It was, to be sure, a .38 Colt Detective Special, and it was in his
holster, but it was not the Detective Special he had brought with him
from New Belfast. His own gun was of the second type, with the corners
rounded off the grip; this one was of the original issue, with the square
Police Positive grip. His own gun had seen hard service; this one was in
practically new condition. There was a discrepancy of about thirty
thousand in the serial numbers. His gun had been loaded in six chambers
with the standard 158-grain loads; this one was loaded in only five, with
148-grain mid-range wad-cutter loads.
Rand stood for some time looking at the revolver. The worst of it was
that he couldn't be exactly sure when the substitution had been made. It
might have happened at any time between eight o'clock and twelve, when he
had gone to bed. He rather suspected that it had been accomplished while
he had been in the bathroom, however.
Dumping out the five rounds in the cylinder, he inspected the changeling
carefully. It was, he thought, the revolver Lane Fleming had kept in the
drawer of the gunroom desk. There was no obstruction in the two-inch
barrel, the weapon had not been either fired or cleaned recently, the
firing-pin had not been shortened, the mainspring showed the proper
amount of tension, and the mechanism functioned as it should.
Pages:
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236