The Mysterious Mr Jacob: Diamond Merchant, Magician and Spy by Zubrzycki John

Author:Zubrzycki, John [Zubrzycki, John]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9788184003369
Publisher: Random House India
Published: 2012-11-02T04:00:00+00:00

Jacob was now legally the owner of the costliest gem stone in the world. The only problem was he didn’t want it and he was growing increasingly uncertain that he could get rid of it.

He spent much of the day in his hotel room, carefully drafting a telegram to the Nizam that would be his last chance to salvage the deal and his reputation. The telegram was so long it had to be sent in three parts. As he sat and waited for the clerk at the Telegraph Office to transmit it to Hyderabad, he fingered the pearl scarf pin he always wore on Mondays in the belief that pearls were his protector. For added luck, he had also looked at his face in the mirror of his room before he went out, another of his life-rules that changed, depending on the day of the week.

In the telegram, Jacob put on record that Mahboob Ali Khan had found out that the diamond was not worth 4.6 million rupees and that he wanted to reopen negotiations. He described talking to Abid about cutting his commission and the Nizam’s offer to buy the diamond for 4 million rupees. He reminded the Nizam about having met with him the following morning and the Nizam’s agreement to buy the stone at that price even though Jacob would be left with hardly any profit. ‘I knew Your Highness liked the diamond because you told me so, and, as I felt you were the fountain of my life because you hold my bread in your hands, I agreed to take 40 lakhs.’

Jacob then explained how people in Hyderabad were jealous of him because no other merchant was treated with such respect. ‘Even your minister hates me, though I have done him no injury. Therefore, they took the opportunity to crush me and they have done it. But my faith in you is as much as in God, and I can tell that you will not abandon me because I tried to make my living honestly and this was with your consent.’ Securing the Nizam’s goodwill, he said, was more important ‘than any money under the sky because you have been a second God to me. But should you be persuaded by my enemies to abandon me, I would be a ruined man.’ He urged the Nizam to persuade Abid to forego his commission saying, ‘I will make nothing on it. If you give me anything, I will ever pray for your long life, health and prosperity.’14

Referring to the telegram Abid had sent demanding the return of the deposit, he continued: ‘Surely, this cannot be an order from Your Highness, and if it is, then the offer of 40 lakhs could not have been with your sanction. Hence, I am deceived by him.’ Explaining that the money could not be returned because it had already been sent to England, he added: ‘I am in a fix with the bank for the balance. Unless I pay them at once they will insist on keeping the diamond and this will cripple me.

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