want to talk to him?"

"Why, yes. Do I understand, now, that you and the other ladies want cash,
and don't want the collection peddled off piecemeal?... All right, send
him up. I'll talk to him."

A few minutes later, a short, compact-looking man of forty-odd entered
the gunroom, shifting a brief case to his left hand and extending his
right. Rand advanced to meet him and shook hands with him.

"You're Colonel Rand? Enjoyed your articles in the _Rifleman_," he said.
"Mrs. Fleming tells me you're handling the sale of the collection for the
estate."

"That's right, Mr. Gwinnett. Mrs. Fleming tells me you're interested."

"Yes. Originally, I offered to sell the collection for her on a
commission basis, but she didn't seem to care for the idea, and neither
do the other ladies. They all want spot cash, in a lump sum."

"Yes. Mrs. Fleming herself might have been interested in your
proposition, if she'd been sole owner. You could probably get more for
the collection, even after deducting your commission, than I'll be able
to, but the collection belongs to the estate, and has to be sold before
any division can be made."

"Yes, I see that. Well, how much would the estate, or you, consider a
reasonable offer?"

"Sit down, Mr. Gwinnett," Rand invited. "What would you consider a
reasonable offer, yourself? We're not asking any specific price; we're
just taking bids, as it were."

"Well, how much have you been offered, to date?"

"Well, we haven't heard from everybody. In fact, we haven't put out a
list, or solicited offers, except locally, as yet. But one gentleman has
expressed a willingness to pay up to twenty-five thousand dollars."

Gwinnett's face expressed polite skepticism. "Colonel Rand!" he
protested. "You certainly don't take an offer like that seriously?"

"I think it was made seriously," Rand replied. "A respectable profit
could be made on the collection, even at that price."

Gwinnett's eyes shifted over the rows of horizontal barrels on the walls.
He was almost visibly wrestling with mental arithmetic, and at the same
time trying to keep any hint of his notion of the collection's real value
out of his face.

"Well, I doubt if I could raise that much," he said. "Might I ask who's
making this offer?"

"You might; I'm afraid I couldn't tell you. You wouldn't want me to
publish your own offer broadcast, would you?"

"I think I can guess. If I'm right, don't hold your head in a tub of
water till you ge