Part 27 (2/2)
”We'll do another dive,” I decided ”You can start the puain, Chubby”
Noe knehere to continue the search, and after I had broken out the remains of the case that had contained the head, I saw, -in the opening beyond, the side of a similar crate and I pressed the hose into the area to clear it of dirt before proceeding
My excavations o, and it needed only the further disturbance caused by suction of the hose to dislodge a part of it With a groaning and ru clouds of muck defeated the efforts of the hose to clear theroped quickly for Sherry through the darkness, and shefor me, for our hands met and held With a squeeze she reassured o, and I could begin to clear out the fouled water with the suction hose
Within five low of Sherry's torch through the ue juo
With Sherry beside ain
The slide had covered the wooden crate on which I had been working, but in exchange it had exposed sonized instantly, despite its sorry condition, for it was almost exactly as I had described it to Sherry the previous evening, even down to the detail of the rod that ran through the locking device and the double padlocks The payh with rust and when I touched it my hand came away smeared with the chalky red of iron oxide
In each end of the case were heavy iron carrying rings, which had most likely swivelled at one time but were now solidly rusted into the rip and gently to work the chest out of the clutching bed of muck It came free in a minor storm of debris, and I was able to lift it fairly easily I doubt that the total weight exceeded a hundred and fifty pounds, and I felt certain that most of that was made up by the massive iron construction
After the enormously heavy head in its soft bulky hter chest out of the wreck, and it needed only a single airbag to lift it dangling out of the gunport
Once again the tide and surf were pouring alarly into the pool, and the whaleboat tossed and kicked impatiently as we lifted the chest inboard and laid it on the canvas-covered heap of scuba bottles in the bows
Then at last Chubby could start the h the channel We were still all high with excitement, and the silver flask passed from hand to hand
”What's it feel like to be rich, Chubby?” I called, and he took a s fro at the sting of the liquor before he grinned at e yet”
”What are you going to do with your share? Sherry insisted ”
”It's a little late in the day, Miss Sherry - if only I had it twenty years ago, then I have use for it - and how” He took other s ”That's the trouble - you never have it en you're young, and when you're old, it's just too late”
”What about you, Angelo? Sherry turned to hiipsy curls heavy ”with rain dangling on to his cheeks and the droplets clinging in the long dark eyelashes ”You're still young, ill you do?” Miss Sherry, I've been sitting here thinking about it, and already I've got a list from here to St Mary's and back” It took two trips from the beach to the camp before we had both the head and the chest out of the rain and into the cave ere using as the store roo sky had brought on the evening preolden head snarled down upon us froe hewn into the aback of the cave
With a hacksaw and je device and found immediately that the decrepit appearance of the metal was deceptive, clearly it had been hardened and alloyed We broke three hacksaw blades in the first half hour and Sherry professed to be severely shocked by al froood cheer and Chubby and I took the Scottish equivalent of a tea break
With renewed vigour we resumed our assault on the case, but it was another twenty h the rod By that ti down steadily, but the soft clatter of the pal westerly wind that would disperse the storh, we started it frobolts with a two-pound hammer from the tool-box Each blow loosened a soft patter of rust scales frooodly blows to drive the rod fro fist of corrosion
Even when it was cleared, the lid would not lift Although we hammered it from a dozen different directions and I treated it with a further laying on of abuse, it would not yield
I called another whisky break to discuss the probleleam in his eye, but reluctantly I had to restrain hielo announced ”Brilliant,” I applauded hiset is fifty miles away - and you make a remark like that”
It was Sherry who discovered the secondary locking device, a secret pinning through the lid that hooked into recesses in the body of the chest It obviously needed a key to release this, but for lack of it I selected a half-inch punch and drove it into the keyhole and by luck I caught the locking arain, and this ties with so to the inside of it and tearing away froed brown cloth It oven cotton fabric, a wet solid brick of it, and I guessed that it had been cheap native robes or bolts of cloth used as packing
I was about to explore further, but suddenly foundover Sherry North's shoulder ”You'd better let”Coet yourself another drink?” she suggested placatingly, as she began lifting off layers of sodden fabric The suggestion had so and watched Sherry expose a layer of clo&wrapped parcels
Each was tied with twine that fell apart at the touch, and the first parcel also disintegrated as she tried to lift it out Sherry cupped her hand around the decaying mass and scooped it on to a folded tarpaulin placed beside the chest The parcel contained scores of ser than a rape and each had been folded in a wisp of paper, which, like the cotton, had completely rotted away
Sherry picked out one of these lumpy objects and rubbed away the ree shi+ny blue stone, cut square and polished on one face
”Sapphire?” she guessed, and I took it froht It was opaque and I contradicted her
No, I think it's probably lapis lazuli” The scrap of paper still adhering to it was faintly discoloured with a blue dye ”Ink, I should say” I cruer, the Colonel, took the trouble to identify each stone He probably wrapped each piece in a numbered slip of paper which related to a master sketch of the throne to enable it to be reassembled”
”There is no hope of that now,” said Sherry
”I don't know I said ”it would be a hell of a job, but it would still be possible to put it all together again”
Ast our stores was a roll of plastic packets, and I sent Angelo to ferret it out As we opened each parcel of rotted fabric we superficially cleaned the stones it contained and packed each lot in a separate plastic packet
It was sloork even though we all contributed and after almost two hours of it we had filled dozens of packets with thousands of searnets, verdite, amethyst, and half a dozen others of whose identity I was uncertain Each stone had clearly been lovingly cut and exactingly polished to fit into its own niche in the golden throne
It was only e had unpacked the chest to its last layer that we careater value The old Colonel had obviously selected these first and they had gone into the lowest layer of the chest
I held a transparent plastic packet of e green star
We all stared at it as if mesht
I laid it aside and Sherry dipped once ht out a s le stone it contained
Then she held up the Great Mogul diamond in the cupped pal, cut into a faceted cushi+on shape, just as Jean Baptiste Tavernier had described it soarray of treasure we had handled before in no way dilory of this stone, as all the stars of the fir of the sun They paled and faded away before the brilliance and lustre of the great diaelo, offering it to him to hold and examine, but he snatched his hands away and clasped the at the stone in superstitious awe
Sherry turned and offered it to Chubby, but with gravity he declined also
”Give it to Mister Harry Guess he deserves to be the one”
I took it from her, and was surprised that such unearthly fire could be so cold to touch I stood up and I carried it to where the golden tiger's head stood snarling angrily in the unwavering light of the lanterns and I pressed the diamond into the empty eye socket
It fitted perfectly, and I used olden clasps that held it firmly in place, and which the old Colonel had probably opened with a bayonet a century and a quarter ago
I stood back then, and I heard the sasps of wonder With the eye returned to its socket the golden beast had come to life It seemed now to survey us with an imperial mien, and at any instant we expected the cave to resound to its crackling wicked snarl of anger
I went back and tookcircle around the rusted chest, and we all stared up at the golden tiger head We seemed like worshi+ppers in some ancient heathen tire, crouched in awe before the fearsome idol
”Chubby, my old well beloved and trusted buddy, you will earn yourself an entry on the title page of the book of mercy if you pass me that bottle,” I said, and that broke the spell They all recovered their voices co before I had to send Sherry to fetch another bottle to lubricate dry throats