after parting with me. In that case, just do
me the favour of not believing a word she says,
if she speaks of your humble servant.

On Friday, nothing happened—except that
one of the dogs showed signs of a breaking-out
behind the ears. I gave him a dose of syrup
of buckthorn, and put him on a diet of pot-liquor
and vegetables till further orders. Excuse
my mentioning this. It has slipped in somehow.
Pass it over, please. I am fast coming
to the end of my offences against your cultivated
modern taste. Besides, the dog was a good
creature, and deserved a good physicking; he
did indeed.

Saturday, the last day of the week, is also
the last day in my narrative.

The morning's post brought me a surprise in
the shape of a London newspaper. The
handwriting on the direction puzzled me. I
compared it with the money-lender's name and
address as recorded in my pocket-book, and
identified it at once as the writing of Sergeant
Cuff.

Looking through the paper eagerly enough,
after this discovery, I found an ink-mark drawn
round one of the police reports. Here it is, at
your service. Read it as I read it, and you
will set the right value on the Sergeant's polite
attention in sending me the news of the day:

"LAMBETH.—Shortly before the closing of the
court, Mr. Septimus Luker, the well-known dealer
in ancient gems, carvings, intagli, &c. &c., applied
to the sitting magistrate for advice. The applicant
stated that he had been annoyed, at intervals
throughout the day, by the proceedings of some of
those strolling Indians who infest the streets. The
persons complained of were three in number. After
having been sent away by the police, they had
returned again and again, and had attempted to enter
the house on pretence of asking for charity.
Warned off in the front, they had been discovered
again at the back of the premises. Besides the
annoyance complained of, Mr. Luker expressed
himself as being under some apprehension that robbery
might be contemplated. His collection contained
many unique gems, both classical and oriental, of
the highest value. He had only the day before
been compelled to dismiss a skilled workman in
ivory carving from his employment (a native of
India, as we understood) on suspicion of attempted
theft; and he felt by no means sure that this man
and the street-jugglers of whom he complained,
might not be acting in concert. It might be their
object to collect a crowd, and create a disturbance
in the street, and, in the confusion thus caused, to
obtain access to the house. In reply to the
magistrate, Mr. Luker admitted that he had no evidence
to produce of any attempt at robbery being in
contemplation. He could speak positively to the
annoyance and interruption caused by the Indians,
but not to anything else. The magistrate remarked
that, if the annoyance were repeated, the applicant
could summon the Indians to that court, where they
might easily be dealt with under the Act. As to
the valuables in Mr. Luker's possession, Mr. Luker
himself must take the best measures for their safe
custody. He would do well perhaps to communicate
with the police, and to adopt such additional
precautions as their experience might suggest. The
applicant thanked his worship, and withdrew."

One of the wise ancients is reported (I forget
on what occasion) as having recommended his
fellow-creatures to "look to the end." Looking
to the end of these pages of mine, and wondering
for some days past how I should manage to
write it, I find my plain statement of facts
coming to a conclusion, most appropriately, of
its own self. We have gone on, in this matter
of the Moonstone, from one marvel to another;
and here we end with the greatest marvel of
all—namely, the accomplishment of Sergeant
Cuff's three predictions in less than a week
from the time when he had made them.

After hearing from the Yollands on the
Monday, I had now heard of the Indians, and
heard of the money-lender, in the news from
London—Miss Rachel herself, remember, being
also in London at the time. You see, I put
things at their worst, even when they tell
dead against my own view. If you desert me,
and side with the Sergeant, on the evidence
before you—if the only rational explanation
you can see is, that Miss Rachel and Mr.
Luker must have got together, and that the
Moonstone must be now in pledge in the
money-lender's house—I own I can't blame you for
arriving at that conclusion. In the dark, I
have brought you thus far. In the dark I am
compelled to leave you, with my best respects.

Why compelled? it may be asked. Why
not take the persons who have gone along with
me, so far, up into those regions of superior
enlightment in which I sit myself?

In answer to this, I can only state that I am
acting under orders, and that those orders have
been given to me (as I understand) in the
interests of truth. I am forbidden to tell more
in this narrative than I knew myself at the
time. Or, to put it plainer, I am to keep
strictly within the limits of my own experience,
and am not to inform you of what other persons
told me—for the very sufficient reason that you
are to have the information from those other
persons themselves, at first hand. In this matter
of the Moonstone the plan is, not to present
reports, but to produce witnesses. I picture to
myself a member of the family reading these
pages fifty years hence. Lord! what a compliment
he will feel it, to be asked to take nothing
on hearsay, and to be treated in all respects
like a Judge on the Bench.

At this place, then, we part—for the
present, at least—after long journeying together,
with a companionable feeling, I hope, on both
sides. The devil's dance of the Indian Diamond
has threaded its way to London; and to London
you must go after it, leaving me at the country-
house. Please to excuse the faults of this
composition—my talking so much of myself, and
being too familiar, I am afraid, with you. I
mean no harm; and I drink most respectfully
(having just done dinner) to your health and
prosperity, in a tankard of her ladyship's ale.