Episode 4 The Moonstone

In the last year of the 18th century,

Colonel John Herncastle plundered from India

a priceless and most sacred yellow diamond.

Vishnu, the preserver, laid his curse on the thief,

commanding three priests to search forever for his moonstone.

But the wicked colonel smuggled the stone to England.

In his will, he bequeathed the diamond

to his beautiful young niece, Miss Rachel Verinder.

Rachel's gallant cousin, Mr Franklin Blake,

was charged with the gem's delivery.

Rachel was bewitched by her diamond,

but the next day, it was gone.

All attempts to find the moonstone failed.

But one year later,

Franklin received Rosanna Spearman's

missive from beyond the grave.

The hunt was reignited, and Franklin

hastened back to Yorkshire.

-ROSANNA:

-'Sir, if you are curious to know the meaning

'of my behaviour to you whilst you were staying in the house

'of my mistress, Lady Verinder,

'do what you were told to do

'in the memorandum enclosed within.

'And do it without any person being present to overlook you.

'Your humble servant, Rosanna Spearman.'

Betteredge!

What news of Miss Rachel, sir?

Bruff is in Brighton now, where they are due to be married.

He takes Rachel word of Godfrey,

which may change her mind on her choice of husband.

I can but hope his words convince her, or she will become Mrs Ablewhite

and all we do here is for nought.

Do not think that way, Mr Franklin.

Today is the day we find the moonstone and win back your Rachel for good!

HE COUGHS

Are you sick, Betteredge?

As a dog, sir.

I'm sorry to hear it. What do you complain of?

A new disease, Mr Franklin, of my own inventing.

I don't want to alarm you,

but you are sure to catch it before the day is out.

The devil I will.

Do you feel an uncomfortable heat at the pit of your stomach

and a nasty thumping at the top of your head?

I call it the detective fever.

And I caught it in the company of Sergeant Cuff.

Well, I have a cure.

To follow these.

The sergeant said it!

Rosanna Spearman had a memorandum of the hiding place, and here it is!

How long until the turn of the tide?

WAVES CRASH

GULLS CRY

It's so beautiful...

..yet so treacherous.

Come on, sir. We have no time to lose.

The map?

This is the path she took.

-ROSANNA:

-Memorandum - to go to the Shivering Sands at the turn of the tide

to find the sequence of rocks they call the South Spit.

To walk out to the last rock and face out to sea.

To feel among the seaweed for the chain.

The box lies deep amidst the quicksand,

10-feet due south off the end of the final rock.

This is it, Betteredge.

Call me when you have it.

God be willing, you can yet save the day.

But why do you leave?

I should be of little use to you here, sir. I never learnt to swim.

I'd hoped you'd hold on to this so I stay tethered to dry ground.

But I must go. Look at the letter again, sir, and you shall see!

Do what you were told to do in the memorandum,

and do it without any person being present to overlook you.

It's hard for me to leave you at such a time as this,

but she died a dreadful death, poor soul.

And I feel a kind of call on me to respect her wishes.

I'll be around the next cove.

At high tide, to swim out from the rocks

and dive down into the water to the seabed,

where the tide has moved the quicksand,

and then to pull the chain.

WAVES CRASH

WAVES CRASH Help!

Betteredge!

Argh! HE COUGHS

Betteredge!

I can't get it!

-Mr Franklin?

-WAVES CRASH

Mr Franklin?

Help!

Mr Franklin!

Argh!

MR FRANKLIN!

Argh!

Let go of the box!

I cannot!

I'll throw you the rope!

Put the loop around you! I'll pull you in!

It's a cruel trap! You could die like she did!

I come back with the box, or not at all!

WAVES CRASH

STRUGGLED GASPS

WAVES CRASH

Mr Franklin!

WAVES CRASH

MR FRANKLIN!

Come on, Mr Franklin!

FRANKLIN COUGHS

FRANKLIN BREATHES HARD

Open it, Mr Franklin! Let's see the cursed diamond!

