And Rivers would sit down and
drink with Umholtz, and Umholtz could take that Mauser out of the rack
right in front of Rivers and Rivers wouldn't suspect a thing till it was
too late. Of course, it depends upon two unverified assumptions: One,
that the pistols were sold to Rivers, and, two, that Rivers stored them
with Umholtz."
"And, three, that Walters stole the pistols in the first place," Ritter
added. "You know, it's possible that somebody else in that house might
have stolen them."
"Yes. As I said, anything's possible, within structural limits, but
possibilities exist on different orders of probability. We can't try to
consider all the possibilities in any case, because they are indefinitely
numerous; the best we can do is screen out all the low-order
probabilities, list the high-order probabilities, and revise our list
when and as new data comes to light. Well, I've told you why I think
Walters is a good suspect. From what I've seen of that household, I think
Walters was personally loyal to Lane Fleming, and I don't believe he
feels any loyalty to anybody else there, with the exception of Gladys
Fleming. He might keep quiet about the missing pistols if she were the
thief; if Dunmore, or Varcek, or either of the girls had done the
stealing, he'd tell Gladys, and she'd pass it on to me.
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