Alec Cowie and the Delhi Assignment

Book excerpt: An enthralling prologue describes Genghis Kahn's crushing thrust from the east into the Empire of Khwarazm in 1219, from which the Shah flees south across the Indus River into India, taking with him the fabled Jewel of Khwarazm. The reader is then carried forward some three hundred years into Scotland, where a young man, Alec Breville Cowie, sets out for London to join the East India Trading Company as a writer. Displaying outstanding skills in bookkeeping, languages and trading negotiations, he is posted to Madras on the east coast of India with two friends, Warren Hastings and Harry Arburthnot. Promoted to Senior Writer, and transferred to Calcutta, he is attached to perilous mission, led by the enigmatic Sir James Ness, to the Moghul Emperor in Delhi. Dogged by murderous thugee, and tracked by Marathas and French intent on disrupting the mission, they finally meet the Emperor, and Alec is given charge of the Emperor's beautiful niece, the Princess Shastri. Fleeing to the abandoned city of Fatehpur-Sikri, pursued by savage Pindarees, Alec and the Princess finally reach Lucknow. A traitor in their camp is unmasked, and the true purpose of the Delhi Assignment is revealed.