It'll win back your Rachel for good.

Where is the diamond?!

Look, sir, the smeared nightgown!

Remember what Cuff said?

-We're about to meet our thief.

-The hem!

Who is it, sir?!

Who is our thief?!

It can't be!

THUNDERCLAP

Here, sir. This will revive you.

Thank you, Gabriel.

It's a lie, to begin with.

I am as innocent of all knowledge of having taken this diamond as you are,

but there is the witness against me.

The paint on the nightgown and the name are facts!

Foul play, sir.

That's how I read the riddle.

Foul play somewhere, and you and I must find it out.

No, stop!

Rosanna Spearman came to my aunt out of a reformatory.

Rosanna Spearman had once been a thief.

There can be no doubting of that.

How do we know she may not have stolen the diamond after all?

How do we know she may not have smeared my nightgown

purposefully with the paint?

You will be cleared of this, Mr Franklin. Beyond all doubt.

But I hope Rosanna will be cleared also.

The letter in the box, sir, we must read it!

You shall form your own judgment.

Sir...I have something to own to you.

READS: 'A confession which means much misery

'may sometimes be made in very few words.'

This confession can be made in three words.

READS: 'This confession can be made in three words.'

I love you.

READS: 'I love you.'

In the name of heaven, what can this mean?

Read on, sir, I beg you.

READS: 'It would be very disgraceful to me to tell you this

'if I was a living woman.'

But if, and when you read it, I shall be dead and gone.

It is that which makes me bold.

God save the poor child!

What demons drove her to this?

READS: 'Sir, you will find your nightgown in my hiding place

'with the smear of paint on it.'

And you'll want to know how it came to be hidden by me,

and why I said nothing to you about it in my lifetime.

READS: 'I have only one reason to give to you.

'I did those strange things because I loved you.'

I had no idea.

How could you have known?

If only she had confided in me,

I could've crushed such fanciful imaginings.

I could've brought her to her senses.

Do you remember when you came out on us from among the sand hills

that morning, looking for Mr Betteredge?

Betteredge, is that you?

'You were like a prince in a fairy story!

'You were like a lover in a dream.

'You were the most adorable human creature I'd ever seen.

'Something leapt up in me the instant I set eyes on you.'

Rosanna? What have you got there?

His buttonhole...sir.

Keep it.

I kept your rose.

Don't laugh at this, if you can help it.

I liked to fancy that you'd given it to me because you cared for me.

Alas...vain fancies.

READS: 'The faded rose before you now is the same fresh rose

'that once I put so much hope in.'

I believe I found out you were in love with Miss Rachel

before you found out yourself.

She used to give you roses to wear in your buttonhole.

Ah, Mr Franklin!

You wore my roses oftener than either you or she thought.

The only comfort I had at the time

was putting my rose secretly in your glass of water

in place of hers, and then throwing her rose away.

Rosanna?

I couldn't finish my work this morning. I came back to complete it.

You can leave it now.

And I thought she was thieving.

The glass told me the truth, that I was not worthy of your attention,

but my heart wouldn't listen.

FRANKLIN: ..Since I am more familiar with the male form.

I went on getting fonder and fonder of you,

just as if I was a lady in your own rank of life.

RACHEL SPEAKS FAINTLY

I hung on your words to Rachel,

imagining they were really meant for me.

FRANKLIN SPEAKS FAINTLY

CLATTER!

Begging your pardon, sir. The tea you asked for.

Thank you.

You may go.

My work, sir, was to make your bed and put your room tidy.

It was the happiest hour I had in the whole day.

The morning the diamond went missing,

I went about my duties as usual.

Then I found your nightgown with the stain of paint on it.

I thought nothing of it at the time.

I was merely delighted to have an excuse to spend time

with that dear garment of yours to clean it.

And then Superintendent Seagrave brought our attention to the smear.

