Loot

Loot Plot Summary

Introduction

In the royal workshops of Srirangapatna, the smell of rosewood mingles with the clash of empires. Young Abbas carves peacocks into cabinet doors while his father warns against making toys that might attract unwanted attention. But trouble has already found them—Tipu Sultan's guards stride through the narrow lanes, bayonets gleaming, seeking the toymaker whose mechanical creatures have delighted the zenana. The Tiger of Mysore has summoned Abbas to create something extraordinary: an automaton that will devour England itself. This is a tale that spans decades and continents, following artisans whose genius burns bright in an age of conquest and betrayal. From the siege of Srirangapatna to the drawing rooms of English castles, from pirate ships to French clockmaker shops, Abbas and his companions navigate a world where craft becomes survival, where mechanical tigers hold the power to resurrect the dead, and where love emerges from the ruins of empire. Their journey reveals how art endures when kingdoms fall, and how the hands that create beauty can also forge redemption.

Chapter 1: The Carver's Apprenticeship: Abbas and the Tiger of Mysore

The mallet strikes true, wood chips flying as Abbas shapes a peacock's feathers into cabinet wood. At seventeen, his skill already surpasses his brothers, but excellence breeds its own dangers. When Tipu Sultan's guard appears at their workshop threshold, bayonet towering above him, Abbas knows his toys for the royal zenana have drawn attention. The Summer Palace looms beyond Srirangapatna's walls, where Abbas has never ventured. Here, real tigers pace in cages while European clockmaker Lucien Du Leze waits with architectural plans spread like battle maps. Tipu Sultan himself appears—shorter than legend suggests, with hawk's eyes and mouse's chin—demanding an automaton as tall as Du Leze himself. The commission springs from a rifle ornament: a bronze tiger feeding upon a fallen English soldier. "Six weeks," Tipu announces, his voice cutting through the pavilion's perfumed air. "I want the teeth planted in the infidel's neck. And music—it must play music while it feeds." Du Leze, the exiled French inventor, sees promise in Abbas's mechanical toys. The partnership begins with skepticism—what can this provincial woodcarver know of European clockwork? But as Abbas studies the rifle's ornament, tracing the bronze tiger's attack with reverent fingers, something ignites between master and apprentice. The fusion of Eastern artistry and Western mechanism births something unprecedented. Working by candlelight, Abbas carves the tiger's body while Du Leze constructs the organ pipes and bellows within. Each evening brings French lessons over Mother Goose tales, languages bleeding into one another like wood stains. Abbas learns that "animus" means breath, that sound gives the illusion of life to mechanical creatures. The automaton takes shape across sleepless weeks. Tiger and soldier emerge as one piece, predator eternally feeding upon prey, the English soldier's face turned skyward in permanent anguish. When the crank turns, the tiger's head bobs while organ music wails from its belly—a mechanical nightmare that delights Tipu Sultan and his returned sons, Abdul Khaliq and Muiz-ud-din, recently released from English captivity. At the unveiling in the Rag Mahal, courtiers gasp as the tiger growls and the soldier's arm flails helplessly. Tipu beams with savage satisfaction while young Prince Muiz claps his hands. But when older Prince Abdul is asked what he wants for his birthday, his innocent reply—"Trifle"—triggers his father's rage. The English delicacy reminds Tipu of his sons' captivity, of how foreign influences poison even royal blood.

Chapter 2: Embers and Exile: Surviving the Fall of Tipu Sultan

The rockets streak across Srirangapatna's sky like falling stars, but these stars carry death. Abbas serves as stretcher-bearer while English forces breach the fort's northwestern wall—the weakest point, betrayed by someone within. Chaos floods the streets as sepoys storm through lanes where Abbas once carved peacocks in peaceful workshops. Bodies pile upon bodies in narrow alleys. Abbas stumbles through smoke and screaming, witnessing atrocities that strip away his boyhood. When he falls beneath a corpse during the battle's climax, he discovers a terrible survival strategy: playing dead among the actual dead. For three nights he lies motionless, drinking rainwater from puddles when sepoys aren't watching, his nostrils filled with the stench of decay. Tipu Sultan dies by the Water Gate, shot while firing his hunting rifles in defiant final stands. The Tiger of Mysore falls like any mortal man, his famous automaton soon claimed by English prize committees. Colonel Selwyn chooses the Musical Tiger over golden pole-heads and jeweled caskets, sensing its narrative power will outlast mere precious metals. When Abbas finally rises from his bed of corpses, a young sepoy mistakes him for a supernatural being—what else could emerge alive from such carnage? The sepoy's terrified wave sends Abbas stumbling toward the Delhi Gate, away from everything he's ever known. His family has fled to relatives in distant villages. The workshops stand empty, their carved peacocks gathering dust while new flags flutter from Srirangapatna's ramparts. The city that nurtured his talent now belongs to strangers who measure worth in entirely different currencies. Abbas walks the roads as refugee and ghost, carrying nothing but his carving knife and memories of mechanical tigers that once sang in royal halls. Behind him, Srirangapatna burns. Ahead lies uncertainty vast as the sea itself, where survival will demand transforming from artisan to something harder, something that can endure salt spray and the lash of foreign masters who care nothing for the art of making peacocks bloom from dead wood.

