Unknown (17 page)

Loosening his collar, Hassim
exposed part of his
throat
on which there were three livid marks that I
could
see, possibly more.

"When I blurted out that the
Bird had been bought
by
a Chinese, both the men lost interest in me. The
smaller
man informed me that I had never seen them, that they had never been
here or it would not go well
with
me. Then they departed, to my great relief."

"You feel that the smaller
man was the leader of the
pair?"
asked Holmes, as though he already knew the
answer.

Hassim nodded. "The large one
was, as you might
say,
the enforcer."

"Describe the smaller man as
best you can."

This proved difficult for the
Turk. "He was nonde
script.
Thin. Fairly old. Medium height. He had trouble
with
his speech. A lisp."

"The man with the lisp,"
I burst out in a most unpro
fessional
manner.

Holmes rose. He had learned what
we wanted to
know.

9

Back
to Baker Street

87

Our departure from Constantinople
was almost as
rapid
as our exit from Berlin. Upon leaving the shop on
Istikial
Caddesi, Holmes made haste to return to the Golden Horn Hotel, where
he booked us on the Orient Express to Calais. Much to my displeasure,
the fastest
connection
involved taking the boat train to Constanza,
Romania,
where the Express made up to return through Vienna to Austria and
Germany with the special section
continuing
to the French coast.

Fortunately, the Black Sea was
calm and we made connections without incident or without arousing the
curiosity of any fellow passengers. I must have let my irritation
show somewhat and while Holmes could not
conceive
of my interest in the historical city we were
leaving
with hardly a glance, he did show compassion
during
our long return journey by relating various his
torical
facts about Constantinople.

He did not dwell on ancient Troy
since, as he put it,
"That
story was clouded by time and legend," though he did state that
he felt there must have been a factual
basis
for the recounting of the Greek and Trojan war immortalized by the
Iliad.
Of
King Byzas of the Me
garians,
who expanded the city seven centuries before
Christ,
my friend was most fluent. He was also versed
in
the reign of Emperor Constantine who changed the
city's
name from Byzantium to Constantinople and pro
claimed
it the capital of his Holy Roman Eastern Em pire. Possibly, dry
history teachers had tried to inculcate me with these facts but they
did not have Holmes's colorful delivery. Then he progressed to
the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent and really hit his stride.
I had not
realized
that this greatest of Ottoman rulers had be
sieged
Vienna and was beaten back in defeat by So-bieski of Poland. Soon, my
friend's graphic recreation
of
history was explained, in part, when he dwelt at some
length
on Suleiman's invasion of Rhodes and his defeat
of
the Knights of St. John who retreated to Malta.

"An interesting situation
here, ol' chap. The Knights
of
St. John, using the strategic position of Rhodes, had been pillaging
Mediterranean shipping for years. When
the
island fell, Suleiman must have captured an immense amount of
booty. But it has never been found."

Since the sleuth had fallen into a
thoughtful silence, I was able to express a thought that came to
mind. "Good
Lord,
Holmes, you don't think some private collector
got
his hands on that?"

"Hardly. I imagine the
Treasure of Suleiman is, like Morgan's Pearls, hidden somewhere
awaiting that astute
visionary
capable of deducing where the ancient wealth
is
secreted. Possibly, when I hang up my shield, I shall
not
devote my time to bee-keeping at all but embark on
a
search for the famous and undiscovered caches."

"You mentioned Morgan's
Pearls," I said, questioningly. Holmes had referred to
England's famous, or infamous, pirate on more than one occasion.

"Henry Morgan's most famous
coup was his attack
on
the Spanish settlement of Panama. He used an over
land
route to strike at the treasure port, by the way,
unusual
for a seafaring man. Having sacked the city, Morgan is reputed to
have secretly taken the pearls, the most valuable part of his loot,
and buried them some
where
on the Isthmus of Panama. Evidently, he never returned to recover
them for they have not appeared to
this
day."

"But they are known to have
existed."

"Oh yes. Pearls were Panama's
chief contribution to
the
swollen coffers of the Spanish crown. It took
money,
Watson, to support the Spanish armies in Eu
rope
and to build the great Armada."

I must confess my friend's
intimate knowledge of his
tory
proved somewhat surprising, but then I recalled
that
he could remember obscure items in his newspaper
files
years after filing them away. How reasonable that colorful incidents
of mankind's background should be at
his
fingertips, especially if they touched upon unsolved
mysteries.