Out! All of you, downstairs!

See the damage you're doing?! Careless!

Look what mischief your skirts have done already! Clear out! Clear out!

You've smeared the door!

I fainted because of the jealous suspicion that suddenly crossed my mind.

Knowing immediately as I did that it was your nightgown that had made the smear.

That you may have visited Miss Rachel secretly

under the loving and protective cloak of darkness.

I hated Miss Rachel more than ever then.

My jealousy led me to determine to keep the nightgown

and to wait and watch

and see what use I might make of it.

At that time, not the ghost of an idea entered my head

that you had stolen the diamond.

Then followed the most extraordinary event of the day.

The superintendent has hinted that beyond any possibility of mistaking,

he suspects me of being the thief!

What can have given him that idea?

Because the diamond were taken from Miss Rachel's room,

and I were the last person in there that night!

'My head whirled.

'If the last person who was in the room is the person to be suspected,

'I thought to myself, the thief is not Penelope,

'but Mr Franklin Blake.'

The excitement of this new discovery of mine turned my head.

How to hide the nightgown so that not even the sergeant could find it?

You had worn it and I had a little moment of pleasure

in wearing it after you.

We were united, sir.

I felt such a devouring eagerness to see you

that I found an immediate excuse.

Sir? I found this lodged between the boards in your bedroom.

Ah. Well found, thank you.

Is there something else?

Do you wish to speak to me?

Yes, if I dare.

It's a strange thing about the diamond, sir.

Indeed it is.

They will never find it, sir, will they?

No. No, the person who took it, I'll answer for that.

THUNDERCLAP

I always felt her behaviour towards me odd.

And now I understand. She...

..she believed we were kindred spirits.

Bonded, as she thought, by my thievery.

Oh!

I cannot go on, Gabriel, my head spins.

Read for the both of us, if you please.

-READS:

-'The bare thought that in possessing myself of your nightgown...'

I also possessed the means of shielding you from being discovered and disgraced.

It gave me new energy, cunning and hope.

Little knowing of Lady Verinder's kindness in calling me a doctor,

I built on my true fainting fit in Rachel's bedroom

and convinced the house I was sick.

Will you take water?

SHE COUGHS

I think you'd best.

I want to be alone, Penelope.

I determined to make you a new nightgown before Saturday came,

and brought the laundry woman and her infantry to the house.

'What I was about while the household believed me to be

'lying down in my own room, there's no need to tell you.'

My dear, don't be afraid.

Lady Verinder is concerned and has charged me with examining you.

I don't want to put you to any trouble.

I merely went for some air.

Take your cloak off, girl, and sit here.

And what I'd hidden under my cloak

when I found you most wonderfully in my room with the doctor,

you are now privy to.

Now we know who was burning the midnight oil and why.

Cuff thought plain, long cloth meant a servant's gown.

It meant a gentleman's.

Rosanna believed me guilty

and that she had possession of the only proof against me.

'You've no need to be angry, Mr Franklin.

'Even if I did feel some little triumph

'that I held all your prospects in my hands,

'anxieties and fears soon came back to me.'

Excuse me, sir?

My lady asked me to give this to you.

What is your name?

Rosanna Spearman.

-Have we met before?

-I don't believe so, sir.

'But of course, he had seen me before, in my thieving days in jail.'

And there was no knowing how soon I might find myself taken in custody

on suspicion and searched.

When I have done writing this letter,

I shall go to the Shivering Sands and hide the nightgown

down in the sand, where no living creature can find it.

Without first being let into the secret by myself.

Then, Mr Franklin, I shall try to say the words to you

that I have not yet dared to say.

I love you.

If only we end on understanding each other,

how I shall enjoy retrieving this letter myself and tearing it up.

But if I miss the opportunity and you are as cruel as ever,

then, goodbye to the world which has grudged me

the happiness it gives to others.

Goodbye to life, which nothing but kindness from you

can ever make pleasurable to me again.

