to the uninitiated
might have seemed to have come straight from a dustman's bin, but which
a specialist would have speedily recognized as unique of their kind.
The pile of odds and ends in the flat wicker-work basket supplied
exactly one of those missing links of social development which are of
such interest to the student. It was the German who had brought them
in, and the Englishman's eyes were hungry as he looked at them.

"I won't interfere with your treasure-trove, but I should very much
like to hear about it," he continued, while Burger very deliberately
lit a cigar. "It is evidently a discovery of the first importance.
These inscriptions will make a sensation throughout Europe."

"For every one here there are a million there!" said the German.
"There are so many that a dozen savants might spend a lifetime over
them, and build up a reputation as solid as the Castle of St. Angelo."

Kennedy sat thinking with his fine forehead wrinkled and his fingers
playing with his long, fair moustache.

"You have given yourself away, Burger!" said he at last. "Your words
can only apply to one thing. You have discovered a new catacomb."

"I had no doubt that you had already come to that conclusion from an
examination of these objects."

"Well, they certainly appeared to indicate it, but your last remarks
make it certain. There is no place except a catacomb which could
contain so vast a store of relics as you describe."

"Quite so. There is no mystery about that. I HAVE discovered a new
catacomb."

"Where?"

"Ah, that is my secret, my dear Kennedy. Suffice it that it is so
situated that there is not one chance in a million of anyone else
coming upon it. Its date is different from that of any known catacomb,
and it has been reserved for the burial of the highest Christians, so
that the remains and the relics are quite different from anything which
has ever been seen before. If I was not aware of your knowledge and of
your energy, my friend, I would not hesitate, under the pledge of
secrecy, to tell you everything about it. But as it is I think that I
must certainly prepare my own report of the matter before I expose
myself to such formidable competition."

Kennedy loved his subject with a love which was almost a mania--a love
which held him true to it, amidst all the distractions which come to a
wealthy and dissipated young man. He had ambition, but his ambition
was secondary to his mere abstract joy and in