ll of the room, and the
most recent ones on the right, at the south end. This was, of course,
only relatively true; the pistols seemed to have been classified by type
in vertical rows, and chronologically from top to bottom in each row. The
collection seemed to consist of a number of intensely specialized small
groups, with a large number of pistols of general types added. For
instance, about midway on the long east wall, there were some thirty-odd
all-metal pistols, from wheel lock to percussion. There was a collection
of U.S. Martials, with two rows of the regulation pistols, flintlock and
percussion, of foreign governments, placed on the left, and the
collection of Colts on the right. After them came the other types of
percussion revolvers, and the later metallic-cartridge types.

It was an arrangement which made sense, from the arms student's point
of view, and Rand decided that it would make sense to the dealers and
museums to whom he intended sending lists. He would save time by
listing them as they were hung on the walls. Then, there were the cases
between the windows on the west wall, containing the ammunition
collection--examples of every type of fixed-pistol ammunition--and the
collection of bullet-molds and powder flasks and wheel lock spanners and
assorted cleaning and loading accessories. All that stuff would have to
be listed, too.

"I beg your pardon, sir," Walters broke in, behind him. "Mrs. Fleming
said that you wanted me."

"Oh, yes." Rand turned. "Is this the whole thing? What's on the walls,
here?"

"Yes, sir. There is also a wall-case containing a number of modern
pistols and revolvers, and several rifles and shotguns, in the room
formerly occupied by Mr. Fleming, but they are not part of the
collection, and they are now the personal property of Mrs. Fleming.
I understand that she intends selling at least some of them, on her
own account. Then, there is a quantity of ammunition and
ammunition-components in that closet under the workbench--cartridges,
primed cartridge-shells, black and smokeless powder, cartridge-primers,
percussion caps--but they are not part of the collection, either. I
believe Mrs. Fleming wants to sell most of that, too."

"Well, I'll talk to her about it. I may want to buy some of the
ammunition for myself," Rand said. "So I only need to bother with what's
on the walls, in this room?... By the way, did Mr. Fleming keep any sort
of record of his collection? A book, or a car