It was an arrangement which made sense, from the arms student's point of view, and Rand decided6 that it would make sense to the dealers7 and museums to whom he intended sending lists. He would save time by listing them as they were hung on the walls. Then, there were the cases between the windows on the west wall, containing the ammunition9 collection—examples of every type of fixed-pistol ammunition—and the collection of bullet-molds and powder flasks10 and wheel lock spanners and assorted11 cleaning and loading accessories. All that stuff would have to be listed, too.
"I beg your pardon, sir," Walters broke in, behind him. "Mrs. Fleming said that you wanted me."
"Oh, yes." Rand turned. "Is this the whole thing? What's on the walls, here?"
"Yes, sir. There is also a wall-case containing a number of modern pistols and revolvers, and several rifles and shotguns, in the room formerly12 occupied by Mr. Fleming, but they are not part of the collection, and they are now the personal property of Mrs. Fleming. I understand that she intends selling at least some of them, on her own account. Then, there is a quantity of ammunition and ammunition-components in that closet under the workbench—cartridges, primed cartridge-shells, black and smokeless powder, cartridge-primers, percussion caps—but they are not part of the collection, either. I believe Mrs. Fleming wants to sell most of that, too."
"Well, I'll talk to her about it. I may want to buy some of the ammunition for myself," Rand said. "So I only need to bother with what's on the walls, in this room?... By the way, did Mr. Fleming keep any sort of record of his collection? A book, or a card-index, or anything like that?"
"Why no, sir." Walters was positive. Then he hedged. "If he did, I never saw or heard of anything of the sort. Mr. Fleming knew everything in this room. I've seen him, downstairs, when somebody would ask him about something, close his eyes as though trying to visualize13 and then give a perfect description of any pistol in the collection. Or else, he could enumerate14 all the pistols of a certain type; say, all the Philadelphia Deringers, or all the Allen pepperboxes, or all the rim-fire Smith & Wesson tip-back types. He had a remarkable15 memory for his pistols, although it was not out of the ordinary otherwise, sir."
Rand nodded. Any collector—at least, any collector who was a serious arms-student—could do that, particularly if he were a good visualizer and kept his stuff in some systematic16 order. At the moment, he could have named and described any or all of his own modest collection of two hundred-odd pistols and revolvers.
"I was hoping he'd kept a record," he said. "A great many collectors do, and it would have helped me quite a bit." He made up his mind to compile such a record, himself, when he got back to New Belfast. It would be a big help to Carter Tipton, when it came time to settle his own estate, and a man on whom the Reaper17 has scored as many near-misses as on Jeff Rand should begin to think of such things. "And how about writing materials? And is there a typewriter available?"
There was: a cased portable was on the floor beside the workbench. Walters showed him which desk drawers contained paper and other things. There was, Rand noticed, a loaded .38 Colt Detective Special, in the upper right-hand desk drawer.
"And these phones," the butler continued, indicating them. "This one is a private outside phone; it doesn't connect with any other in the house. The other is an extension. It has a buzzer18; the outside phone has a regular bell."
Rand thanked him for the information. Then, picking up a note-pad and pencil, he started on the left of the collection, meaning to make a general list and rough approximation of value for use in talking to Gresham's friends that evening. Tomorrow he would begin on the detailed19 list for use in soliciting20 outside offers.
Twenty-five wheel locks: four heavy South German dags, two singles and a pair; three Saxon pistols, with sharply dropped grips, a pair and one single; five French and Italian sixteenth-century pistols; a pair of small pocket or sash pistols; a pair of French petronels, and an extremely long seventeenth-century Dutch pistol with an ivory-covered stock and a carved ivory Venus-head for a pommel; eight seventeenth-century French, Italian and Flemish pistols. Rand noted21 them down, and was about to pass on; then he looked sharply at one of them.
It was nothing out of the ordinary, as wheel locks go; a long Flemish weapon of about 1640, the type used by the Royalist cavalry22 in the English Civil War. There were two others almost like it, but this one was in simply appalling23 condition. The metal was rough with rust24, and apparently25 no attempt had been made to clean it in a couple of centuries. There was a piece cracked out of the fore-end, the ramrod was missing, as was the front ramrod-thimble, both the trigger-guard and the butt-cap were loose, and when Rand touched the wheel, it revolved26 freely if sluggishly27, betraying a broken spring or chain.
