n or since. Lane Fleming was not the man to do that. He was deeply
religious, much interested in church work. And, aside from that, he had
no reason to wish to die. His health was excellent; much better than that
of many men twenty years his junior. He had no business worries. The
company is doing well, we had large Government contracts during the war
and no reconversion problems afterward, we now have more orders than we
have plant capacity to fill, and Mr. Fleming was consulting with
architects about plant expansion. We have been spared any serious labor
troubles. And Mr. Fleming's wife was devoted to him, and he to her. He
had no family troubles."

Rand raised an eyebrow over that last. "No?" he inquired.

Varcek flushed. "Please, Colonel Rand, you must not judge by what you
have seen since you came here. When Lane Fleming was alive, such scenes
as that in the library last evening would have been unthinkable. Now,
this family is like a ship without a captain."

"And since you do not think that he shot himself, either deliberately or
inadvertently, there remains the alternative that he was shot by somebody
else, either deliberately or, very improbably, by inadvertence," Rand
said. "I think the latter can be safely disregarded. Let's agree that it
was murder and go on from there."

Varcek nodded. "You are investigating it as such?" he asked.

"I am appraising and selling this pistol collection," Rand told him
wearily. "I am curious about who killed Fleming, of course; for my own
protection I like to know the background of situations in which I am
involved. But do you think Humphrey Goode would bring me here to stir up
a lot of sleeping dogs that might awake and grab him by the pants-seat?
Or did you think that uproar in the library last evening was just a
prearranged act?"

"I had not thought of Humphrey Goode. It was my understanding that Mrs.
Fleming brought you here."

"Mrs. Fleming wants her money out of the collection, as soon as
possible," Rand said. "To reopen the question of her husband's death and
start a murder investigation wouldn't exactly expedite things. I'm just a
more or less innocent bystander, who wants to know whether there is going
to be any trouble or not.... Now, you came here to tell me what happened
on the night of Lane Fleming's death, didn't you?"

"Yes. We had finished dinner at about seven," Varcek said. "Lane had been
up here for about an hour before dinner, working on his new revol