"I'll give you a check for the thousand now, with a letter of
authorization."

Rand nodded in return. Being thoroughly conscious of the fact that
he could only know a thin film of the events on the surface of any
situation, he was not easily surprised.

"Very well," he said. "You've hired an arms-expert. I'll be in Rosemont
some time tomorrow afternoon. Now, who are these prospective purchasers
you mentioned, and just how prospective, in terms of United States
currency, are they?"

"Well, for one, there's Arnold Rivers; he's offering ten thousand for the
collection. I suppose you know of him; he has an antique-arms business at
Rosemont."

"I've done some business with him," Rand admitted. "Who else?"

"There's a commission-dealer named Carl Gwinnett, who wants to handle
the collection for us, for twenty per cent. I'm told that that isn't an
unusually exorbitant commission, but I'm not exactly crazy about the
idea."

"You shouldn't be, if you want your money in a hurry," Rand told her.
"He'd take at least five years to get everything sold. He wouldn't dump
the whole collection on the market at once, upset prices, and spoil his
future business. You know, two thousand five hundred pistols of the sort
Mr. Fleming had, coming on the market in a lot, could do just that. The
old-arms market isn't so large that it couldn't be easily saturated."