Let me explain the reason. As a matter of fact, if there was one hobby at that moment that appealed to me more than another it was that connected with old books, old furniture, old silver, old deeds, and charters. Indeed, I admit freely, I had attained already some certain amount of notoriety amongst the well-informed in this direction, acting as I had done for the young Earl of Fotheringay before I became a secret investigator, and at a time when I had leisure to roam from auction mart to curiosity shop, and thence to old country mansions on the eve of important sales--where more bargains in antiques are picked up than most wealthy curio-collectors dream of. But how Don Jose could have guessed I had any specialist knowledge of this sort I was powerless to explain. None the less, the probability of some romance, or some rare discovery in this sale, tempted me sorely, and the Spaniard, who had been narrowly watching my features, seemed to divine that, to recognise that I was then almost as good as won to his cause, for all at once he lowered his eyes before me, but not before I caught in their deep, dark depths the glint of some conscious triumph. "So you wish me to bid for these things," I at length suggested tentatively, laying the cutting on the table and tapping it interrogatively. "All of them or some?" I asked after another moment's pause. "One lot. Number 82, a bundle of manuscripts. These are very valuable." And again his eyes flashed. "What limit may I go to?" "2500 pounds," he answered promptly, and at this I started, for there are few old records in evidence worth so sensational a sum as this. "If the things are knocked down to you," he went on eagerly, "a draft on a bank to the required amount will be put into your hands at once. As a matter of fact, the Bank of South and Central America have promised to send a special messenger to the mart itself to watch you and to take all the financial responsibilities off your shoulders." He paused, and looked at me. "But you will never get them," he added the next second, "of that I am certain," and, half unconsciously, he gave a low, desponding sigh. "Oh, that's absurd," I cried, although my own brain reeled at the magnitude of the commission, "we must not lose heart at the start. After all, an auction is an auction; money has money's power the world over. Pay enough--and I feel sure you are bound to triumph." "So it would seem. But then you don't know the secret foes whom you will have against you. Their power--their daring--their resources are marvellous." And he rose and paced my office, as though he could not bear even to think. None the less, I made one further effort. "Why," questioned I, "should they, or you for the matter of that, struggle for a few old parchment documents of an obscure Spanish priest? What are they to you, or to anyone?"