Chapter 8

Pre-dinner cocktails in the library seemed to be a sort of household rite--a self-imposed Truce of Bacchus before the resumption of hostilities in the dining-room. It lasted from six forty-five to seven; everybody sipped Manhattans and kept quiet and listened to the radio newscast. The only new face, to Rand, was Fred Dunmore’s.

It was a smooth, pinkly-shaven face, decorated with octagonal rimless glasses; an entirely unremarkable face; the face of the type that used to be labeled “Babbitt.” The corner of Rand’s mind that handled such data subconsciously filed his description: forty-five to fifty, one-eighty, five feet eight, hair brown and thinning, eyes blue. To this he added the Rotarian button on the lapel, and the small gold globule on the watch chain that testified that, when his age and weight had been considerably less, Dunmore had played on somebody’s basketball team. At that time he had probably belonged to the Y.M.C.A., and had thought that Mussolini was doing a splendid job in Italy, that H. L. Mencken ought to be deported to Russia, and that Prohibition was here to stay. At company sales meetings, he probably radiated an aura of synthetic good-fellowship.

As Rand followed Walters down the spiral from the gunroom, the radio commercial was just starting, and Geraldine was asking Dunmore where Anton was.

“Oh, you know,” Dunmore told her, impatiently. “He had to go to Louisburg, to that Medical Association meeting; he’s reading a paper about the new diabetic ration.”

He broke off as Rand approached and was introduced by Gladys, who handed both men their cocktails. Then the news commentator greeted them out of the radio, and everybody absorbed the day’s news along with their Manhattans. After the broadcast, they all crossed the hall to the dining-room, where hostilities began almost before the soup was cool enough to taste.

“I don’t see why you women had to do this,” Dunmore huffed. “Rivers has made us a fair offer. Bringing in an outsider will only give him the impression that we lack confidence in him.”

“Well, won’t that be just too, too bad!” Geraldine slashed at him. “We mustn’t ever hurt dear Mr. Rivers’s feelings like that. Let him have the collection for half what it’s worth, but never, never let him think we know what a God-damned crook he is!”

Dunmore evidently didn’t think that worth dignifying with an answer. Doubtless he expected Nelda to launch a counter-offensive, as a matter of principle. If he did, he was disappointed.

“Well?” Nelda demanded. “What did you want us to do; give the collection away?”

“You don’t understand,” Dunmore told her. “You’ve probably heard somebody say what the collection’s worth, and you never stopped to realize that it’s only worth that to a dealer, who can sell it item by item. You can’t expect...”

“We can expect a lot more than ten thousand dollars,” Nelda retorted. “In fact, we can expect more than that from Rivers. Colonel Rand was talking to Rivers, this afternoon. Colonel Rand doesn’t have any confidence in Rivers at all, and he doesn’t care who knows it.”

“You were talking to Arnold Rivers, this afternoon, about the collection?” Dunmore demanded of Rand.

“That’s right,” Rand confirmed. “I told him his ten thousand dollar offer was a joke. Stephen Gresham and his friends can top that out of one pocket. Finally, he got around to admitting that he’s willing to pay up to twenty-five thousand.”

“I don’t believe it!” Dunmore exclaimed angrily. “Rivers told me personally, that neither he nor any other dealer could hope to handle that collection profitably at more than ten thousand.”

“And you believed that?” Nelda demanded. “And you’re a business man? My God!“

“He’s probably a good one, as long as he sticks to pancake flour,” Geraldine was generous enough to concede. “But about guns, he barely knows which end the bullet comes out at. Ten thousand was probably his idea of what we’d think the pistols were worth.”

Dunmore ignored that and turned to Rand. “Did Arnold Rivers actually tell you he’d pay twenty-five thousand dollars for the collection?” he asked. “I can’t believe that he’d raise his own offer like that.”

“He didn’t raise his offer; I threw it out and told him to make one that could be taken seriously.” Rand repeated, as closely as he could, his conversation with the arms-dealer. When he had finished, Dunmore was frowning in puzzled displeasure.

“And you think he’s actually willing to pay that much?”

“Yes, I do. If he handles them right, he can double his money on the pistols inside of five years. I doubt if you realize how valuable those pistols are. You probably defined Mr. Fleming’s collection as a ‘hobby’ and therefore something not to be taken seriously. And, aside from the actual profit, the prestige of handling this collection would be worth a good deal to Rivers, as advertising. I haven’t the least doubt that he can raise the money, or that he’s willing to pay it.”