f 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 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,