Chapter 3: Adrift in the Liquid World: From Prisoner to Voyager

The wooden whale fits perfectly in Abbas's palm, carved during night watches aboard the Peppercorn while English voices drift across dark waters. His shipmate Thomas Beddicker watches with fascination as Abbas shapes the miniature creature by touch alone, their friendship blooming despite barriers of race and circumstance that divide the crew into suspicious factions. From carpenter's assistant to the master's confidence, Abbas learns the rhythms of maritime life—the screech of wind through rigging, the eternal battle against scurvy, the way homesickness gnaws worse than any physical hunger. Thomas teaches him English while Abbas shares fragments of his lost world, careful never to mention his true skills or the mechanical tigers that once entertained sultans. The Peppercorn limps through storms that split sails and test every joint in her hull. Lightning explodes across wave-tops like scattered pearls while Abbas and Thomas huddle on night watch, their conversations ranging from childhood dreams to the strange kinship that grows between men far from home. Thomas speaks of captaining his own vessel someday; Abbas dreams of creating something that will outlast his maker's name. But the sea breeds betrayals as surely as it breeds storms. When French privateers intercept the Peppercorn in the liquid world between empires, the merchant vessel's weakness shows in her rotted timbers and disease-ravaged crew. Captain Maquet of the Confiance cuts an elegant figure as he boards, silver-tipped cane gleaming, searching for French speakers among the English crew. In the moment of crisis, Thomas—feverish with scurvy, eyes wild with infection—points an accusing finger at Abbas. Fear and sickness strip away their friendship like paint peeling from wood. The betrayal cuts deeper than any blade; Abbas learns that survival often demands sacrificing those we claim to love. The Confiance takes Abbas along with the healthiest crew members, leaving Thomas to die in the Peppercorn's fetid hold. As the pirate ship's black and yellow hull cuts through oceanic swells, Abbas grips his wooden whale and swears never again to trust in human bonds that snap like ship's rope under pressure.

Chapter 4: The Clockmaker's Legacy: Finding Rouen and Jehanne

The bells of Rouen Cathedral chime across cobblestones slick with morning rain as Abbas searches for the clockmaker's shop. Years have passed since his capture by French pirates, years of servitude aboard the Confiance where he learned that freedom comes only to those who seize it. Now he carries forged papers and a carpenter's wages, seeking the master who might complete his interrupted education. But Lucien Du Leze lies cold in his grave, leaving behind only a half-breed daughter and a curiosity shop filled with mechanical marvels. Jehanne Du Leze moves like quicksilver through the cramped space, her gray eyes sharp with intelligence and suspicion. She wears mourning black that emphasizes her pale skin, but her hands work constantly—adjusting clock faces, threading needles, bringing order to the chaos of her inheritance. "So you're the one who made my spinning top," she says in fluid Kannada, the sound of their shared language warming the musty air between dusty automatons. Her recognition hits Abbas like a physical blow—this serious young woman was once the giggling child who watched him carve toys in Du Leze's workshop, back when the world contained fewer graves and betrayals. The newspaper clipping she shows him changes everything. His Tiger automaton survived the siege, claimed by English collectors who display it in London drawing rooms. The illustration shows his handiwork reduced to curiosity, but Abbas sees opportunity in the mechanical creature's survival. Here stands proof of his artistry, validation that his skills transcend the boundaries of empires. Jehanne offers shelter and partnership with cautious generosity. She needs help with the clock repairs that sustain her modest income; he needs time to plan his next moves. They settle into careful domesticity—she translating Du Leze's technical notebooks while Abbas fixes timepieces with movements delicate as butterfly wings. Evening French lessons reveal Jehanne's sharp wit and carefully guarded emotions. She questions everything with the persistence of someone who's learned not to trust easy answers. Abbas finds himself drawn to her restless intelligence, the way she attacks problems like a terrier shaking rats. Yet he maintains careful distance, remembering how quickly friendship becomes betrayal when survival stakes rise high enough to test any bond.

