MURDER IN THE GUNROOM

By H. BEAM PIPER



NEW YORK
_Alfred A. Knopf_ 1953
FIRST EDITION




TO _Colonel Henry W. Shoemaker_ an old and valued friend, who was
promised this dedication, with an entirely different novel in mind,
twenty-two years ago.




PREFACE

_The Lane Fleming collection of early pistols and revolvers was one of
the best in the country. When Fleming was found dead on the floor of
his locked gunroom, a Confederate-made Colt-type percussion .36 revolver
in his hand, the coroner's verdict was "death by accident." But Gladys
Fleming had her doubts. Enough at any rate to engage Colonel Jefferson
Davis Rand--better known just as Jeff--private detective and a
pistol-collector himself, to catalogue, appraise, and negotiate the
sale of her late husband's collection.