ges between the last
owner and the _Mayflower_ Company. Stephen only paid a hundred dollars
for it, too."

"That was practically stealing," Rand said. He carried the musket to the
light and examined it closely. "Nice condition, too; I wouldn't be afraid
to fire this with a full charge, right now." He handed the weapon back.
"He didn't lose a thing on that deal."

"I should say not! I'd give him two hundred for it, any time. Even
without the history, it's worth that."

"Who buys history, anyhow?" Rand wanted to know. "The fact that it came
from the Sawyer collection adds more value to it than this _Mayflower_
business. Past ownership by a recognized authority like Sawyer is a real
guarantee of quality and authenticity. But history, documented or
otherwise--hell, only yesterday I saw a pair of pistols with a wonderful
three-hundred-and-fifty-year documented history. Only not a word of it
was true; the pistols were made about twenty years ago."

"Those wheel locks Fleming bought from Arnold Rivers?" Pierre asked.
"God, wasn't that a crime! I'll bet Rivers bought himself a big drink
when Lane Fleming was killed. Fleming was all set to hang Rivers's scalp
in his wigwam.... But with Stephen, the history does count for
something. As you probably know, he collects arms-types that figured in
American history. Well, he can prove that this individual musket was
brought over by the Pilgrims, so he can be sure it's an example of the
type they used. But he'd sooner have a typical Pilgrim musket that never
was within five thousand miles of Plymouth Rock than a non-typical arm
brought over as a personal weapon by one of the _Mayflower_ Company."

"Oh, none of us are really interested in the individual history of
collection weapons," Rand said. "You show me a collection that's full of
known-history arms, and I'll show you a collection that's either full of
junk or else cost three times what it's worth. And you show me a
collector who blows money on history, and nine times out of ten I'll show
you a collector who doesn't know guns. I saw one such collection, once;
every item had its history neatly written out on a tag and hung onto the
trigger-guard. The owner thought that the patent-dates on Colts were
model-dates, and the model-dates on French military arms were dates of
fabrication."

Pierre wrinkled his nose disgustedly. "God, I hate to see a collection
all fouled up with tags hung on things!" he said. "Or stuck over with
gumm