Chapter 5: The Automaton's Trail: A Scheme to Reclaim the Past

Winter settles over Rouen like a gray shroud, driving Jehanne and Abbas deeper into their conspiracy. The plan takes shape over steaming cups of coffee in the shop's back room, where mechanical clocks tick out seconds like heartbeats counting down to action. Lady Selwyn of Cloverpoint Castle has turned his Tiger automaton into a trophy, displaying it for curious English aristocrats who see only exotic barbarism where Abbas invested his soul. The forgeries begin with Tipu Sultan's imagined possessions—a royal robe sewn from simple muslin, howdah cushions embroidered with golden thread that catches lamplight like captured fire. Jehanne's needlework transforms common fabrics into convincing artifacts of empire, each stitch a small act of creation that mirrors Abbas's own artistry. Her fingers move with the precision of a clockmaker, guided by sketches that Abbas draws from memory of Tipu's actual garments. "We'll tell her these objects carry more significance than the automaton," Jehanne explains while threading gold wire through crimson velvet. "Three genuine artifacts of the Tiger's reign, offered in trade for one broken mechanical toy." The third item requires more delicate negotiation. Du Leze's agate ring—a genuine gift from Tipu Sultan—must become part of their deception. Jehanne produces it reluctantly from its hiding place, the stone's cream and coffee striations catching candlelight as it passes between their palms. This ring represents her only tangible connection to the man who raised her, but she places it carefully in the velvet-lined box that will carry their hopes across the English Channel. Their story crystallizes through repetition. Jehanne becomes the daughter of Du Leze, the French clockmaker who served at Tipu's court. Abbas transforms into her valet, his carpenter's skills hidden beneath servile deference that burns his throat like acid. They practice their performances until fiction feels more solid than memory. The final detail emerges during a moment of inspiration that surprises them both. Jehanne must collapse dramatically during her first visit to Lady Selwyn's castle, overcome by seeing the automaton that her "father" helped create. The fainting spell will earn them extended hospitality, time to study their target and refine their approach. "Can you really fall convincingly down a flight of stairs?" Abbas asks, watching Jehanne practice her swoon beside the counter where broken clocks await resurrection. She smiles with the confidence of someone who's learned that audacity often succeeds where caution fails. "I've been falling my whole life. Time to make it profitable."

Chapter 6: Cloverpoint Castle: Tigers, Deception, and Fire

The Thames winds like a silver ribbon past Cloverpoint Castle, where Lady Agnes Selwyn rules over Gothic towers and quatrefoil windows that catch morning light like captured jewels. Rum, her Indian secretary and secret lover, recognizes Abbas immediately—the careful way he holds himself, the particular shade of brown skin that marks their shared origins. But he keeps his suspicions caged behind professional courtesy while Jehanne performs her carefully rehearsed role as grieving daughter of the French clockmaker. Lady Selwyn emerges as a lonely collector hungry for authentic connections to the Oriental world that fascinates her. Her marriage to Colonel Selwyn was practical rather than passionate; his death in India left her wealthy but emotionally starved. When Jehanne faints dramatically on the grand staircase—a performance worthy of London theaters—Lady Selwyn's maternal instincts overwhelm her usual caution. The recovery period allows intimacy to bloom between the women. They play cards with increasing abandon, Lady Selwyn teaching French games while Jehanne pretends ignorance of English customs. Their hands touch during shared laughter over inside jokes that exclude the hovering servants. Agnes even shares her secret novel, The Saracen's Lamp—a romance between an English lady and her devoted genie that clearly mirrors her relationship with Rum. But Abbas grows reckless with proximity to his Tiger. Late one night, he steals into the Peacock Room where the automaton crouches on its pedestal. His hands shake as he removes the tiger's head, exposing the organ pipes and bellows he crafted decades ago in Srirangapatna's workshops. Finding his name carved in the internal mechanisms—"Faite par L. Du Leze & Abbas"—validates everything he's sacrificed to reach this moment. Rum discovers him there, shadow against shadow in the darkened chamber. The confrontation forces truth into open air like smoke from a disturbed fire. Abbas is no valet but the automaton's creator, come to reclaim his masterpiece from English hands that never understood its true significance. The revelation poisons the growing friendship between Jehanne and Lady Selwyn. When Jehanne finally presents her ultimatum—trade the automaton for three authentic artifacts of Tipu's reign—Agnes responds with a counter-proposal that reveals the depths of her loneliness. Stay at Cloverpoint permanently, become her companion and confidante, dismiss the troublesome valet who clearly commands inappropriate loyalty. Jehanne's rejection ignites Agnes's fury and wounded pride. The confrontation escalates until harsh words strip away all pretense of affection, revealing the calculating motives beneath their manufactured intimacy. Agnes retreats to her pipe and solitary drinking, while Jehanne locks herself in her room to await morning's inevitable expulsion from the castle. Fire blooms from carelessly tended embers, turning curtains into torches that threaten to consume Cloverpoint's accumulated treasures. But in the chaos of burning silk and shouting servants, heroism emerges from unexpected quarters—Agnes risking her life to save the Tiger automaton, while Abbas races through smoke-filled corridors seeking Jehanne among the flames.