Naturally, our somewhat one-sided
conversation dur
ing
the trip across Europe turned to the case at hand.
Holmes
drily observed that our extensive travels had
contributed
little that we had not already known.

"However, Watson, we have met
two of the princi
pals
in this search of ours, something that would not
have
occurred had we remained in London."

"Do you accept Hassim's
theory of the ultimate
hoarder?"

"In part, if not in whole,"
was his reply. "I can name
any
number of known objects of value which have sim
ply
disappeared. And, though Hassim did not refer to
them,
there are some very well-known masterpieces
about
which rumors have circulated. The
Mona
Lisa
is
one.
There is a school of thought that the painting in
the
Louvre is not the Da Vinci original but a masterful
copy."*

* How interesting that this theory was revived
and much bruited
about after Vincenzo
Perrugia stole the
Mona Lisa
from
the
Louvre in 1911 and the painting was
not recovered until twenty-
eight months
after the theft.

My expression of amazement
prompted a laugh from my friend. "Can you imagine one of the men
Hassim
mentioned
with the original in his hands. He could cer
tainly
laugh at the world and yet, though I don't deny
the
possibility, I find it a little difficult to swallow.
What
good is a supreme joke if the world cannot enjoy
it
as well. To laugh alone is a solitary sport indeed."

I must have looked vague since
Holmes backtracked
to
alleviate my confusion. "We have come across situa
tions
akin to what I'm referring to. The affair of the 'Ruby of Alkar' and
the matter of the 'Midas Emerald'
to
name but two. In each case, the missing gem was too
well-known
to be sold legally and, like the
Mona
Lisa,
was
unalterable. Diamonds are a thief's best friend, ol'
fellow.
Being such a hard substance, they can be cut
and
lose their identity. Two of the crown jewels of England were
once a single stone. But were you in posses
sion
of a painting as famous as the
Mona
Lisa,
you
certainly could
never show it to anyone. Surely, that re
moves
some of the joy of acquisition. I contend that Sel
kirk
or Manheim or any of those
sub-rosa
collectors
mentioned by Hassim would really move mountains to
secure
an unidentified masterpiece."

"Like Morgan's Pearls."

"Exactly. Their size and
luster would be proofs of
their
value but they were never weighed, no description
of
them exists, and in fact they had no owners. Morgan
stole
them from the Spaniards, who had squeezed them
from
the suppressed native population who knew where
they
were to be found in their virginal state."

"The same situation existing
with the spoils of the
Rhodes
campaign."

"Of course. There are others,
Watson, undoubtedly
more
than we imagine. Hassim mentioned the Pharoahs
.
Our archeologists haven't uncovered one tomb so
far
that wasn't looted rather thoroughly."*

* Holmes was correct since this adventure
predated the Carter
expedition which
discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun.

Tales of history and hidden
treasure, coupled with
speculations
on the case involving us, helped hasten our
trip
but as the Calais coach approached the channel, I
could
sense Holmes urging it forward. He was eager to return to our abode
and resume the chase of the Golden
Bird,
which interested at least two shadowy individuals, only one of which
was known. I rather suspected that
Holmes
would center his energies on uncovering the
employer
of the man with the lisp and voiced this idea.

"Quite right, ol' chap.
However, we have another
thread
in this tangled skein to consider. We were de
coyed
from England, of that I am sure. What has hap
pened
in our absence? What incident prompted some
one
to remove us from the scene of action?"

At every station, my friend
secured newspapers,
which
he eagerly scanned for mention of some event that might have an
association with the golden statue,
but
his diligence was not rewarded.

When we finally arrived at 221B
Baker Street, it was
with
delight that I surveyed familiar sights. Mrs. Hudson made much
of our return, though, in truth, we had
not
been absent any great length of time despite the fact
that
we had crossed Europe twice and had been but the
length
of a bridge from Asia.

Holmes immediately resumed
investigations, or at least tried to, but he encountered unexpected
difficul
ties.
Mrs. Hudson insisted that we consume some good English fare after all
that foreign food. Our concerned landlady was a great believer in the
health-giving prop
erties
of British provender, and, consuming her rare
roast
beef and Yorkshire pudding with gusto, I readily concurred in her
theory.