A young fellow-passenger showed much sympathy while the row went on, and
Arnold learned with pleasure that he also was bound for Caraccas. This
young man, whose name it is not worth while to cite, presented himself
as agent for a manufacturer of Birmingham goods. There was no need for
secrecy with a person of that sort. He questioned Arnold about orchids
with a blank but engaging ignorance of the subject, and before the
voyage was over he had learned all his friend's hopes and projects. But
the deception could not be maintained at Caraccas. There Arnold
discovered that the hardware agent was a collector and grower of orchids
sufficiently well known. He said nothing, suffered his rival to start,
overtook him at a village where the man was taking supper, marched in,
barred the door, sat down opposite, put a revolver on the table, and
invited him to draw. It should be a fair fight, said Arnold, but one of
the pair must die. So convinced was the traitor of his earnestness--with
good reason, too, as Arnold's acquaintances declare--that he slipped
under the table, and discussed terms of abject surrender from that
retreat. So, in due time, Messrs. Sander received more than forty
thousand plants of _Masdevallia Tovarensis_--sent them direct to the
auction-room--and drove down the price in one month from a guinea a leaf
to the fraction of a shilling.

Other great sales might be recalled, as that of _Phaloenopsis Sanderiana_
and _Vanda Sanderiana_, when a sum as yet unparalleled was taken in the
room; _Cypripedium Spicerianum_, _Cyp. Curtisii_, _Loelia anceps alba_.
Rarely now are we thrilled by sensations like these. But 1891 brought
two of the old-fashioned sort, the reappearance of _Cattleya labiata
autumnalis_ and the public sale of _Dendrobium phaloenopsis
Schroderianum_. The former event deserves a special article, "The Lost
Orchid;" but the latter also was most interesting. Messrs. Sander are