cand? Where is the wealth of Antioch, and where the
jewels which Solomon gave the Queen of Sheba? During thousands of
years of warfare the treasures of the Old World could be saved from the
conqueror only by hiding them underground, and in countless instances
the sword must have slain those who knew the secret. When Genghis Khan
swept across Russia with his hordes of savage Mongols towns and cities
were blotted out as by fire, and doubtless those of the slaughtered
population who had gold and precious stones buried them and there they
still await the treasure seeker. What was happening everywhere during
the ruthless ages of conquest and spoliation[2] is indicated by this
bit of narrative told by a native banker of India to W. Forbes
Mitchell, author of "Reminiscences of the Great Mutiny":

"You know how anxious the late Maharajah Scindia was to get back the
fortress of Gwalior, but very few knew the real cause prompting him.
That was a concealed horde of sixty _crores_ (sixty millions sterling)
of rupees in certain vaults within the fortress, over which British
sentinels had been walking for thirty years, never suspecting the
wealth hidden under their feet. Long before the British Government
restored the fortress to the Maharajah everyone who knew the entrance
to the vaults was dead except one man and he was extremely old.
Although he was in good health he might have died any day. If this had
happened, the treasure might have been lost to the owner forever and to
the world for ages, because there was only one method of entrance and
it was most cunningly concealed. On all sides, except for this series
of blind passages, the vaults were surrounded by solid rock.

"The Maharajah was in such a situation that he must either get back his
fortress or divulge the secret of the existence of the treasure to the
British Government, and risk losing it by confiscation. As soon as
possession of the fortress was restored to him, and even before the
British troops had left Gwalior territory, masons were brought from
Benares, after being sworn to secrecy in the Temple of the Holy Cow.
They were blindfolded and driven to the place where they were to labor.
There they were kept as prisoners until the hidden treasure had been
examined and verified when the hole was again sealed up and the workmen
were once more blindfolded and taken back to Benares in the custody of
an armed escort."

[1] "The Pirates' Own Book" was published