In chapter 6 of Gabriel Betteredge’s first narrative in The Moonstone, Franklin Blake explains to him the stratagem by which John Herncastle managed for half a century to keep the Moonstone and stay alive despite the persistent menace of the three Indians pledged to recover the stone. Upon returning to England with the diamond, Herncastle left sealed instructions with Franklin’s father ordering that, should he die by violence, the Moonstone be sent to Amsterdam and cut into separate stones, which were then to be sold for what they would fetch in the market.