I suppose,

as a matter of course?"

"As a matter of course. And his death, as you say, gave them their first

chance. Up to that time the Moonstone was safe in the strong-room of the

bank. You drew the Colonel's Will leaving his jewel to his niece; and

the Will was proved in the usual way. As a lawyer, you can be at no loss

to know what course the Indians would take (under English advice) after

THAT."

"They would provide themselves with a copy of the Will from Doctors'

Commons," I said.

"Exactly. One or other of those shady Englishmen to whom I have alluded,

would get them the copy you have described. That copy would inform them

that the Moonstone was bequeathed to the daughter of Lady Verinder, and

that Mr. Blake the elder, or some person appointed by him, was to place

it in her hands. You will agree with me that the necessary information

about persons in the position of Lady Verinder and Mr. Blake, would be

perfectly easy information to obtain. The one difficulty for the Indians

would be to decide whether they should make their attempt on the Diamond

when it was in course of removal from the keeping of the bank, or

whether they should wait until it was taken down to Yorkshire to Lady

Verinder's house. The second way would be manifestly the safest way--and

there you have the explanation of the appearance of the Indians at

Frizinghall, disguised as jugglers, and waiting their time. In London,

it is needless to say, they had their organisation at their disposal to

keep them informed of events. Two men would do it. One to follow anybody

who went from Mr. Blake's house to the bank. And one to treat the

lower men servants with beer, and to hear the news of the house. These

commonplace precautions would readily inform them that Mr. Franklin

Blake had been to the bank, and that Mr. Franklin Blake was the only

person in the house who was going to visit Lady Verinder. What actually

followed upon that discovery, you remember, no doubt, quite as correctly

as I do."

I remembered that Franklin Blake had detected one of the spies, in the

street--that he had, in consequence, advanced the time of his arrival in

Yorkshire by some hours--and that (thanks to old Betteredge's excellent

advice) he had lodged the Diamond in the bank at Frizinghall, before the

Indians were so much as prepared to see him in the neighbourhood.

All perfectly clear so far. But the Indians being ignorant of the

precautions thus taken, how was it that they had made no attempt on Lady

Verinder's house (in which they must have supposed the Diamond to be)

through the whole of the interval that elapsed before Rachel's birthday?