“Is it possible that you don’t see his motive, Mr. Bruff?”

“I am ashamed of my stupidity, Mr. Murthwaite—­but I certainly don’t see it.”

The great traveller became quite interested in sounding the immense vacuity of my dulness to its lowest depths.

“Let me ask you one question,” he said.  “In what position does the conspiracy to seize the Moonstone now stand?”

“I can’t say,” I answered.  “The Indian plot is a mystery to me.”

“The Indian plot, Mr. Bruff, can only be a mystery to you, because you have never seriously examined it.  Shall we run it over together, from the time when you drew Colonel Herncastle’s Will, to the time when the Indian called at your office?  In your position, it may be of very serious importance to the interests of Miss Verinder, that you should be able to take a clear view of this matter in case of need.  Tell me, bearing that in mind, whether you will penetrate the Indian’s motive for yourself? or whether you wish me to save you the trouble of making any inquiry into it?”

It is needless to say that I thoroughly appreciated the practical purpose which I now saw that he had in view, and that the first of the two alternatives was the alternative I chose.

“Very good,” said Mr. Murthwaite.  “We will take the question of the ages of the three Indians first.  I can testify that they all look much about the same age—­and you can decide for yourself, whether the man whom you saw was, or was not, in the prime of life.  Not forty, you think?  My idea too.  We will say not forty.  Now look back to the time when Colonel Herncastle came to England, and when you were concerned in the plan he adopted to preserve his life.  I don’t want you to count the years.  I will only say, it is clear that these present Indians, at their age, must be the successors of three other Indians (high caste Brahmins all of them, Mr. Bruff, when they left their native country!) who followed the Colonel to these shores.  Very well.  These present men of ours have succeeded to the men who were here before them.  If they had only done that, the matter would not have been worth inquiring into.  But they have done more.  They have succeeded to the organisation which their predecessors established in this country.  Don’t start!  The organisation is a very trumpery affair, according to our ideas, I have no doubt.  I should reckon it up as including the command of money; the services, when needed, of that shady sort of Englishman, who lives in the byways of foreign life in London; and, lastly, the secret sympathy of such few men of their own country, and (formerly, at least) of their own religion, as happen to be employed in ministering to some of the multitudinous wants of this great city.  Nothing very formidable, as you see!  But worth notice at starting, because we may find occasion to refer to this modest little Indian organisation as we go on.  Having now cleared the ground, I am going to ask you a question; and I expect your experience to answer it.  What was the event which gave the Indians their first chance of seizing the Diamond?”