The Moonstone - Page 36/404

Neither he nor I seemed to fancy dealing with this part of the inquiry.

We looked at each other, and then we looked at the tide, oozing in

smoothly, higher and higher, over the Shivering Sand.

"What are you thinking of?" says Mr. Franklin, suddenly.

"I was thinking, sir," I answered, "that I should like to shy the

Diamond into the quicksand, and settle the question in THAT way."

"If you have got the value of the stone in your pocket," answered Mr.

Franklin, "say so, Betteredge, and in 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 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.

"Betteredge," 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 and 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, into 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 on 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, closed

the door of her house against me, on the occasion of her daughter's

birthday."