Part 19 (1/2)
”Oh, Harry” Sherry's face lit up ”You've given us the bad news - now stand by for the good”
”I could stand a little”
”You know Jimmy's note on the letter - B Mus?” I nodded
”Bachelor of Music?”
”No, idiot - British Museum”
”I' it with Uncle Dan He recognized it immediately It's reference to a work in the library of the British Museu a book, and works there often”
”Could we ';2:+' get in there?”
”We'll give it a college try”
I waited alolden and blue do for a cheroot was like a vice around my chest
I did not knohat to expect - I had simply filled in the withdrawals form with Jimmy North's reference number - so when at last the attendant laid a thick voluerly
It was a Secker and Warburg edition, first published in 1963 The author was a Doctor PA Ready and the title was printed in gold on the spine: LEGENDARY AND LOST TREASURES OF THE WORLD
I lingered over the closed book, teasing myself a little, and I wondered what chain of coincidence and luck had allowed Jimmy North to follow this paperchase of ancient clues Had he read this book first in his burning obsession recks and sea treasure and had he then stumbled on the batch of old letters? I would never know
There were forty-nine chapters, each listing a separate item I read carefully down the list
There were Aztec treasures of gold, the plate and bullion of Panaoldmine in the Rockies of North America, a valley of diamonds in South Africa, treasure shi+ps of the Armada, the Lutim bullion shi+p from which the famous Lutim Bell at Lloyd's had been recovered, Alexandra the Great's chariot of gold, more treasure shi+ps both ancient and modern - from the Second World War to the sack of Troy, treasures of Mussolini, Prester John, Darius, Roenerals, privateers and pirates of Barbary and Coromandel It was a vast profusion of fact and fancy, history and conjecture The treasures of lost cities and forgotten civilizations, froolden city of the Kalahari Desert - there was so h I turned to the first page, ducking the introduction and preface I began to read
By five o'clock I had skih sixteen chapters which could not possibly relate to the Dawn Light and had read five others in depth and by this time I understood how Jimmy North could have been bitten by the ro reat riches, abandoned, waiting athered up by someone with the luck and fortitude to ferret thelanced at the new japanese watch hich I'd replaced a, and hurried out of the massive stone portals of the museum and crossed Great Russell Street toin the crowded saloon bar of the Running Stag
”Sorry, , I said, ”I forgot the ti of thirst and curiosity”
I gave her a pint of bitter for her thirst, but could only inflame her curiosity with the title of the book She wanted to send me back to the library, before I had finished my supper of ham and turkey froed to smoke half a cheroot before she drove ave her the key to my room at the Windsor Arms, placed her in a cab and told her to wait forRoom
The next chapter of the book was entitled ”THE GREAT MOGUL AND THE TIGER THRONE OF INDIA”
It began with a brief historical introduction describing how Babur, descendant of Ties of the ancient world, crossed the ul Enized immediately that this fell within the area of ht had been outward bound from that ancient continent
The history covered the period of Babur's illustrious successors, Muslihty cities and left behind such monuments to man's sense of beauty as the Taj Mahal Finally it described the decline of the dynasty, and its destruction in the first year of the IndianBritish forces stormed and sacked the ancient citadel and fortress of Delhi - shooting the Mogul princes out of hand and throwing the old emperor Bahadur Shah into captivity
Then abruptly the author switched his attention from the vast sweep of history
In 1665 Jean Baptiste Tavernier, a French traveller and jeweller, visited the court of the Mogul Ezeb Five years later he published in Paris his celebrated Travek in the Orient He seems to have won special favour from the Muslim Emperor, for he was allowed to enter the fabled treasure chaue various itest these was a diahed this stone and listed its bulk at 280 carats He described this paragon as possessing extraordinary fire and a colour as clear and white ”as the great North Star of the heavens'
Tavernier's host informed him that the stone had been recovered froh stone had been a monstrous 787 carats
The cut of the stone was a distinctive rounded rose, but was not sy proud on the one side The stone has been unrecorded since that time and many believe that Tavernier actually saw the Koh-hly improbable that such a trained observer and craftshts and descriptions The Koh-i-noor before it was recut in London weighed a mere 191 carats, and was certainly not a rose cut The Orloff, although rose cut, was and is a syhs 199 carats The descriptions simply cannot be mated with that of Tavernier, and all the evidence points to the existence of a huge white diamond that has dropped out of the knoorld
