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“But what in the name of goodness can be worth all that money? Why, it would take a large gallery to house pictures up to that figure.”

“Certainly. But I may as well explain at once that the whole collection is within these walls. It is in a large safe in my cellars. It consists wholly of coins.”

“Coins!” I bawled delightedly, “then I hope the half of them have her Majesty’s face on them, God bless her. I see what you’re getting at. You mean the old boy was a miser.”

He drew himself back into his chair with an air of offence.

“I am not given to jest on business matters,” he said in his stateliest manner. “No; your uncle was simply one of the first numismatists of the century. His is the finest harvest of ancient coins ever made by any private individual. If you see fit to turn it to its marketable worth, you will create an excitement among collectors unparalleled for the last five decades. And till the catalogues are published, not one of them will have an idea of the treasures they will find listed there.”