Page:The Eyes of Max Carrados.pdf/42

40 against you, sir. No advance? At two hundred and seventy pounds. . . ?"

The hammer began to fall. A score of pencils wrote "£270" against Lot 191.

"And eighty!"

The voice of the new bidder cut in crisp and businesslike. Without ostentation it conveyed the cheerful message: "Now we are just beginning. I feel uncommonly fit." It caught the hammer in mid-air and arrested it. It made the large man feel tired and discouraged. He pushed back his hat, shook his head slowly, with his eyes fixed on his catalogue, and remained in stolid meditation. Carrados smiled inwardly at the restraint and strategy of his friend.

"Two hundred and eighty. Thank you, sir. Two hundred and eighty pounds . . . ?" He knew by intuition that the price was final and the hammer fell decisively. "Mr. Marrable. . . . Lot 192, History and Antiquities of the County, etc. Put it in the bidding, please. One pound . . . ?"

After the sale Mr Marrable came round to Carrados's chair in very good spirits. Certainly he had had to give a not insignificant price for the Virginiola, but the attendant circumstances had elated him. Then he had secured the greater part of the other lots he wanted, and at quite moderate valuations.

"I've paid my cheque and got my delivery note," he explained. "I shall send my men round for the books when I get back. What do you think of the business?"

"Vastly entertaining," replied Carrados. "I have enjoyed myself thoroughly."

"Oh, well . . . But they were out for the Virginiola, weren't they?"