Part 27 (1/2)
Slowly I removed the layers of coinally used as packing Like a facein a dreaolden glory of intricately worked rip on my shoulder as she crowded down close beside me
There was a snout, and lips below that were drawn up in a savage snarl, revealing great golden fangs and an arched tongue There was a broad deep forehead as wide as my shoulders, and ears flattened down close upon the burnished skull - and there was a single empty eye-socket set fairly in the centre of the wide brow The lack of an eye gave the aniic expression, like soious awe as I stared at the huge, wonderfiilly fashi+oned tiger's head we had exposed So slithered up lanced aboutrecesses of the hold, aluardians to be lurking there
Sherry squeezed olden idol, but the sense of aas so strong upon me that I had to forcefrom around it I worked very carefully for I was fully aware that the slightest scratch or dareatly reduce the value and the beauty of this i time was exhausted we drew back and stared at the exposed head and shoulders, and the torch beaolden light that lit the hold like some holy shrine We turned then and left it to the silence and the dark, while ent up into the sunlight
Chubby are inificant had happened, but he said nothing until we had climbed aboard and in silence shed our equip to mop the droplets of seawater that ran fro hts, turned inward upon herself
”You found it?” Chubby asked at last, and I nodded
”Yes, Chubby, it's there” I was surprised to hear that elo who had not sensed theour equip, but then slowly closed it as he becaed atmosphere
We were all silent, moved beyond speech I had not expected it would be like this, and I looked at Sherry She aze at last and her dark eyes were haunted
”Let's go home, Harry,” she said and I nodded at Chubby He buoyed the hose and dropped it overboard to be retrieved on the following day Then he threw theour bows to face the channel
Sherry moved across the whaleboat and came to sit beside me on the thwart I placed my arm about her shoulders but neither of us spoke until the whaleboat slid silently up on to the white beach of the island
In the sunset Sherry and I cliether staring out across the reef, and watching the light fade on the sea and plunge the pool at Gunfire Reef into deeper shadow
”I feel guilty in a way,” Sherry whispered, ”as though I have coreed, ”I knohat you- it seee that we should have exposed its head, before any other part of it just suddenly to have that face glaring out at one,” she shuddered and was silent for a few ood quiet feeling inside myself I don't know if I can explain it properly - for the two feelings were so opposite, and yet s”
”What are we going to do with it, Harry, what are we going to do with that fantastic animal?”
Somehow I did not want to talk about money and buyers at that moment which in itself was a olden idol
”Let's go down,” I suggested instead ”Angelo will be waiting dinner for us”
Sitting in the firelight with a goodthe cold e of whisky in one hand and a cheroot in the other, I felt at last able to tell the others about it
I explained hoe had coolden head They listened in complete and intent silence
”We have cleared the head down to the shoulder I think that is where it ends It is notched there, probably to fit into the next section To to be ticklish work We can't just haul it out with the block and tackle It has to be protectea froestion, and for a while we discussed in detail how the head should be handled to e
”We can expect that all five cases containing the treasure were loaded together I hope to find them in the same part of the hold, probably similarly packed in wooden crates and reinforced with hoop iron-”
”Except for the stones,” Sherry interrupted ”In the courtmartial evidence, the Subahdar described how they were packed in a payreed
”What would that look like?” Sherry asked
”I saw one on display in the arsenal at Copenhagen which would probably be very sie biscuit bin” I sketched the size with the spread ofof his catch ”It is ribbed with iron bands and has a locking rod and a pair of head padlocks at each corner”
”It sounds formidable”
”After a hundred-odd years in the pool it will probably be soft as chalk - even if it's still in one piece”
”We'll find out tomorrow,” Sherry announced with confidence
We tra on our oilskins and cascadwing froht down on the peaks, oily dark banks that rolled steadily in from the sea to loose their bomb loads of moisture upon the island
The force of the rain lifted a fine pearly spray frorey curtains reduced visibility to a few hundred yards so that the island disappeared in a grey haze as we ran out to the reef
Everything in the whaleboat was cold and claularly and we huddled miserably in our oilskins while Chubby stood in the stern and slitted his eyes against the slanting, driving rain as he negotiated the channel
The flourescent orange buoy still bobbed close in beside the reef and we picked it up and dragged in the end of the hose and connected it to the pump head It served as an anchor cable and Chubby could cut the motors
It was a relief to leave the boat, escape froo down into the quiet blueconsiderable pressure froelo had at last succumbed to veiled threats and open bribes, and relinquished his ticking mattress stuffed with coconut-fibre Once the hly soaked with seawater, it sank readily, and I took it doith me in a neat roll, tied with line
Only when I had un-deck and into the passenger deck did I cut the line and spread the mattress
Then Sherry and I returned to the hold where the tiger's head still snarled blindly into the torchlight
Ten minutes” as all that was necessary to free the head from its nest As I suspected, this section ended at shoulder level, and the junction area was neatly flanged clearly it would e would engage the fe and barely perceivable
When I rolled the head carefully on to its side I ranted that the idol was old, but now I saw that in fact it was a hollow casting
The actual thickness of h and knobbly to the touch I realized ihed hundreds of tons, and that the cost of such construction would have been prohibitive even to an emperor who could support the construction of a temple as vast as the Taj Mahal
The thinness of the metal skin had naturally weakened the structure, and I saw immediately when I turned it that the head had already suffered dae
The rim of the neck cavity was flattened and distorted, probably during its secret journey through the Indian forests in an unsprung cart - or possibly during the wild death struggles of the Dawn Light during the cyclone
Bracing myself in the entrance to the hold, I stooped over it to test its weight, and I cradled the head in my arth of my lift and was pleased, but not surprised, when it cahty, and it required all of th frohed not ht, as I turned aardly under the oppressive load of gleaently on the coirready to receive it Then I straightened up to rest and es of metal had bitten into my flesh While I did so I tried a little mental arithmetic: 300 pounds avoirdupois at 16 ounces to the pound was 4800 ounces, at 150 to the ounce was almost three-quarters of a million dollars That was the intrinsic value of the head alone There were three other sections to the throne, all were probably heavier and larger - then there was the value of the stones It was an astronomic total, but could be doubled or even trebled if the artistic and historical value of the hoard were taken into account
I abandoned less at this time, and instead I helped Sherry to fold the er's head and to rope it all into a secure bundle Then I could use the block and tackle to drag it down to the coundeck
Laboriously- we dragged it to the gunport and there we struggled to pass it through the restricted opening, but at last it was accoo net around it and inflate the airbags Again we had to step the estion that the head should remain covered once we had it safety in the whaleboat, and hat cere tropical rain, I unveiled it for Chubby and Angelo They were an appreciative audience Their excitement superseded even the miserable sodden conditions, and they crowded about the head to fondle and exahter It was the festive gaiety which our first discovery of the treasure had lacked I had taken the precaution of slipping , and now I laced the steas of black coffee with liberal portions of Scotch whisky and we toasted each other and the golden tiger in the steaushed down upon us and rattled on the fabulous treasure at our feet
At last I swilled outover the side and checked my watch