The Lives of Harry Lime Daily · Towers & Greene

Harry Lime - An Old Moorish Custom

April 8, 2026·28 min·1 clip

Lime reveals that the 400-year-old sacramental wine found alongside Barbarossa's gold was poisoned by grandfather Armand Darouche himself — killing all of El Sikina's men who drank it.

Harry Lime starts with a deadline. El Zequina gives him twenty-four hours to secure the necessary information, and if he fails, his services will be dispensed with permanently. The legend itself begins as the sort of story Harry would write off as fairy tales. He and his contacts dig into Aruz Barbarossa, who captured a galleon in 1504 loaded with gold dust and wine for the use of the church, and a yearly celebration by men said to rise from the grave. Harry does not buy folklore. He does buy records, and the records point somewhere sharper: the galleon was carrying newly mined gold dust for the goldsmiths of Civitavecchia, not finished treasure, which makes the antiques now in circulation look a good deal less accidental. That turns the search from legend into inventory. Old Armand Aruz has been selling numerous antiques of pure gold to dealers, and an Englishman has a sixteenth-century cup he bought from Aruz just two weeks earlier. The trail has the smell of old money, fast lies, and somebody who wants the treasure to stay where the dead left it. When the clock runs down, Harry heads out to the ancient estate of Barbarossa. The villa is broad, sprawling, and fortress-like in the blazing heat. He expects Valerie at the door. Instead, the welcome turns rough, Mario Martel collapses, and a pistol drops out of the argument. The final trick lands cleanly: the grandfather put the wine there himself for the refreshment of anyone who found the treasure, but it has aged into poison. Harry gets the last word, and the episode ends with danger, dryness, and just enough smugness to keep the legend alive.

As heard by us

A treasure legend, a 24-hour deadline, and a poisoned wine reveal near Algiers.

A treasure legend near Algiers sends Harry Lime into a 24-hour scramble after research in the government library points to loot hidden somewhere between Algiers and Bougie.

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Why you'd press play

You want a smug treasure hunt with a poison-lined payoff.

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