the deeds have been bought to facilitate or to
impede a purchase at the approaching sale."

Hitherto the conversation had been a commonplace preamble to a serious
contest, something like the first moves in a game at chess or the
beginning of a race. Itzig's impatience now made a decided advance.

"Have you a commission to buy the estate?" he suddenly inquired.

"We will assume that I have," replied Anton, "and that I wish your
co-operation. Are you in a position to give me information without loss
of time, and will you undertake the measures rendered necessary by the
sale of the mortgages?"

Itzig took time to consider. It was possible that Anton's only purpose
was to secure the property to his friend Fink, or to the baron himself.
In this case he was in danger of losing the fruit of his long scheming
and bold deeds. If Fink, by his wealth, covered the baron, Itzig lost
the estate. While thus perplexed, he remarked that Anton was watching
him, and decided, with the subtlety of a bad conscience, that Anton had
heard of his plans, and had some ulterior purpose. Possibly this
commission to buy was but a feint. Accordingly, he hastened to promise
his co-operation, and to express the hope that he might succeed, at the
right time, in discovering the present possessor of the mortgages.

Anton saw that the rogue understood him, and was on his guard. Changing
his mode of attack, he suddenly asked, "Do you know a certain Hippus?"
and keenly observed the effect of the query.

For a moment Itzig's eyelids quivered, and a slight flush suffused his
face. As if he was trying to recollect the name, he tardily replied,
"Yes, I know him. He is a decayed, useless creature."

Anton saw that he had struck home. "Perhaps you recollect that, about a
year and a half ago, a casket belonging to the baron, and containing
deeds and papers of great importance to him, was stolen from Ehrenthal's
office."

Itzig sat still, but his eyes glanced restlessly to and fro. No stranger
would have observed that symptom of a bad conscience, but Anton
remembered it in the boy Veitel, when accused at school of some petty
theft. Itzig, he saw, knew all about the papers and the robbery.

At length, the agent replied in a tone of indifference, "I have heard of
this; it occurred a short time before I left Ehrenthal's."

"Very well," continued Anton; "these papers could have no value for the
thief himself. But there is reason to believe that they have foun