Chapter 7: Mechanical Hearts: Building a New Life in France

The ashes of Cloverpoint Castle settle like gray snow over Abbas and Jehanne's return to Rouen, where winter streets echo with the memory of Lady Selwyn's sacrifice. She died clutching the Tiger automaton in the smoke-choked china closet, choosing art over life in a gesture that haunts them both. Her death transforms their failed heist into something deeper—a meditation on what we're willing to lose for the things we claim to love. Back in the curiosity shop, they rebuild their lives on different foundations. The Tiger remains forever beyond reach, displayed now in London's East India Museum where brass plaques celebrate its unknown makers. But Abbas finds new purpose in smaller creations, teaching Jehanne the secrets of mechanical movement while she translates Du Leze's technical notebooks into comprehensible French. Their first joint success comes through crying dolls—soft cloth bodies that emit realistic infant wails when turned upside down. Abbas perfects the internal bellows system that produces the sound, while Jehanne designs exteriors that melt maternal hearts across Norman markets. The simple mechanism that once powered tigers now brings comfort to lonely children, transformation that echoes their own journey from destruction toward creation. Success breeds investment opportunities. Madame Gardam, a friend of Jehanne's rigid aunt Isabelle, provides capital for a proper factory where rows of women assemble crying dolls with industrial precision. The building fills with mechanical wails that sound like a nursery of mechanical infants, but cotton in the ears makes the cacophony bearable. As their business grows, so does the intimacy that neither dares name directly. Abbas courts Jehanne with all the caution of someone who's learned how quickly affection becomes liability. Their first kiss happens spontaneously after she successfully negotiates a major contract, his restraint finally cracking under the pressure of her joy and proximity. Marriage follows naturally, though they celebrate with more pragmatism than passion. Their wedding night unfolds with tender awkwardness as two people who've survived betrayal learn to trust flesh and feeling once again. The shop becomes their shrine, filled with ticking clocks and mechanical toys that represent their shared commitment to creation over destruction. Rue Bertaux transforms under their influence. The gold lettering on their shop window—"Jehanne Du Leze: Toys, Hats, Creations"—announces their success to neighbors who remember when Jehanne lived on stale bread and dreams. Now they employ local women, contribute to the community, prove that refugees can plant new roots in foreign soil when given opportunity and time. Years later, Abbas sometimes finds himself carving small figures during quiet evening hours. His hands move automatically through familiar motions while his mind drifts toward memories of mechanical tigers and burning castles. The wooden creatures he shapes now lack the grandeur of royal commissions, but they carry something more precious—the mark of an artist who has learned that survival and creation can coexist, that love grows stronger when tested by fire, and that the finest masterpieces sometimes emerge from the ashes of our most magnificent failures.

Summary

In the end, the Tiger's journey spans continents and decades, but its true power lies in the human connections it forges and destroys. Abbas evolves from frightened apprentice to master craftsman, learning that artistic legacy transcends individual ambition when shared with those who understand its deeper significance. His partnership with Jehanne—built on mutual loss and hard-won trust—proves more enduring than the mechanical marvel that first brought them together. Lady Selwyn's sacrifice transforms her from lonely collector to tragic heroine, while Rum's betrayal and redemption illustrate how even those caught between worlds can find belonging through loyalty to something larger than themselves. The automaton itself becomes a meditation on empire and artistry, showing how colonialism distorts both oppressor and oppressed while culture flows in unexpected directions. Tipu's Tiger survives its creator and its original owner, housed now in neutral museums where future generations can contemplate the hands that shaped its wooden form and the hearts that bled for its creation. The greatest victory belongs not to any individual but to the enduring power of craftsmanship—the way human skill and passion can create objects that outlive kingdoms, transcend borders, and whisper secrets of their makers' souls to anyone willing to listen carefully enough to hear.

About Author

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Tania James

James reflects on cultural identity through a blend of family sagas and historical fiction, exploring the complex interplay between personal and political histories. Her works often delve into the experiences of the Indian and Indian American diaspora, providing readers with narratives rich in emotional depth and character-driven storytelling. With a foundation in both filmmaking and fiction writing, James crafts stories that merge lyrical prose with evocative settings, allowing readers to engage deeply with themes of history, memory, and cultural identity. \n\nIn her notable book "Atlas of Unknowns," James navigates the intricacies of family dynamics across generations and geographies. This theme is further explored in her acclaimed novel "The Tusk That Did the Damage," where she inventively reconstructs forgotten historical perspectives. Such narratives have earned her recognition, with awards from the likes of The San Francisco Chronicle and NPR. Her writing resonates with readers who appreciate complex characters and nuanced storytelling, offering insights into the multifaceted nature of identity. This brief bio highlights James's contribution to contemporary literature, emphasizing her role in broadening the understanding of cultural and historical narratives.

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