“Well, as we’re out of the range of coins this time then, I trust it’s nothing less than banknotes,” I answered. “But for goodness sake what is it?” I added impatiently, for his self-important deliberation began to get on my nerves. He did not suffer himself to be in the slightest degree flurried by my impatience. His sentences, in fact, seemed to gather a yet more leisurely accent as he unfolded his tale. “You must let me tell the thing in my own way, my lord. It will be far more conclusive than jerking it out at you in scraps. The facts in sequence were as follows— “Among the family treasures which have come down the centuries—and I sincerely wish there had been more of them—was a certain amount of old coins which have been in the custody of my firm for at least five generations. They comprised for the most part specimens of the gold and silver coinage of most European countries during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Some were of great value. Some were by no means rare. Evidently one of your ancestors—probably, I should say, Sir John Dorinecourte, the famous Elizabethan admiral—had the craze of collection, which has since broken out in your late uncle’s case. At any rate the box contained moidores, zecchins, pesos, crowns, and every sort of currency of every known land—known to our ancestors of that time, at least—to a very considerable amount. The mere bullion, I should say, would be worth a considerable sum. Among them were, however, a couple of gold pieces placed apart, and these had no signification placed opposite them in the catalogue, and bore no sign either on the face or the reverse in any language known at the present day.” “It sounds charmingly mysterious, my dear Mr. Crum,” I interrupted. “Now, you aren’t going to tell me that the secret still remains unfathomed?” “My lord, my lord,” said the old fellow entreatingly, “you must allow me to tell you the thing methodically, or not at all. If I’m hurried I shall forget some detail, and I have given time and effort to memorize the matter completely.” I apologized humbly, settling myself back in my chair resignedly to hear the thing out with no further interruption. Crum continued in his slow, modulated tones.