A few bids later it chanced that my eye encountered that of Captain Trent, and his, which glittered with excitement, was instantly, and I thought guiltily, withdrawn.

He wished, then, to conceal his interest?
As Jim had said, there was some blamed thing going on.

And for certain, here were these two men, so strangely united, so strangely divided, both sharp-set to keep the wreck from us, and that at an exorbitant figure.
Was the wreck worth more than we supposed?
A sudden heat was kindled in my brain; the bids were nearing Longhurst's limit of five thousand; another minute, and all would be too late.

Tearing a leaf from my sketch-book, and inspired (I suppose) by vanity in my own powers of inference and observation, I took the one mad decision of my life.

"If you care to go ahead," I wrote, "I'm in for all I'm worth." Jim read and looked round at me like one bewildered; then his eyes lightened, and turning again to the auctioneer, he bid, "Five thousand one hundred dollars." "And fifty," said monotonous Bellairs.
Presently Pinkerton scribbled, "What can it be ?" and I answered, still on paper: "I can't imagine; but there's something.