usiness-place of Arnold Rivers,
Fine Antique and Modern Firearms for the Discriminating Collector.

The house faced the road with a long side; at the left, a porch formed
a continuation under a deck roof, and on the right, an ell had been
built at right angles, extending thirty feet toward the road. Although
connected to the house by a shed roof, which acquired a double pitch and
became a gable roof where the ell projected forward, it was, in effect,
a separate building, with its own front door and its own door-path. Its
floor-level was about four feet lower than that of the parent structure.

A Fibber McGee door-chime clanged as Rand entered. Closing the door
behind him, he looked around. The room, some twenty feet wide and fifty
long, was lighted by an almost continuous row of casement windows on the
right, and another on the left for as far as the ell extended beyond the
house. They were set high, a good five feet from lower sill to floor, and
there was no ceiling; the sloping roof was supported by bare timber
rafters. Racks lined the walls, under the windows, holding long-guns
and swords; the pistols and daggers and other small items were displayed
on a number of long tables. In the middle of the room, glaring at the
front door, was a brass four-pounder on a ship's carriage; a Philippine
_latanka_, muzzle tilted upward, stood beside it. Where the ell joined
the house under the shed roof, there was a fireplace, and a short flight
of steps to a landing and a door out of the dwelling, and some
furniture--a davenport, three or four deep chairs facing the fire, a low
cocktail-table, a cellarette, and, in the far corner, a big desk.

As Rand went toward the rear, a young man rose from one of the chairs,
laid aside a magazine, and advanced to meet him. He didn't exactly
harmonize with all the lethal array around him; he would have looked more
at home presiding over an establishment devoted to ladies' items. His
costume ran to pastel shades, he had large and soulful blue eyes and
prettily dimpled cheeks, and his longish blond hair was carefully
disordered into a windblown effect.

"Oh, good afternoon," he greeted. "Is there anything in particular you're
interested in, or would you like to just look about?"

"Mostly look about," Rand said. "Is Mr. Rivers in?"

"Mr. Rivers is having luncheon. He'll be finished before long, if you
care to wait.... Have you ever been here before?"

"Not for some time," Rand said. "When I