Murder in the Gunroom, H. Beam Piper [ebook reader color screen .txt] 📗

generous enough to concede. “But about guns, he barely knows which end the bullet comes out at. Ten thousand was probably his idea of what we’d think the pistols were worth.”

Dunmore ignored that and turned to Rand. “Did Arnold Rivers actually tell you he’d pay twenty-five thousand dollars for the collection?” he asked. “I can’t believe that he’d raise his own offer like that.”

“He didn’t raise his offer; I threw it out and told him to make one that could be taken seriously.” Rand repeated, as closely as he could, his conversation with the arms-dealer. When he had finished, Dunmore was frowning in puzzled displeasure.

“And you think he’s actually willing to pay that much?”

“Yes, I do. If he handles them right, he can double his money on the pistols inside of five years. I doubt if you realize how valuable those pistols are. You probably defined Mr. Fleming’s collection as a ‘hobby’ and therefore something not to be taken seriously. And, aside from the actual profit, the prestige of handling this collection would be worth a good deal to Rivers, as advertising. I haven’t the least doubt that he can raise the money, or that he’s willing to pay it.”

Dunmore was still frowning. Maybe he hated being proved wrong in front of the women of the family.

“And you think Gresham and his friends will offer enough to force him to pay the full amount?”

Rand laughed and told him to stop being naive. “He’s done that, himself, and what’s more, he knows it. When he told me he was willing to go as high as twenty-five thousand, he fixed the price. Unless somebody offers more, which isn’t impossible.”

“But maybe he’s just bluffing.” Dunmore seemed to be following Gwinnett’s line of thought. “After he’s bluffed Gresham’s crowd out, maybe he’ll go back to his original ten thousand offer.”

“Fred, please stop talking about that ten thousand dollars!” Geraldine interrupted. “How much did Rivers actually tell you he’d pay? Twenty-five thousand, like he did Colonel Rand?”

Dunmore turned in his chair angrily. “Now, look here!” he shouted. “There’s a limit to what I’ve got to take from you.⁠ ⁠…”

He stopped short, as Nelda, beside him, moved slightly, and his words ended in something that sounded like a smothered moan. Rand suspected that she had kicked her husband painfully under the table. Then Walters came in with the meat course, and firing ceased until the butler had retired.

“By the way,” Rand tossed into the conversational vacuum that followed his exit, “does anybody know anything about a record Mr. Fleming kept of his collection?”

“Why, no; can’t say I do,” Dunmore replied promptly, evidently grateful for the change of subject. “You mean, like an inventory?”

“Oh, Fred, you do!” Nelda told him impatiently. “You know that big gray book Father kept all his pistols entered in.”

“It was a gray ledger, with a black leather back,” Gladys said. “He kept it in the little bookcase over the workbench in the gunroom.”

“I’ll look for it,” Rand said. “Sure it’s still there? It would be a big help to me.”

The rest of the dinner passed in relative tranquillity. The conversation proceeded in fairly safe channels. Dunmore was anxious to avoid any further reference to the sum of ten thousand dollars; when Gladys induced Rand to talk about his military experiences, he lapsed into preoccupied silence. Several times, Geraldine and Nelda aimed halfhearted feline swipes at one another, more out of custom than present and active rancor. The women seemed to have erected a temporary tripartite Entente-more-or-less-Cordiale.

Finally, the meal ended, and the diners drifted away from the table. Rand went to his room for a few moments, then went to the gunroom to get the notes he had made. Fred Dunmore was using the private phone as he entered.

“Well, never mind about that, now,” he was saying. “We’ll talk about it when I see you.⁠ ⁠… Yes, of course; so am I.⁠ ⁠… Well, say about eleven.⁠ ⁠… Be seeing you.”

He hung up and turned to Rand. “More Goddamned union trouble,” he said. “It’s enough to make a saint lose his religion! Our factory-hands are organized in the C.I.O., and our warehouse, sales, and shipping personnel are in the A.F. of L., and if they aren’t fighting the company, they’re fighting each other. Now they have some damn kind of a jurisdictional dispute.⁠ ⁠… I don’t know what this country’s coming to!” He glared angrily through his octagonal glasses for a moment. Then his voice took on an ingratiating note. “Look here, Colonel; I just didn’t understand the situation, until you explained it. I hope you aren’t taking anything that sister-in-law of mine said seriously. She just blurts out the first thing that comes into her so-called mind; why, only yesterday she was accusing Gladys of bringing you into this to help her gyp the rest of us. And before that⁠ ⁠…”

“Oh, forget it.” Rand dismissed Geraldine with a shrug. “I know she was talking through a highball glass. As far as selling the collection is concerned, you just let Rivers sell you a bill of something you hadn’t gotten a good look at. He’s a smart operator, and he’s crooked as a wagon-load of blacksnakes. Maybe you never realized just how much money Fleming put into this collection; naturally you wouldn’t realize how much could be gotten out of it again. A lot of this stuff has been here for quite a while, and antiques of any kind tend to increase in value.”

“Well, I want you to know that I’m just as glad as anybody if you can get a better price out of him than I could.” Dunmore smiled ruefully. “I guess he’s just a better poker player than I am.”

“Not necessarily. He could see your hand, and you couldn’t see his,” Rand told him.

“You going to see Gresham and his friends, this evening?” Dunmore asked. “Well, when you get back, if you find four cars in the garage, counting the station-wagon, lock up after you’ve put your own car away. If you find only three,