Boris Akunin - Murder on the Leviathan

‘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 thing that comes to mind is not money but the magical properties that have been attributed to it since ancient times. The diamond, for instance, is considered a symbol of purity. Our ancestors used to test their wives’ fidelity by placing a diamond under their sleeping spouse’s pillow. If she was faithful, then she would immediately turn to her husband and embrace him without waking. If she was unfaithful, she would toss and turn and attempt to throw the diamond onto the floor. And the diamond is also reputed to guarantee its owner’s invincibility. The ancient Arabs used to believe that in battle the general who owned the larger diamond would be victorious.’

‘Ancient Arab mistaken,’ said Gintaro Aono, interrupting the inspired speaker in full flow.

Everyone stared in astonishment at the Japanese, who very rarely joined in the general conversation and never interrupted anyone. The Oriental continued hastily in that odd accent of his: ‘In the Academy of St Cyr we were taught that the Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold, specially took the huge Sancy diamond with him into battle against the Swiss, but it did not save him from defeat.’

Clarissa felt sorry for the poor devil for making a rare attempt to show off his knowledge at such an inopportune moment.

The Japanese gentleman’s remark was greeted with deadly silence, and Aono blushed in painful embarrassment.

‘Yes indeed, Charles the Bold …’ the professor said with a sharp nod of dissatisfaction and concluded without his former ardour. ‘The sapphire symbolizes devotion and constancy, the emerald confers improved sharpness of vision and foresight, the ruby protects against illness and the evil eye … But you were asking about the value of Bagdassar’s treasures?’

‘I realize that it must be an incredibly huge sum, but could you at least give us an approximate idea of how many zeros there are in it?’ Mme Kleber enunciated clearly, as if she were addressing a dull-witted pupil, demonstrating yet again that once a banker’s wife, always a banker’s wife.

Clarissa would have enjoyed listening to more on the subject of the magical properties of precious stones and would have preferred to avoid talk of money. Apart from anything else, it was so vulgar.

“Very well then, let me just tot it up.’ Sweetchild took a pencil out of his pocket and poised himself to write on a paper napkin. ‘Formerly the diamond was considered the most expensive stone, but since the discovery of the South African mines it has fallen significantly in value. Large sapphires are found more often than other precious stones, and so on average they are only worth a quarter as much as diamonds, but that does not apply to yellow and star sapphires, and they made up the majority of Bagdassar’s collection. Pure rubies and emeralds of great size are also rare and have a higher value than diamonds of the same weight … Very well, for simplicity’s sake, let us assume that all five hundred and twelve stones are diamonds, and all of the same value. Each of them, as I have already said, weighing eighty carats. According to Tavernier’s formula, which is used by jewellers all over the world, the value of a single stone is calculated by taking the market value of a one carat diamond and multiplying it by the square of the number of carats in the stone concerned. That would give us … A one carat diamond costs about fifteen pounds on the Antwerp exchange. Eighty squared is six thousand four hundred. Multiply by fifteen … Mmm … Ninety-six thousand pounds sterling - so that is the value of an average stone from the Brahmapur casket … Multiply by five hundred and twelve … About fifty million pounds sterling. And in actual fact even more, because as I have already explained, coloured stones of such a great size are more valuable than diamonds,’

Sweetchild concluded triumphantly.

‘Fifty million pounds? As much as that?’ Renier asked in a voice suddenly hoarse. ‘But that’s one and a half billion francs!’

Clarissa caught her breath, all thoughts of the romantic properties of precious stones driven out of her head by astonishment at this astronomical figure.

‘Fifty million! But that’s half the annual budget of the entire British Empire!’ she gasped.

‘That’s three Suez Canals!’ mumbled the redheaded Milford Stokes. ‘Or even more!’

The commissioner also took a napkin and became absorbed in some calculations of his own.

‘It is my salary for three hundred thousand years,’ he announced in dismay. ‘Are you not exaggerating, professor? The idea of some petty native princeling possessing such immense wealth!’

Sweetchild replied as proudly as if all the treasure of India belonged to him personally: