“Twenty cents!” he said.
“Thirty cents!” said Jansen for the Dutchmen.
“Thirty-five!” said Professor Harald.
“Forty!” said the Russian.
That meant 162,800 dollars, and yet the bidding had only begun. The Canadians had not even opened their mouths. And William S. Forster seemed absorbed in the Newfoundland Mercury.
“Now, gentlemen,” said Gilmour, “any advance on forty cents? Forty cents! Come, the polar cap is worth more than that; it is—”
What he would have added is unknown; perhaps it was, “guaranteed pure ice;” but the Dane interrupted him with—
“Fifty cents!”
Which the Dutchman at once capped with—
“Sixty!”