The Moonstone

The Moonstone

by

Wilkie Collins

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The Moonstone: The Discovery of the Truth 2: 3 Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
Bruff is at the dinner-party, and Mr. Murthwaite is also there. His “dangerous adventures” have won the interest of many of the English people he has encountered. He announces his plans “of penetrating into regions left still unexplored,” and everyone is enraptured by his courage and recklessness. The ladies leave after dinner and the men turn to politics, an “all-absorbing national topic” that Bruff finds “dreary” and “profitless,” about which Murthwaite appears to agree.
When he appears at another party, Murthwaite is again a mysterious and respected figure—much like the Indians themselves—but, this time, he is far more talkative. His penchant for further exploration points to the expansive, all-consuming aims of British colonialism, and the guests’ reactions to his plans show how such adventure—with its impacts on native inhabitants carefully ignored—had the same kind of exotic, sensational appeal that Collins tried to cultivate in his novel.
Themes
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Bruff decides to bring up the Moonstone and explains his connection to the case. The whole group of men shifts focus to Murthwaite and Bruff, who brings up the Indian’s visit the day before and asks if Murthwaite might understand why the man asked about the repayment term of a loan. To Murthwaite, the man’s motive is obvious. He first points out that the three Indians are too young to be the same ones who followed Colonel Herncastle to England after he stole the Diamond from India, and that they must instead be the original men’s successors, now in charge of the organization that is seeking to take the Diamond back to India.
For a second time, Murthwaite proves an incomparable interpreter of the Indians' behavior; this time, unlike when Betteredge and Franklin discounted his warnings on the night of Rachel’s birthday, he is bound to be taken more seriously. His first insight is very simple, it points to the depth of the Indians’ commitment to finding the Diamond and shows Bruff that the Diamond’s “curse” is simply this longstanding attempt to repatriate it.
Themes
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Class, Wealth, and Nobility Theme Icon
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Murthwaite and Bruff agree that Herncastle’s death was the Indians’ first opportunity to take the Diamond, and that the Indians could easily find out where it was headed by getting a copy of Colonel Herncastle’s will and learning everything possible about Julia Verinder and Franklin Blake. Since it would likely be easier for them to seize the jewel from the Verinders’ estate, the three jugglers went to Frizinghall while other members of the organization stayed in London, following Franklin Blake and ingratiating his servants. But, Bruff asks Murthwaite, how would the Indians have known that Franklin put the Moonstone in the Frizinghall bank, and accordingly waited until Rachel’s birthday to try and steal it? (They agree that the jugglers’ ink-drop clairvoyance is an inadequate explanation.)
Murthwaite’s thought process is as methodical and detail-oriented as detective Cuff’s. By retracing the Indians’ actions, he and Bruff try to determine what resources they have at their disposal and to what extent they are following them (versus using the mystical, inexplicable power that Betteredge feared). But, more importantly, they also remind the reader of events that were likely published many weeks ago in an earlier weekly installment of the novel.
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Murthwaite corrects Bruff: the Indians did not know that Franklin put the Diamond in the bank, which is why they showed up at the Verinder estate on the same night Franklin arrived. Realizing that Franklin was shrewd and capable of hiding the Diamond, the men waited until it passed into Rachel’s possession on her birthday (as promised by the will). This is why, at the time, Murthwaite advised the family to cut the Diamond up. Bruff agrees that this explanation is rational.
The fact that the Indians erred proves that they are no more than human—in fact, they are master detectives themselves, and the novel can really be seen as a conflict between two teams of detectives trying to trace down the Diamond. They first underestimated Franklin; now Murthwaite’s job is to make sure that the gentlemen detectives (Bruff, Betteredge, and Franklin) do not underestimate the Indians.
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Murthwaite continues: the Indians’ “second chance” at stealing the Diamond occurred “while they were still in confinement.” The prison’s governor had brought Mr. Murthwaite a letter in Hindustani, addressed to the woman who was lodging the Indians in Frizinghall. The police had Murthwaite translate it, and he kept a copy.
Murthwaite not only provides the cultural background necessary for the Verinders’ allies to understand the Indians, but he also literally translates their language, which would have otherwise remained secret. Of course, writing in Hindustani seems designed for secrecy, as Mr. Bruff found out during his visit from one of the Indians that they appear to speak perfect English.
Themes
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The letter reads: “In the name of the Regent of the Night, whose seat is on the Antelope, whose arms embrace the four corners of the earth. Brothers, turn your faces to the south, and come to me in the street of many noises, which leads down to the muddy river. The reason is this. My own eyes have seen it.” Murthwaite explains that “the Regent of the Night” is the four-armed Hindu moon-god, who sits on an antelope. The remaining sentences seem to implore the recipients to go to London—as the three Indians did after their release from jail. To Murthwaite, it is obvious that the writer of this letter is the worker Septimus Luker fired for trying to steal an “Oriental treasure.” Bruff finally understands how the Indians knew Luker got the Moonstone.
Murthwaite expertly decrypts the language, which evokes exotic, mystical conspiracies and reminds the reader that the Indians’ duty to retrieve the Moonstone is sacred. The men’s aim seems to be to return the stone to its original position, the temple in Somnauth where it was kept until the 11th century. The Indians managed to get someone inside Septimus Luker’s business before any of the Verinders, their relatives, or their employees realized the gem had resurfaced. As Murthwaite reminds them time and time again, the Indians are a serious force to be reckoned with.
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Quotes
Murthwaite now asks Bruff for “a piece of information”: does Bruff know who paid for Luker to buy the Moonstone? Bruff does not know, but Murthwaite suggests it may have been Godfrey Ablewhite. Bruff, however, explains that Godfrey “had been cleared of all suspicion.”
Bruff now updates Murthwaite on what he learned from—of all people—Miss Clack in London. Clearly, knowing who pledged the stone would lead directly to the thief; but Collins will not give away the Moonstone’s secret quite yet.
Themes
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Returning to the timeline of the Indians’ actions, Murthwaite suggests that Mr. Luker is responsible for “the loss of their second chance of seizing the Diamond,” for he fired their accomplice and put the gem in the bank at once. Murthwaite thinks it is not worth determining how the Indians discovered the gem’s location in the bank, but instead asks Bruff: “what is their third chance of seizing the Diamond? and when will it come?”
Murthwaite redirects the conversation—and the plot of the novel—toward the Moonstone’s inevitable return when the Indians seek to steal it from the bank (or from whoever withdraws it from the bank). The reader must now wait in suspense until the Diamond resurfaces.
Themes
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Bruff immediately understands that the Indian man visited his office to figure out how soon the Diamond’s purchase can be paid off (when the bank can release it). In a year, Murthwaite declares, “the unknown person who has pledged the Moonstone can redeem it” and the men can try for a third time to steal it back. While Murthwaite will be “thousands of miles away from England,” he thinks Bruff should “arrange to be in London at the time.” Murthwaite feels he “shall be safer […] among the fiercest fanatics of Central Asia than […] with the Moonstone in my pocket.” With that, the party guests “dispersed” and Bruff writes himself a reminder to seek news of the Moonstone in late June, 1849.
Bruff pieces together Murthwaite’s warning: the Diamond will be back in a year, and both the Indian and the English detectives will be after it. The adventurous Murthwaite maintains his characteristic distance by assuring Bruff that the decision is his, and also by literally leaving England for the foreseeable future. He offers a (fittingly xenophobic) warning that, this time, the Englishmen are likely to take more seriously.
Themes
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