The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-27

few other writers ever have, the faculty of constructing an intricate and fascinat- ing plot and telling his story in a manner that keeps the readers interest fast to the end. The great popularity that Col lins had in his day is due to the fact that one never is able to guess just how the story is "comng out until the last paragraph of the last chapter is reached. In the phrase of expressive modern slang, he keeps his readers guessing; and q story of his once begun is hard to lay aside without finishing it.
 He was born story teller. and as such has his place-and a not inconsiderable one-among the writers of English fic fion. His stories are models of construc- ton. There are no loose ends as there are in Dickens, and no taking the reader :. into his confidence as to what the next chapter is to bring forth, as there is in Thackeray. Yet Collins possessed scarce 1y fraction of the pure literary merit of those authors
 "The Moonstone" is probably the best known of the works of WillSie Collins and affords an excellent example of his meth ods.
 TN Northern India, in the holy city or
 Somnauth, the great yellow diamond l known as the Moonstone glowed for  he of the four arms the beloved of Wish m the Preserver Then Somnauth was destroyed and it's shrines wrecked when the Mahometan conquerors broke into h. dia and many were the changes~of own ership through which the diamond passed after it had been torn from the forehead of the god in the troubulous times or the internecine Indian wars.
 But through all time, whatever ruler possessed it, it was watched over by three Brahmins of high caste, according to the will of yishnu, who decreed in a vision to inc faithful that it should be so tended until the end of the generations of men. Wherever went the Moonstone there also went the three Brahmins, serving in some disguise, in some capacity, so as to pe near it. When one of the three became old and died another took his place; and so the line was continued down to the time when Sultan Tippo reigned in Serln- gapatam and the Englishmen from be- yond the Black Water besieged his city.
 hi the footing that followed the fall or Seringapatam the jewel acame into the possession of John Herncastle, who was believed to nave killed at least one of the Brahmin watchers in obtaining possession of it.
 
 possession of the Moonstone brought pau luck. and would continue to do so until it was restored to the forehead of'the Moon- God The life of John Herncastle, after he obtained the gem, seemed to bear out this superstition. Nothing prospered with him after the fall of Seringapatam. Dark clouds covered his reputation. When finally he sold out of the army and re- turned to England, men would not receive him in their clubs nor women in thelr drawing rooms.
 Holm Herncastle died with the clouds still covering him. In his will he left the evil Moonstone as legacy to his niece, Rachel Lady Verinder's daughter to be delivered to the girl on her 18th birthday.
 The appointed time arrived when the fair Rachel was to have her historic gem and possibly choose husband also Lady Verinder thought girls ought to make up their minds by the time they were IS, especially when girl had two such suitors as Franklin Blake and God frey Abewhite, both cousins and both we'll to do men of good character
 It was Franklin Blake, who, by order of his father, John Herncastles executor, carried the Moonstone down to Lady Yer inders country place, where the birthday festivities were to take place. As Frank lin took the gem from the bankers where 1t had been deposited, he noticed that he was closely watched by dark, swarthy man of a decidedly Oriental appearance.
 All the stories he had heard about the Moonstone came struggling back to his nlind and he had to confess that he felt a trife uneasy. But what had such old stories of war and idols in the Indian mountains to do with q. pretty girl in Yorkshire in the nineteenth century, or the sack of Seringapatam with swallow tail coats and family dinner? Franklin taII armed Moon-gods aside and bought d railway ticket. Railways and Moon-gods are incompatible.
 When the young man arrived at his aunt's place he found that Lady Verindcr and Rachel had gone out driving, not looking for his arrival until later in the day To the old house-steward, Gabriel Betteredge who had known Mister Franklin from boyhood and was devoted to him, he told the story of the Moonstone and announced his present mission. Ga briel told him that that morning three In- dian jugglers had been seen lettering about the neghborhood.
 It was agreed at once between them that the safest thing to do with the dla- mond was to take it to the neighborins town of Frizinghall and deposit 1t with the banker there Mounting a horse from the stables. Blake immediately put the resolve into execution and was back at the house in time to welcome his aunt and Rachel when they returned from their drive.
 Rachel was a beauty, with a will of her own, and just a dash ofNthe Hern- castle temper. which was known to be an imperious one. But she was unaffect- edly glad to see her cousin, though Franklin had led an aimless, wandering life while Godfrey, Rachel's other cousin suitor, was very tall and very serious He presided at meetings at Exeter Hall and was chairman of the boards of many philanthropic societies.
 In a few days the house party at Lady Verinder's began to assemble. From London arrived Godfrey Abelwhite, sleek and unctuous. and other relatives, and, shortly before the birthday, there arrived from London also Mir. Bruff the family solicitor
 The Indians were reported to be finger ing still about Frizinghall. While not naturally superstitious, Lady Verinder was perplexed as to how she should look upon the legacy of the Moonstone to hsr daughter. Either her brother had en- deavored in his will to return good for evil, or he had bequeathed the Moonstone to her daughter believing in it's power for evil and with the idea of wreaking a post humous revenge for the way he had been cut by his relatives.
 However, scmething of more impor- ance even thah the Moonstone filled the mind of the young man who had brought that ill-omened gem from London Before the birthday dinner took place Mir. God fray Abelwhifei had proDoSed to Rachel