The vertical row next to it seemed to be all snaphaunces, but among them Rand saw a pair of Turkish flintlocks. Not even good Turkish flintlocks; a pair of the sort of weapons hastily thrown together by native craftsmen28 or imported ready-made from Belgium for bazaar29 sale to gullible30 tourists. Among the fine examples of seventeenth-century Brescian gunmaking above and below it, these things looked like a pair of Dogpatchers in the Waldorf's Starlight Room. Rand contemplated31 them with distaste, then shrugged33. After all, they might have had some sentimental34 significance; say souvenirs of a pleasantly remembered trip to the Levant.
A few rows farther on, among some exceptionally fine flintlocks, all of which pre-dated 1700, he saw one of those big Belgian navy pistols, circa 1800, of the sort once advertised far and wide by a certain old-army-goods dealer8 for $6.95. This was a particularly repulsive35 specimen36 of its breed; grimy with hardened dust and gummed oil, maculated with yellow-surface-rust, the brasswork green with corrosion37. It was impossible to shrug32 off a thing like that. From then on, Rand kept his eyes open for similar incongruities38.
They weren't hard to find. There was a big army pistol, of Central European origin and in abominable39 condition, among a row of fine multi-shot flintlocks. Multi-shot ... Stephen Gresham had mentioned an Elisha Collier flintlock revolver. It wasn't there. It should be hanging about where this post-Napoleonic German thing was.
There was no Hall breech-loader, either, but there was a dilapidated old Ketland. There were many such interlopers among the U.S. Martials: an English ounce-ball cavalry pistol, a French 1777 and a French 1773, a couple more $6.95 bargain-counter specials, a miserable40 altered S. North 1816. Among the Colts, there was some awful junk, including a big Spanish hinge-frame .44 and a Belgian imitation of a Webley R.I.C. Model. There weren't as many Paterson Colts as Gresham had spoken of, and the Whitneyville Walker was absent. It went on like that; about a dozen of the best pistols which Rand remembered having seen from two years ago were gone, and he spotted42 at least twenty items which the late Lane Fleming wouldn't have hung in his backyard privy43, if he'd had one.
Well, that was to be expected. The way these pistols were arranged, the absence of one from its hooks would have been instantly obvious. So, as the good stuff had moved out, these disreputable changelings had moved in.
"You had rather a shocking experience here, in Mr. Fleming's death," Rand said, over his shoulder, to the butler.
"Oh, yes indeed, sir!" Walters seemed relieved that Rand had broken the silence. "A great loss to all of us, sir. And so unexpected."
He didn't seem averse44 to talking about it, and went on at some length. His story closely paralleled that of Gladys Fleming.
"Mr. Varcek called the doctor immediately," he said. "Then Mr. Dunmore pointed45 out that the doctor would be obliged to notify either the coroner or the police, so he called Mr. Goode, the family solicitor46. That was about twenty minutes after the shot. Mr. Goode arrived directly; he was here in about ten minutes. I must say, sir, I was glad to see him; to tell the truth, I had been afraid that the authorities might claim that Mr. Fleming had shot himself deliberately47."
Somebody else doesn't like the smell of that accident, Rand thought. Aloud, he said:
"Mr. Goode lives nearby, then, I take it?"
"Oh, yes, sir. You can see his house from these windows. Over here, sir."
Rand looked out the window. The rain-soaked lawn of the Fleming residence ended about a hundred yards to the west; beyond it, an orchard48 was beginning to break into leaf, and beyond the orchard and another lawn stood a half-timbered Tudor-style house, somewhat smaller than the Fleming place. A path led down from it to the orchard, and another led from the orchard to the rear of the house from which Rand looked.
"Must be comforting to know your lawyer's so handy," he commented. "And what do you think, Walters? Are you satisfied, in your own mind, that Mr. Fleming was killed accidentally?"
The servant looked at him seriously. "No, sir; I'm not," he replied. "I've thought about it a great deal, since it happened, sir, and I just can't believe that Mr. Fleming would have that revolver, and start working on it, without knowing that it was loaded. That just isn't possible, if you'll pardon me, sir. And I can't understand how he would have shot himself while removing the charges. The fact is, when I came up here at quarter of seven, to call him for cocktails49, he had the whole thing apart and spread out in front of him." The butler thought for a moment. "I believe Mr. Dunmore had something like that in mind when he called Mr. Goode."
"Well, what happened?" Rand asked. "Did the coroner or the doctor choke on calling it an accident?"
