a
hundred-and-twenty."

"And thirty!" chimed Cai.

"Fifty!" intoned back the voice by the door.

Mr Middlecoat passed a hand over his brow. "Another ten," he murmured
to the auctioneer. "Is there a boy handy? I--I want to send out a
message?"

"Certainly, Mr Middlecoat," agreed the accommodating but bewildered
auctioneer, and turned to his clerk.

"Mr Chivers, would you oblige?"

The young farmer scribbled a word or two on a piece of paper, which he
folded and gave to Mr Chivers with some hurried instruction; and Mr
Chivers steered his way out with agility. But meanwhile the bidding for
Barton's Orchard had risen to two hundred.

"Say another ten, to keep it going," proposed Mr Middlecoat, wiping his
brow although the weather was chilly. To gain time, he suggested that
maybe there was some mistake; that the gentlemen, maybe, had not
examined the map of the property and might be bidding for some other lot
under a misapprehension.

Mr Baker objected to this. The description of the lots on the catalogue
was precise and definite. The two gentlemen obviously knew what they
were about. The field was a small field, but the soil was undeniably of
the best, and in the interests of the vendor--

"Two hundred and thirty!" interrupted 'Bias.

"--and fifty!" bid Cai.

There was a pause. Mr Dewy looked at Mr Middlecoat, who under his gaze
admitted himself willing to stake two hundred and sixty. "Though 'tis
the price of building land!"

"Apparently you are willing to give it rather than let the purchase go,"
observed Mr Baker drily. "For aught you know both these gentlemen may
be desiring it for a building site. Did I hear one of them say
two-seventy-five? Captain--er--Hunken, if I caught the name?"

"Two-eighty," persisted Cai.

"Two-ninety!"

"Well, make it three hundred, and I've done!" groaned Mr Middlecoat
collapsing.

"Three--"

"What's all this?" interrupted a voice, very sweet and cool in the
doorway.

"Mrs Bosenna?--Your servant, ma'am!" Mr Dewy rose halfway in his seat
and made obeisance. "We are dealing with a lot which may concern you,
ma'am; for it runs "--he consulted his map--"Yes--I thought so--right
alongside your property at Rilla. A trifle over two acres, ma'am, and
Mr Middlecoat has just bid three hundred for it."

"And"--began Cai: but Mrs Bosenna (taken though she must have been by
surprise) was quick and frowned him to silence.

"And a deal more than its value, as Capt