Rachel!

Why are you leaving?

Don't let the diamond come between us.

I love you.

Tell me about Rosanna Spearman.

-Who?

-Rosanna Spearman.

-What is your interest in her?

-The maid?

I saw you follow her outside.

I watched you from my bedroom window.

I have no interest in Rosanna Spearman. She means nothing to me.

Oh, dear God!

Don't blame yourself, sir, if it ends this way,

but do try to feel some forgiving sorrow for me.

READS: 'Don't blame yourself, sir, if it ends this way,

'but do try to feel some forgiving sorrow for me.'

I beg to remain, sir...

READS: 'I beg to remain, sir, your true lover and humble servant.'

..your true lover and humble servant.

Rosanna Spearman.

READS: 'Rosanna Spearman.'

God bless the child.

It was not an accident, she sought her own end.

Twice over, she made an attempt to speak to me!

Twice over, it was my misfortune to repel the advances she made!

You cannot blame yourself, sir.

She was drawn to those sands,

even before she met you,

and cast you in the role of her torturer.

There was nothing you could've done differently.

She was determined on her doom.

Rest in peace.

FRANKLIN SIGHS

I fear you may have caught a chill, sir.

Nothing the sea air and a good sleep won't cure.

I worry some kind of fever has taken hold of you,

but not the detecting sort.

With your permission, I'd like to call for the doctor.

No doctor can heal the pain I am in, least of all Candy.

Not Dr Candy, he has himself been sick at bed this past week.

Then he needs such skills as he has more than I.

Physician, heal thyself.

I would send for his locum.

You should have a medical opinion before you proceed to London.

London? What is the point in that now?

Even if Rachel has left Godfrey at the altar,

I cannot win her heart if there is proof that I am her thief!

Rosanna's letter proclaims me to be the thief.

And now I know this to be false, I have no other evidence

nor witness to prove my innocence.

FRANKLIN COUGHS

If the contents of this letter are made public,

I shall be seen as guilty and tried accordingly.

You have been framed, sir.

You must to London.

Seek out your lawyer.

You need professional advice and expertise.

The sooner you can lay your head alongside Mr Bruff's,

the sooner you will see a way out of this deadlock that you are now in.

TRAIN WHISTLE

Good God, Mr Franklin! You'd best come in.

Mr dear fellow, you look terrible!

Never mind about that.

I must know, did you reach Brighton in time?

Is Rachel...?

Is she...is she still my Rachel, or is she Mrs Ablewhite?

I arrived in Brighton in the early hours.

I found Rachel preparing herself for her wedding.

BELL RINGS

Thank you for seeing me at this early hour,

and on such an important day.

I trust your mission is equally important.

You are still prepared to give me away, are you not?

Um...

As a friend and a loyal servant of your family, Miss Rachel,

may I venture to ask, is your heart truly set on this marriage?

I am marrying in despair, Mr Bruff.

On the chance of dropping into some sort of stagnant happiness

which may reconcile me to my life.

Well, I cannot believe that Godfrey Ablewhite would follow you in this.

His heart must be set on the marriage, at any rate.

He says so.

I suppose I ought to believe him.

After what I have owned to him, he would hardly marry me otherwise.

If I may say...it sounds strangely, on my old ears...

What, in particular?

To hear you speak of your future husband

as if you are unsure of the sincerity of his attachment.

Are you conscious of any reason to doubt him?

Mr Bruff, you have something to tell me about Godfrey Ablewhite.

Tell it.

What did she say, man, what did she say?!

The fact that Godfrey had examined her mother's will

only hours before he proposed to her

was enough to convince her that he was marrying her for her wealth.

She realised she could never marry him.

-Oh, thank God!

-However...

..she also said that she would not stoop to make our accusation public.

Met without the threat of public shame,

he would never agree to let her go.

I said as much to Rachel.

She would not heed me.

She sent me to the church to fetch him to her.

Oh, what a relief to see you, my good man!

I was beginning to worry.

Godfrey?

I'm afraid I cannot marry you.

I hope that in the fullness of time,

you will understand and even forgive me.

Be assured that I do not do this in a moment of rash whimsy,

but because I have thought about it deeply.

My poor child!

I've rushed you.

I see that now.

This wedding...comes far too close on your mother's funeral.

But, dearest, it is my role to console you.

We shall set another day for our union in the coming weeks,

when you have recovered your resolve.

I am no child.

I'm not to be pitied, and I speak to you fully recovered and certain.

This is the hysteria of grief.

You need me, Rachel, to help you manage your estate.

You need a husband.

Would you have me come to you in need, but not in love?

I will not marry for convenience, and nor should you.

You made me a promise, Rachel.

I hold you to our contract of engagement.

I WILL see you in church...

..or I will see you in court.

Would you really still have me, knowing I wished to be let go?

Darling Rachel...I know your heart better than you know it. Hm!

Surrender to my better judgment.

The pastor awaits. We could yet be married today.

Yes, we can.

If you will just wait for Mr Bruff to finish the task I have set him.

What task?

Mr Bruff is drawing up a trust.

It will give us an ample allowance from my income

and interest on my land and principle,

but it holds my fortune,

our fortune intact for the next generation.

What?

We can be happy with a simple life, can we not?

I seek to provide for our children, Godfrey.

For what possible reason would you object?

Pack your things...

..and leave my parents' house.

I'm sorry, Godfrey.

Are you breaking our engagement?

Do you wish me to release you?

I do.

-Then I still have all to win?

-Yes, sir.

She's still a free and independent woman.

What would your advice be to me now, sir? What should my next step be?

Well, if Rachel truly suspects that you took the moonstone,

she must be persuaded to tell us on what grounds she bases this belief.

Now, this case, however serious it might seem,

could tumble to pieces,

if only we could break through Rachel's inveterate reserve

and get her to speak out.

That is a very comforting opinion for me.

Well, you must understand, sir, that I view this whole matter from the point of view of a lawyer.

It's a question of evidence.

And to me, the evidence breaks down at the outset on one very important fact.

Which is that...?

This letter from Rosanna Spearman

proves that she is adept at deception, on her own showing.

If Rachel suspects you on the basis of the nightgown,

the chances are 99-100 that it was Spearman that showed it to her.

It would be for her own desire and to her own interest

-to poison Rachel's mind against you.

-Mm.

The question is, would the nightgown alone be sufficient

to make Rachel believe that you had cause to be a thief?

There was something else.

SHE SPEAKS FRENCH

On the contrary.

I thought you had more integrity than to eavesdrop on my private business.

You lied to me! I told my mother your debts were settled.

I have the money, I had but to hand it over.

Which is the part that counts.

Then there was a predisposing influence against you.

The next step of this enquiry must be one that takes us to Rachel.

Grand difficulty is how to make her reveal the whole of her mind

in this matter without reserve.

I will speak to her myself.

You?

Rosanna poisoned her mind against me.

I want the chance to clear my own name

and tell her once more what I remember of that night.

How it is impossible for me to have stolen the moonstone.

Nothing ventured, nothing have.

And you do have one chance in your favour, which I certainly don't have.

A chance in my favour?

Well, I trust that Rachel still reserves,

in some remote corner of her heart, some perverse weakness for you.

Touch that, and trust for the consequences,

for the fullest disclosures to flow from a woman's lips.

The question is, how to get you to meet her?

She has been a guest of yours at this house.

May I venture to suggest that

if nothing was said of me beforehand, I might see her here?

You wish to turn my house into a trap for Rachel?

Not a trap, a... Well, a neutral ground

in which we can meet as if by chance and speak.

I'm desperate to see her.

I beg you, Bruff, please!

Let yourself into the garden at exactly 3:00.

She will come to sign documents relating to her estate.