"Oh no, sir; there was no trouble of any sort about that. You see, Dr. Yardman called the coroner, as soon as he arrived, but Mr. Goode was here already. He'd come over by that path you saw, to the rear of the house, and in through the garage, which was open, since Mrs. Dunmore was out with the coupé. They all talked it over for a while, and the coroner decided that there would be no need for any inquest, and the doctor wrote out the certificate. That was all there was to it."
"Which one was it?" he asked.
"Oh it's not here, sir," Walters replied. "The coroner took it away with him."
"And hasn't returned it yet? Well, he has no business keeping it. It's part of the collection, and belongs to the estate."
"Yes, sir. If I may say so, I thought it was a bit high-handed of him, taking it away, myself, but it wasn't my place to say anything about it."
"Well, I'll make it mine. If that revolver's what I'm told it is, it's too valuable to let some damned county-seat politician walk off with." A thought occurred to him. "And if I find that he's disposed of it, this county's going to need a new coroner, at least till the present incumbent51 gets out of jail."
The buzzer of the extension phone went off like an annoyed rattlesnake. Walters scooped52 it up, spoke41 into it, listened for a moment, and handed it to Rand.
"For you, sir; Mrs. Fleming."
"Colonel Rand, Carl Gwinnett, the commission-dealer I told you about is here," Gladys told him. "Do you want to talk to him?"
"Why, yes. Do I understand, now, that you and the other ladies want cash, and don't want the collection peddled53 off piecemeal54?... All right, send him up. I'll talk to him."
A few minutes later, a short, compact-looking man of forty-odd entered the gunroom, shifting a brief case to his left hand and extending his right. Rand advanced to meet him and shook hands with him.
"You're Colonel Rand? Enjoyed your articles in the Rifleman," he said. "Mrs. Fleming tells me you're handling the sale of the collection for the estate."
"That's right, Mr. Gwinnett. Mrs. Fleming tells me you're interested."
"Yes. Originally, I offered to sell the collection for her on a commission basis, but she didn't seem to care for the idea, and neither do the other ladies. They all want spot cash, in a lump sum."
"Yes. Mrs. Fleming herself might have been interested in your proposition, if she'd been sole owner. You could probably get more for the collection, even after deducting55 your commission, than I'll be able to, but the collection belongs to the estate, and has to be sold before any division can be made."
"Yes, I see that. Well, how much would the estate, or you, consider a reasonable offer?"
"Sit down, Mr. Gwinnett," Rand invited. "What would you consider a reasonable offer, yourself? We're not asking any specific price; we're just taking bids, as it were."
"Well, how much have you been offered, to date?"
"Well, we haven't heard from everybody. In fact, we haven't put out a list, or solicited56 offers, except locally, as yet. But one gentleman has expressed a willingness to pay up to twenty-five thousand dollars."
Gwinnett's face expressed polite skepticism. "Colonel Rand!" he protested. "You certainly don't take an offer like that seriously?"
"I think it was made seriously," Rand replied. "A respectable profit could be made on the collection, even at that price."
Gwinnett's eyes shifted over the rows of horizontal barrels on the walls. He was almost visibly wrestling with mental arithmetic, and at the same time trying to keep any hint of his notion of the collection's real value out of his face.
"Well, I doubt if I could raise that much," he said. "Might I ask who's making this offer?"
"You might; I'm afraid I couldn't tell you. You wouldn't want me to publish your own offer broadcast, would you?"
"I think I can guess. If I'm right, don't hold your head in a tub of water till you get it," Gwinnett advised. "Making a big offer to scare away competition is one thing, and paying off on it is another. I've seen that happen before, you know. Fact is, there's one dealer, not far from here, who makes a regular habit of it. He'll make some fantastic offer, and then, when everybody's been bluffed57 out, he'll start making objections and finding faults, and before long he'll be down to about a quarter of his original price."
"The practice isn't unknown," Rand admitted.
"I'll bet you don't have this twenty-five thousand dollar offer on paper, over a signature," Gwinnett pursued. "Well, here." He opened his brief case and extracted a sheet of paper, handing it to Rand. "You can file this; I'll stand back of it."
Rand looked at the typed and signed statement to the effect that Carl Gwinnett agreed to pay the sum of fifteen thousand dollars for the Lane Fleming pistol-collection, in its entirety, within thirty days of date. That was an average of six dollars a pistol. There had been a time, not too long ago, when a pistol-collection with an average value of six dollars, particularly one as large as the Fleming collection, had been something unusual. For one thing, arms values had increased sharply in the meantime. For another, Lane Fleming had kept his collection clean of the two-dollar items which dragged down so many collectors' average values. Except for the two-dozen-odd mysterious interlopers, there wasn't a pistol in the Fleming collection that wasn't worth at least twenty dollars, and quite a few had values expressible in three figures.
