d purpose."

"Oh, nothing of the sort!" Rand told him. "I'm not in the least
interested in how Mr. Fleming was killed, and the question is simply
not involved in what Mrs. Fleming wants me to do."

He stopped there. Goode was looking at him sideways, sucking in one
corner of his mouth and pushing out the other. It was not a facial
contortion that impressed Rand favorably; it was too reminiscent of
a high-school principal under whom he had suffered, years ago, in
Vicksburg, Mississippi. Rand began to suspect that Goode might be just
another such self-righteous, opinionated, egotistical windbag. Such men
could be dangerous, were usually quite unscrupulous, and were almost
always unpleasant to deal with.

"Then why," the lawyer demanded, "did Mrs. Fleming employ you?"

"Well, as you know," Rand began, "the Fleming pistol-collection, now the
joint property of Mrs. Fleming and her two stepdaughters, is an extremely
valuable asset. Mr. Fleming spent the better part of his life gathering
it. At one time or another, he must have owned between four and five
thousand different pistols and revolvers. The twenty-five hundred left to
his heirs represent the result of a systematic policy of discriminating
purchase, replacement of inferior items, and general improvement. It's
one of the largest and most famous collections of its kind in the
country."

"Well?" Goode was completely out of his depth by now. "Surely Mrs.
Fleming doesn't think...?"

"Mrs. Fleming thinks that expert advice is urgently needed in disposing
of that collection," Rand replied, carefully picking his words to fit
what he estimated to be Goode's probable semantic reactions. "She has
the utmost confidence in your ability and integrity, as an attorney;
however, she realized that you could hardly describe yourself as an
antique-arms expert. It happens that I am an expert in antique firearms,
particularly pistols. I have a collection of my own, I am the author of
a number of articles on the subject, and I am recognized as something
of an authority. I know arms-values, and understand market conditions.
Furthermore, not being a dealer, or connected with any museum, I have no
mercenary motive for undervaluing the collection. That's all there is to
it; Mrs. Fleming has retained me as a firearms-expert, in connection with
the collection."

Goode was looking at Rand as though the latter had just torn off a mask,
revealing another and entirely different set of feature