In 1739 when Nadir Shah of Persia entered India and captured Delhi, he made no attempt to hold his conquest, but contented himself with vast booty, which included the Koh-i-noor diamond and the peacock throne of Shah Jehan It seeul diamond was overlooked by the rapacious Persian and that after his withdrawal, Mohaul Emperor, deprived of his traditional throne, ordered the construction of a substitute However, the existence of this new treasure was veiled in secrecy and although there are references to its existence in the native accounts, only one European reference can be cited
The journal of the English A the year of 1747, Sir Thoul Emperor at which he was ”clad in precious silks and bedecked with flowers and jewels, seated upon a great throne of gold The shape of the throne was as of a fierce tiger, with gaping jaws and a single glittering cyclopean eye The body of the tiger was aly worked with all h to allow me to approach the throne closely and to exareat diazeb'
Was this Tavernier's ”Great Mogul” now incorporated into the ”Tiger Throne of India'? If it was, then credence is given to a strange set of circumstances which must end our study of this lost treasure
In 1857 on the 16th Septe filled the streets of Delhi with heaps of dead and wounded, and the outco in the balance as the British forces and loyal native troops fought to clear the city of the mutinous sepoys and seize the ancient fortress that doed within, a force of loyal native troops froiment under two European officers was ordered to cross the river and encircle the walls to seize the road to the north This was in order to prevent ul royal fa the doomed city
The two European officers were Captain Matthew Long and Colonel Sir Roger Goodchildthe nae at me not only because soin, also in pencil, was one of Jimmy North's characteristic exclamation marks Master Ja to such a venerable institution as the British Museuain, andfrom the puzzle It was all here now and e
No one will ever knohat happened on that night on a lonely road through the Indian jungle - but sixand the Indian Subahdar, Raave evidence at the court martial of Colonel Goodchild
They described how they had intercepted a party of Indian nobles fleeing the burning city The party included three Muslim priests and two princes of the royal blood In the presence of Captain Long one of the princes atte to lead the British officers to a great treasure, a golden throne shaped like a tiger and with a single diareed, and the princes led thele mosque In the courtyard of the mosque were six bullock carts The drivers had deserted, and when the British officers dismounted and examined the contents of these vehicles they proved indeed to contain a golden throne statue of a tiger The throne had been broken down into four separate parts to facilitate transportation - hindquarters, trunk, forequarters and head in the light of the lanterns these fragold and encrusted with precious and seer Goodchild then ordered that the princes and priests should be executed out of hand They were lined up against the outer wall of the mosque and despatched with a volley of st the fallen noblerace with his service revolver The corpses were afterwards thrown into a well outside the walls of thewithto the patrol of the city walls, while the Colonel, Subahdar Ram Panat and fifteen sepoys rode off with the bullock carts
The Indian Subahdar's evidence at the court o ards passing through the British lines by the Colonel's authority They cae Here the local carpenter and his two sons laboured under the Colonel's direction to manufacture four sturdy wooden crates to hold the four parts of the throne The Colonel in thefrom the statue the stones and jewels that were set into the ram prepared by Goodchild and the stones were numbered and packed into an iron chest of the type used by ar of coin and specie in the field
Once the throne and the stones had been packed into the four crates and iron chest, they were loaded once more on to the bullock carts and the journey towards the railhead at Allahabad was continued
The luckless carpenter and his sons were obliged to join the convoy The Subabdar recalled that when the road entered an area of dense forest, the Colonel disst the trees Six pistol shots rang out and the Colonel returned alone
I broke offfor a few allant Colonel I should have liked to introduce hirinned at the thought and read on
The convoy reached Allahabad on the sixth day and the Colonel claimed military priority to place his five crates upon a troop train returning to Bo done this he and his si supported by the Indian Perty Officer, Ra officer We can believe that thieves had fallen out, Colonel Goodchild had perhaps decided that one share was better than three Be that as it iven a clue to the whereabouts of the treasure
The trial conducted in Bombay was a cause c&lyre and idely reported in India and at home However, the weakness of the prosecution's case was that there was no booty to show, and dead uilty However, the pressure of the scandal left hin his coed soolden tiger throne, his subsequent career gave no evidence of his possessing great wealth In partnershi+p with a notorious lady of the town he opened a ga house in the Bayswater Road which soon acquired an unsavoury reputation Colonel Sir Roger Goodchild died in 187 1, probably fro his remarkable career in India His death revived stories of the fabulous throne, but these soon subsided for lack of hard facts and the secret passed on with that sporting gentleman