"Well, your offer is duly received and filed, Mr. Gwinnett," Rand told him, folding the sheet and putting it in his pocket. "This is better than an unwitnessed verbal statement that somebody is willing to pay twenty-five thousand. I'll certainly bear you in mind."
"You can show that to Arnold Rivers, if you want to," Gwinnett said. "See how much he's willing to commit himself to, over his signature."
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
relatively
|
|
| adv.比较...地，相对地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
vertical
|
|
| adj.垂直的，顶点的，纵向的；n.垂直物，垂直的位置 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
chronologically
|
|
| ad. 按年代的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
specialized
|
|
| adj.专门的，专业化的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
percussion
|
|
| n.打击乐器；冲突，撞击；震动，音响 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
decided
|
|
| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
dealers
|
|
| n.商人( dealer的名词复数 )；贩毒者；毒品贩子；发牌者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
dealer
|
|
| n.商人，贩子 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
ammunition
|
|
| n.军火，弹药 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
flasks
|
|
| n.瓶，长颈瓶， 烧瓶( flask的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
assorted
|
|
| adj.各种各样的，各色俱备的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
formerly
|
|
| adv.从前，以前 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
visualize
|
|
| vt.使看得见，使具体化，想象，设想 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
enumerate
|
|
| v.列举，计算，枚举，数 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
remarkable
|
|
| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
systematic
|
|
| adj.有系统的，有计划的，有方法的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
reaper
|
|
| n.收割者，收割机 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
buzzer
|
|
| n.蜂鸣器；汽笛 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
detailed
|
|
| adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
soliciting
|
|
| v.恳求( solicit的现在分词 )；（指娼妇）拉客；索求；征求 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
noted
|
|
| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
cavalry
|
|
| n.骑兵；轻装甲部队 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
appalling
|
|
| adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
rust
|
|
| n.锈；v.生锈；(脑子)衰退 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
apparently
|
|
| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
revolved
|
|
| v.（使）旋转( revolve的过去式和过去分词 )；细想 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
sluggishly
|
|
| adv.懒惰地；缓慢地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
craftsmen
|
|
| n. 技工 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
bazaar
|
|
| n.集市，商店集中区 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
gullible
|
|
| adj.易受骗的；轻信的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
contemplated
|
|
| adj. 预期的 动词contemplate的过去分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
shrug
|
|
| v.耸肩(表示怀疑、冷漠、不知等) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
shrugged
|
|
| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
sentimental
|
|
| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
repulsive
|
|
| adj.排斥的，使人反感的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
specimen
|
|
| n.样本，标本 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
corrosion
|
|
| n.腐蚀，侵蚀；渐渐毁坏，渐衰 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
incongruities
|
|
| n.不协调( incongruity的名词复数 )；不一致；不适合；不协调的东西 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
abominable
|
|
| adj.可厌的，令人憎恶的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
miserable
|
|
| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
spoke
|
|
| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
spotted
|
|
| adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
privy
|
|
| adj.私用的；隐密的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
averse
|
|
| adj.厌恶的；反对的，不乐意的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
pointed
|
|
| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
solicitor
|
|
| n.初级律师，事务律师 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
deliberately
|
|
| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
orchard
|
|
| n.果园，果园里的全部果树，(美俚)棒球场 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
cocktails
|
|
| n.鸡尾酒( cocktail的名词复数 )；餐前开胃菜；混合物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
devoted
|
|
| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
incumbent
|
|
| adj.成为责任的，有义务的；现任的，在职的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
scooped
|
|
| v.抢先报道( scoop的过去式和过去分词 )；（敏捷地）抱起；抢先获得；用铲[勺]等挖（洞等） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
peddled
|
|
| （沿街）叫卖( peddle的过去式和过去分词 )； 兜售； 宣传； 散播 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
piecemeal
|
|
| adj.零碎的；n.片，块；adv.逐渐地；v.弄成碎块 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
deducting
|
|
| v.扣除，减去( deduct的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
solicited
|
|
| v.恳求( solicit的过去式和过去分词 )；（指娼妇）拉客；索求；征求 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
bluffed
|
|
| 以假象欺骗，吹牛( bluff的过去式和过去分词 )； 以虚张声势找出或达成 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |