Summary
Sergeant Cuff’s man, the Captain, and Mr. Murthwaite all provide statements in the epilogue.
Sergeant Cuff’s man had tried to follow the Indians on the ships bound for Bombay; however, they boarded a ship to Rotterdam, and then asked to be let off when they said they were supposed to be bound for Calais. Out of pity, they were taken off by a shore boat. This was a means for them to avoid being traced.
The captain of the ship says that the Indians stole a smaller boat in the middle of the night, during a calm period on the ship’s voyage.
In a letter to Mr. Bruff, Mr. Murthwaite writes about his return adventures to India; he found himself in a province called Kattiawar, not well known to Europeans. While he was in this region, the number of Hindus coming to the area suddenly swells, arriving for a religious ceremony. This ceremony is for the moon deity. Murthwaite also goes, and watches as three priests gathered on a rocky platform—he recognizes them as the three Indians he had seen at Yorkshire. He is told by the locals that these were three Brahmins who had forfeited their caste, and would now part, purifying their lives by constant pilgrimage. After the priests prepare the ceremony, they part, never to see each other again. As the deity is revealed, Murthwaite sees the large yellow Moonstone restored to its proper place on the statue.
Analysis
True to the English analysis of the Indians as having no scruples, the three Indian priests escape by trickery off of the ship to carry their Diamond back safely to Kattiawar. Here the story of the Moonstone departs from those of its real-life counterpart gems: the Hope and Orlov Diamonds are still in display in Europe and other Western places. However, as the Moonstone is taken back to India, so is the curse of ill happenings from the Verinder family.
