Summary
Franklin wakes up and he and Rachel are reconciled. Both he and Rachel consider Ezra Jennings their dearest friend, but they have to take the train back to London. In London, Franklin accompanies Bruff to the bank, as the year that the Diamond was pledged has now just expired. One of Mr. Bruff’s assistants, a boy with funny eyes nicknamed Gooseberry, comes with them; Mr. Bruff says he is one of the sharpest boys in London. They wait in the bank for any action: they see a dark, tall sailor and suspect him, but then they see Luker make a pass at a different man in gray. Following the man in gray, they find out that Luker has tricked him; the man is simply a chemist. Gooseberry and Mr. Bruff’s other man have both disappeared, much to their annoyance. Hopeless, the two men return home. That night, Franklin receives a note from Gooseberry, asking to see him in the morning. Someone comes in the morning—Franklin think it’s Gooseberry, but it turns out to be Sergeant Cuff, who has just returned from Ireland, and has a new suspect in mind. Gooseberry arrives as well, and tells his story: he had seen Mr. Luker pass something to the dark, tall sailor. Because the sailor left in a hurry, Gooseberry rushed after the suspect himself, without telling Bruff or Franklin. He tracked him all evening, and into his inn, where the sailor was staying in Room Number Ten. Another man, acting drunk, barged into Room Number Ten, but was instantly sober again back on the streets—Gooseberry suspects this man of being a spy.
The men go to the inn as soon as possible; the landlord says that the sailor in Room Number Ten has not emerged all day. When they go in, they see that the man on the bed has been smothered to death, and there is an empty jewelry box on the table—the now-gone contents having been pawned to Luker at one point. The man on the bed is Godfrey Ablewhite in disguise.
Analysis
Mr. Bruff had previously described Septimus Luker as an “inferior creature” who was disgusting in many ways, and the usurer proves to continue this kind of low behavior. To protect himself and the man who pledged the Diamond (Godfrey Ablewhite), Mr. Luker pretends to make a pass at a random man while coming out of the bank with the Diamond. While this throws Bruff and Franklin off the trail for a bit, Gooseberry eventually helps them arrive at the correct man. Godfrey’s disguise as an Indian is a bit baffling at first. Why would he dress as an Indian when the suspicion is already on the Indian priests? His costume is actually is a symbolic towards his deceptiveness and his double life—the swarthy complexion of the disguise is a symbol of the darkness of his second life.