CLOCK CHIMES

Rachel.

You coward!

You mean, miserable, heartless coward!

I remember a time, Rachel, when you could've told me I'd offended you

in a worthier way than that.

-I beg your pardon.

-Perhaps there is some excuse for me.

After what you have done, is it a manly action on your part

to find your way to me as you have found it today?

If my honour was not in your hands,

I would leave this instant and never see you again.

You have spoken of what I have done. What have I done?!

What have you done? You ask that question of me?!

-I ask it.

-I have kept your infamy a secret

and have spared the consequences of concealing it.

Have I no claim to be spared the insult of your asking me what have you done?

I know you suspect me of stealing your diamond,

and I have the right to know, I will know the reason why.

Suspect you?

You villain!

I saw you take the diamond with my own eyes.

For God's sake, say something!

Rachel...

..I cannot explain the contradiction in what I'm about to tell you,

I can only speak the truth, as you have spoken it.

You saw me?

With your own eyes, you saw me take the diamond?

Before God who hears us, I declare

I now know I took it for the first time.

Do you doubt me still?

Let go of my hand.

I want to ask you something.

I want you to tell me everything that happened,

from the time when we wished each other goodnight

to the time when you saw me take the diamond.

Why? Why go back to it?

Because I am the victim of some monstrous delusion

that has worn the mask of truth.

If we look at what happened on the night of your birthday together,

we may end in understanding yet.

Let us begin with what happened after we wished each other goodnight.

Did you...go to bed, or did you sit up?

I couldn't sleep that night.

Were you restless?

I was thinking of you.

After tossing and turning for an hour or so, I decided to read.

I got up to go and find my book...

..when I saw a light under the door and I heard footsteps approaching.

So I leapt back on to the bed just as the door opened.

And you saw...?

You saw a man?

Not any man, I saw you!

It was dark. You said it yourself, it was dark!

You entered my bedroom,

you opened my cabinet,

you took my diamond and then you left.

Well...?

You have asked and I have answered.

You have made me hope for something from this because you hoped for something from it.

Why didn't you speak out before? Why did you keep this to yourself?

If...if you had spoken when you ought to have spoken,

if you had done me the common justice to explain yourself...!

Explain myself?! Is there another man like this in the world?!

I spare him when my heart is breaking,

I screen him when my own character is at stake,

and he...he turns on me now and tells me

that I ought to have explained myself!

My heart's darling, you are a thief.

My hero, who I love and honour,

you have crept into my room under cover of night and stolen my diamond!

That is what I ought to have said.

You villain!

I would rather have lost 50 diamonds

than to see your face lying to me, as I see it lying now.

I wrote you a letter!

Carefully worded so that if it fell into the wrong hands,

no-one would know what you had done.

Saying I was happy to pay off your debts for you.

I have no such urgent debts, and I received no letter.

I tore it up when I heard that you, the thief, had called the police

and were working harder than anyone to recover the jewel!

You even carried your audacity far enough to ask to speak to me

about the loss of my diamond!

It was not me, Rachel. You have cruelly wronged an innocent man.

I don't believe you.

I don't believe one word you have said.

You purged the diamond to the jewel broker in London, I'm sure.

You've cast the suspicion of your disgrace,

thanks to my silence on an innocent man.

You fled to the continent with your plunder,

and now you've come here to tell me that I have wronged you?

Let me go, Rachel.

It will be better for both of us.

Let me go.

Why did you come?

Are you afraid I shall expose you now you are a rich man?

I wish I could.

But I can't say the words. I can't!

I can't tear you from my heart, even now!

You shall know that you have wronged me yet,

or you shall never see me again.

Are you sure you wish to proceed?!

Surely it is dangerous to experiment

with the subconscious mind in this way!

The experiment must've awoken the memory, as you predicted.

-Look at the paper!

-It cannot be.

-It is.

-That cursed jewel!

He's like a man possessed!