Murder on the Leviathan by Boris Akunin Page A

suppose about the size of Miss Stamp's hat, if one were to place that piece of headgear in a square box.' As though on command, everyone turned and began staring curiously at the diminutive Tyrolean hat decorated with a pheasant's feather. Clarissa endured this public scrutiny with a dignified smile, in the manner she had been taught as a child. 'This cube resembled most of all one of the ordinary clay bricks that they use for building in those parts. His Highness later explained to me that the coarse, dull uniformity of the clay surface made a far better foil than gold or ivory for the magnificent glimmering light of the stones. Indeed, I was able to see that for myself when Bagdassar slowly raised a hand studded with rings to the lid of the casket, then opened it with a rapid movement and ... I was blinded, ladies and gentlemen!' The professor's voice quavered. 'It . . . it is impossible to express it in words! Picture to yourselves a mysterious, multicoloured, lambent radiance spilling out of that dark cube and painting the gloomy vaults of that dungeon with shimmering patches of rainbow-coloured light. The round stones were arranged in eight layers, and in each layer there were sixty-four faceted sources of quite unbearable brilliance. And the effect was certainly enhanced by the flickering flame of the solitary torch. I can still see Rajah Bagdassar's face bathed from below in that magical light . . .'
    The professor closed his eyes again and fell silent.
    'And how much, for instance, are these glass baubles worth?' the commissioner's rasping voice enquired.
    'Yes indeed, how much?' Mme Kleber repeated enthusiastically. 'Say, in your English pounds?'
    Clarissa heard Mrs Truffo whisper rather loudly to her husband:
    'She's so vulgar!' But even so she pushed her mousy curls back off her ear in order not to miss a single word.
    'You know,' Sweetchild said with a genial smile, 'I have often wondered about that. It's not an easy question to answer, since the value of precious stones fluctuates according to the market, but as things stand today . . .'
    'Yes, please, as things stand today, not in the time of King Chandragupta,' Gauche put in gruffly.
    'Hmm ... I don't know exactly how many diamonds, how many sapphires and how many rubies the rajah had. But I do know that he valued emeralds most of all, which was how he acquired his popular name. In the course of his reign seven emeralds were acquired from Brazil and four from the Urals, and for each of them Bagdassar gave one diamond and some additional payment. You see, each of his ancestors had a favourite stone that he preferred to all others and tried to acquire in greater numbers. The magical number of five hundred and twelve stones had already been reached in the time of Bagdassar's grandfather, and since then the ruler's primary goal had been not to increase the number of stones but to improve their quality. Stones which fell even slightly short of perfection, or which the present ruler did not favour for some reason, were sold - hence the fame of the Brahmapur Standard, which gradually spread around the world. Their place in the casket was taken by other, more valuable stones. Bagdassar's ancestors carried their obsession with the Brahmapur Standard to quite insane lengths! One of them purchased a yellow sapphire weighing three hundred tandools from the Persian Shah Abbas the Great, paying ten caravans of ivory for this marvel, but the stone was larger than the standard size and the rajah had his jewellers cut away all the excess!'
    'That is terrible, of course,' said the commissioner, 'but let us get back to the question of the stones' value.'
    This time, however, it proved less easy to direct the flow of the Indologist's speech into the required channel.

 

     
     

    'The question of value can wait for a moment,' he said, peremptorily dismissing the detective's request. 'Is that really so important? When one considers a noble stone of such size and quality, the first