" 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 Reaper 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 buzzer; 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 detailed
list for use in soliciting 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.
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