After half-an-liour I fled the scene,, brain-distraught and nearly deafened- Lingering for a few minutes in the vestibule of the auction room, I was reflecting that surely here is a field for the inventor, who might by the exercise of a little ingenuity give us some electrical appliance for automatically and silently registering the bids of rival buyers, when I ran up against a friend,, a merchant intimately connected with colonial trade. “ How are prices 1” I asked. “ Firm all round,” he answered,. “ but no sensational rise as some folks seem to have expected.” Nothing: more was to be learned that night, but the scene I had just witnessed had so thoroughly stimulated my curiosity that next morning I again sought my colonial friend at his office in quest of" further and more detailed information.
