Tintin and the Golden Fleece pendulum, Calculus insists that the gold is still right above them. Cutting away at the paint on the ship's railings Tintin realizes that they are in fact the camouflaged gold. The chest contained the real railings, and was just a red herring. Haddock finally returns the gold to Tetaragua. The main square in the capital is renamed Paparanic Square, and Haddock receives Tetaragua's highest decoration, the Order of the Scarlet Cheetah. Back home at Marlinspike Hall, Haddock hires Clodion as his cook, and Calculus keeps Romulus as a pet and a test subject for his inventions of a flying birdcage.
Tintin and the Golden Fleece be an old friend of Paparanic and offers to buy the boat for "sentimental" reasons, but the huge amounts that he offers makes Tintin suspicious and on his advice Haddock turns the offer down. During their stay in Istanbul, a stranger named Malik offers to take Tintin and Haddock on a guided tour during which there are two attempts on their lives. This makes them all the more determined to find out what is going on. One of the clauses of Paparanic's will was that Haddock, on accepting the ship, should also fulfill his current obligations. The next day Haddock