Chapter 8: An Exhibition Case

It was only the third day of the exhibition. Gregg was trying to appear nonchalant as he walked up to the ticket desk and paid his ten dollar entrance fee. He told himself that he was there because he was interested in Heron, but he knew the reason that he was really there. He was trying to work out how he might steal the emerald. But then he thought, "I'm not planning to steal it, simply to return it to its rightful owner, the heir to the Swami's world. Me."

The exhibition was one that Gregg would have steered well clear of before his purchase. The museum had tried to make the collection interesting but the truth was that Heron had collected an awful lot of very dull things. The culmination of the show was, though another matter.

In a room that had been decorated to make it appear like the inside of a Maharajah's palace, the walls hung with velvet drapes, tied back with great loops of silken cords. There was a sunken area behind a barrier designed to stop visitors from falling into it. In the centre of the pit a slim pillar held aloft a green jewel that was, as far as Gregg could tell, the twin of his own red one. For the discouragement of those that might seek to inspect it closer, around the base of the column a dozen or more snakes slithered across the floor of the pit. "Viperidae : Crotalinae : Gloydius : Himalayanus (Himalayan Pit Viper)", a sign on the barrier rail said. "Loaned by City Zoological Society. Warning — Snakes Are dangerous"