can't believe that he'd bring that thing home and start working
on it without seeing the caps on the nipples and the charges in the
chambers, if it had been loaded. And if it had been, he would have first
taken off the caps, and then taken it apart and drawn the charges. And
she says he started working on it as soon as he got home--presumably
around five--and then took time out for dinner, and then went back to
work on it, and more than half an hour later, there was a shot and he was
killed." Rand blew a Bronx cheer. "If that accident had been the McCoy,
it would have happened in the first five minutes after he started working
on that pistol. No, in the first thirty seconds. And then, when they
found him, he had the revolver in his right hand, and an oily rag in his
left. I hope both of you noticed that little touch."

"Yeah. When I clean a gat, I generally have it in my left hand, and clean
with my right," Ritter said.

"Exactly. And why do you use an oily rag?" Rand inquired.

Ritter looked at him blankly for a half-second, then grinned ruefully.

"Damn, I never thought of that," he admitted. "Okay, he was bumped off,
all right."

"But you use oily rags on guns," Kathie objected. "I've seen both of you,
often enough."

"When we're all through, honey," Ritter told her.

"Yes. When he brought home that revolver, it was in neglected condition,"
Rand said. "Either surface-rusted, or filthy with gummed oil and dirt.
Even if Mrs. Fleming hadn't mentioned that point, the length of time he
spent cleaning it would justify such an inference. He would have taken it
apart, down to the smallest screw, and cleaned everything carefully, and
then put it together again, and then, when he had finished, he would have
gone over the surface with an oiled rag, before hanging it on the wall.
He would certainly not have surface-oiled it before removing the charges,
if there ever were any. I assume the revolver he was found holding,
presumably the one with which he was killed, was another one. And I would
further assume that the killer wasn't particularly familiar with the
subject of firearms, antique, care and maintenance of."

"And with all the hollering and whooping and hysterics-throwing, nobody
noticed the switch," Ritter finished. "Wonder what happened to the one he
was really cleaning."

"That I may possibly find out," Rand said. "The general incompetence with
which this murder was committed gives me plenty of room to hope th