t pill at the back
there. I can't go above eleven hundred. That's all I've got."

"I can't go above eleven hundred myself."

"There's just one thing. I wish you'd let me be the one to hand the
thing over to Father. I've a special reason for wanting to make a hit
with him."

"Absolutely!" said Archie, magnanimously. "It's all the same to me. I
only wanted to get him generally braced, as it were, if you know what I
mean."

"That's awfully good of you."

"Not a bit, laddie, no, no, and far from it. Only too glad."

Willie had returned from his rambles among the connoisseurs, and Pongo's
brother was back on his pedestal. The high-priest cleared his throat and
resumed his discourse.

"Now that you have all seen this superb figure we will--I was offered
one thousand--one thousand-one-one-one-one--eleven hundred. Thank you,
sir. Eleven hundred I am offered."

The high-priest was now exuberant. You could see him doing figures in
his head.

"You do the bidding," said Brother Bill.

"Right-o!" said Archie.

He waved a defiant hand.

"Thirteen," said the man at the back.

"Fourteen, dash it!"

"Fifteen!"

"Sixteen!"

"Seventeen!"

"Eighteen!"

"Nineteen!"

"Two thousand!"

The high-priest did everything but sing. He radiated good will and
bonhomie.

"Two thousand I am offered. Is there any advance on two thousand? Come,
gentlemen, I don't want to give this superb figure away. Twenty-one
hundred. Twenty-one-one-one-one. This is more the sort of thing I have
been accustomed to. When I was at Sotheby's Rooms in London, this kind
of bidding was a common-place. Twenty-two-two-two-two-two. One hardly
noticed it. Three-three-three. Twenty-three-three-three. Twenty-three
hundred dollars I am offered."

He gazed expectantly at Archie, as a man gazes at some favourite dog
whom he calls upon to perform a trick. But Archie had reached the end of
his tether. The hand that had twiddled so often and so bravely lay inert
beside his trouser-leg, twitching feebly. Archie was through.

"Twenty-three hundred," said the high-priest, ingratiatingly.

Archie made no movement. There was a tense pause. The high-priest gave a
little sigh, like one waking from a beautiful dream.

"Twenty-three hundred," he said. "Once twenty-three. Twice twenty-three.
Third, last, and final call, twenty-three. Sold at twenty-three hundred.
I congratulate you, sir, on a genuine bargain!"

Reggie van Tuyl had dozed off again. Archie tappe