"I beg your pardon, gentlemen," said I confronting them. "Will you be good enough to explain this intrusion?"
They stared at me as if I were a servant asking for higher wages. The speaker, a fat man with a bristly moustache and a red necktie, drew himself up haughtily.
"Who the devil are you?" he demanded, fixing me with a glare.
I knew at once that he was the kind of an American I have come to hate with a zest that knows no moderation; the kind that makes one ashamed of the national melting pot. I glared back at him.
"I happen to be the owner of this place, and you"ll oblige me by clearing out."
"What"s that? Here, here, none of that sort of talk, my friend. We"re here to look over your stuff, and we mean business, but you won"t get anywhere by talking like--"
"There is nothing for sale here," I said shortly. "And you"ve got a lot of nerve to come bolting into a private house--"
"Say," said the second man, advancing with a most insulting scowl, "we"ll understand each other right off the reel, my friend. All you"ve got to do is to answer us when we ask for prices. Now, bear that in mind, and don"t try any of your high-and-mighty tactics on us."
"Just remember that you"re a junk-dealer and we"ll get along splendidly," said the other, in a tone meant to crush me. "What do you ask for this thing?" tapping the dusty spinet with his walking-stick.
It suddenly occurred to me that the situation was humorous.
"You will have to produce your references, gentlemen, before I can discuss anything with you," I said, after swallowing very hard. (It must have been my pride.)
They stared. "Good Lord!" gasped the bristly one, blinking his eyes.
"Don"t you know who this gentleman is? You--you appear to be an American. You _must_ know Mr. Riley-Werkheimer of New York."
"I regret to say that I have never heard of Mr. Riley-Werkheimer. I did not know that Mrs. Riley-Werkheimer"s husband was living. And may I ask who _you_ are?"
"Oh, I am also a n.o.body," said he, with a wink at his purple-jowled companion. "I am only poor old Rocksworth, the president of the--"
"Oh, don"t say anything more, Mr. Rocksworth," I cried. "I have heard of _you_. This fine old spinet? Well, it has been reduced in price. Ten thousand dollars, Mr. Rocksworth."
"Ten thousand nothing! I"ll take it at seventy-five dollars. And now let"s talk about this here hall-seat. My wife thinks it"s a fake. What is its history, and what sort of guarantee can you--"
"A fake!" I cried in dismay. "My dear Mr. Rocksworth, that is the very hall-seat that Pontius Pilate sat in when waiting for an audience with the first of the great Teutonic barons. The treaty between the Romans and the Teutons was signed on that table over there,--the one you have so judiciously selected, I perceive. Of course, you know that _this_ was the Saxon seat of government. Charlemagne lived here with all his court."
They tried not to look impressed, but rather overdid it.
"That"s the sort of a story you fellows always put up, you skinflints from Boston. I"ll bet my head you _are_ from Boston," said Mr.
Rocksworth shrewdly.
"I couldn"t afford to have you lose your head, Mr. Rocksworth, so I shan"t take you on," said I merrily.
"Don"t get fresh now," said he stiffly.
Mr. Riley-Werkheimer walked past me to take a closer look at the seat, almost treading on my toes rather than to give an inch to me.
"How can you prove that it"s the genuine article?" he demanded curtly.
"You have my word for it, sir," I said quietly.
"Pish tush!" said he.
Mr. Rocksworth turned in the direction of the banquet hall.
"Carrie!" he shouted. "Come here a minute, will you?"
"Don"t shout like that, Orson," came back from the porcelain closet.
"You almost made me drop this thing."
"Well, drop it, and come on. This is important."
I wiped the moisture from my brow and respectfully put my clenched fists into my pockets.
A minute later, three females appeared on the scene, all of them dusting their hands and curling their noses in disgust.
"I never saw such a dirty place," said the foremost, a large lady who couldn"t, by any circ.u.mstance of fate, have been anybody"s wife but Rocksworth"s. "It"s filthy! What do you want?"
"I"ve bought this thing here for seventy-five. You said I couldn"t get it for a nickle under a thousand. And say, this man tells me the hall seat here belonged to Pontius Pilate in--"
"Pardon me," I interrupted, "I merely said that he sat in it. I am not trying to deceive you, sir."
"And the treaty was signed on this table," said Mr. Riley-Werkheimer.
He addressed himself to a plump young lady with a distorted bust and a twenty-two inch waist. "Maude, what do you know about the Roman-Teutonic treaty? We"ll catch you now, my friend," he went on, turning to me. "My daughter is up in ancient history. She"s an authority."
Miss Maude appeared to be racking her brain. I undertook to a.s.sist her.
"I mean the second treaty, after the fall of Nuremburg," I explained.
"Oh," she said, instantly relieved. "Was it _really_ signed here, right here in this hall? Oh, Father! We _must_ have that table."
"You are sure there was a treaty, Maude?" demanded her parent accusingly.
"Certainly," she cried. "The Teutons ceded Alsace-Lorraine to--"
"Pardon me once more," I cried, and this time I plead guilty to a blush, "you are thinking of the other treaty--the one at Metz, Miss Riley-Werkheimer. This, as you will recall, ante-dates that one by--oh, several years."
"Thank you," she said, quite condescendingly. "I was confused for a moment. Of course, Father, I can"t say that it was signed here or on this table as the young man says. I only know that there was a treaty.
I do wish you"d come and see the fire-screen I"ve found--"
"Let"s get this out of our system first," said her father. "If you can show me statistics and the proper proof that this is the genuine table, young man, I"ll--"
"Pray rest easy, sir," I said. "We can take it up later on. The facts are--"
"And this Pontius Pilate seat," interrupted Rocksworth, biting off the end of a fresh cigar. "What about it? Got a match?"
"Get the gentleman a match, Britton," I said, thereby giving my valet an opportunity to do his exploding in the pantry. "I can only affirm, sir, that it is common history that Pontius Pilate spent a portion of his exile here in the sixth century. It is reasonable to a.s.sume that he sat in this seat, being an old man unused to difficult stairways.
He--"
"Buy it, Orson," said his wife, with authority. "We"ll take a chance on it. If it isn"t the right thing, we can sell it to the second-hand dealers. What"s the price?"