Solomons Seal Read Online Free PDF Page B

guessed I was in for one of his lectures. He loved giving tongue on the printing of stamps, and though he could be very interesting on the subject, he always talked as though the other person knew nothing at all about it. ‘Perkins Bacon now. They produced the Penny Blacks of 1840, all ourearly stamps, the Penny Reds and Twopenny Blues. Then De La Rue took over, printing by the letterpress process – surface printing. Not nearly as attractive, and the colours harder. So anybody collecting stamps in the ordinary way at the turn of the century would almost certainly have included some of the early line-engraved GBs.’ He picked up his glass, which was empty, and held it out to me. ‘While you’re pouring another drink, you might fill me in on the background, or didn’t you ask her?’
    â€˜About the man who made the collection?’
    He nodded. ‘Carlos Holland. Was that his name? It’s on the flyleaf of each album.’
    â€˜Why do you want to know about him?’ I asked. ‘It can’t make any difference to the value of the stamps surely.’
    â€˜I’m curious, that’s all. This isn’t an ordinary collection. I think he put it together because he was exploring design possibilities before ordering stamps he required for his own official use. He was probably a colonial governor, somebody like that.’
    â€˜And the die proofs at the end represent the design of his choice, is that what you’re saying?’
    â€˜Yes, that’s about it.’
    â€˜Well, I can tell you this, he wasn’t a colonial governor.’ I reached for the gin bottle and the Angostura. ‘But you’re right about the name.’ And I passed on to him what little I had been told about Carlos Holland.
    â€˜So the ship was a total loss. It went down with all hands.’
    â€˜That’s what I understand.’
    â€˜Then he couldn’t have had this collection with him at the time. If he had, it would be at the bottom of the sea. So how did it come into Miss Holland’s possession?’
    â€˜As I understand it, the albums were among her brother’s things when he was invalided home.’
    â€˜How did he come by them?’
    â€˜I’ve no idea.’
    â€˜Didn’t you ask her?’
    â€˜No.’
    â€˜Very odd,’ he murmured, shaking his head. ‘This man Carlos Holland leaves a collection of carvings with his brother, but not the stamps. And then, somewhere on his way out to the Pacific, at some port of call, he suddenly decides to leave these albums ashore. And there’s something else,’ he said, gazing abstractedly at the albums. ‘What about the sheets?’
    â€˜Sheets?’
    â€˜Yes, the sheets,’ he said almost irritably. ‘The printed sheets of the final stamp.’ He looked up at me over his tumbler. ‘You say he owned some schooners and came back to England to add a steamship to his fleet. That suggests he required stamps for the franking of mail carried in his vessels. So where are the sheets?’
    â€˜Presumably at the bottom of the sea.’
    He nodded, but I could see he was not wholly convinced. ‘Very odd,’ he said again. ‘And the design … I can only recall having seen two ship stamps, and like the “Lady McLeod” stamp, they both carried the picture of the ship. This stamp doesn’t; thepicture enclosed in the frame is of a seal. Doesn’t that strike you as odd?’
    The collection includes quite a few stamps with ships on them.’
    â€˜Exactly. And he chooses a seal as his emblem. Seals don’t swim around coral reefs in the warm waters of the South Pacific. Not the grey or Atlantic seal, which I think this is.’ He gave a little sigh. ‘Pity the girl isn’t here to answer a few questions.’
    â€˜I don’t think she’d be able to help you. She didn’t seem to know very much about the stamps. All she said