In
theory, it was a good idea, but in actual practice ..."
Walters went out the hall door, presumably to call Varcek. Rand continued
talking about the superposed-load principle, as used in the Lindsay
pistol and the Walch revolver, until he was sure the butler was out
of hearing. Gladys was looking at him in appreciative if slightly
punch-drunk delight.
"I wondered why you brought that thing over here with you," she said.
"Brother, was that a quick shift!... You're really sure he's the one?"
"I'm not really sure of anything, except of my own existence and eventual
extinction," Rand told her. "It pretty nearly has to be somebody inside
this house. I don't think anybody else here, yourself included, would
know enough about arms to rob this collection as selectively as it has
been robbed. Did you see what just happened, here? I asked him for one of
the most uncommon arms here, and he went straight and got it. He knows
this collection as well as your husband did, and I assume he knows values
almost as well.... And, of course, there was a musket, too; Mr. Fleming
didn't collect long-arms, or he'd have had one. It embodied the same
principle as the pistol. The legend is that this man Lindsay's brother
was a soldier; he was supposed to have been killed by Indians who drew
the fire of the detail he was with and then charged them when their
muskets were empty.
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