was true; the pistols were made about twenty years ago."

"Those wheel locks Fleming bought from Arnold Rivers?" Pierre asked.
"God, wasn't that a crime! I'll bet Rivers bought himself a big drink
when Lane Fleming was killed. Fleming was all set to hang Rivers's scalp
in his wigwam.... But with Stephen, the history does count for
something. As you probably know, he collects arms-types that figured in
American history. Well, he can prove that this individual musket was
brought over by the Pilgrims, so he can be sure it's an example of the
type they used. But he'd sooner have a typical Pilgrim musket that never
was within five thousand miles of Plymouth Rock than a non-typical arm
brought over as a personal weapon by one of the _Mayflower_ Company."

"Oh, none of us are really interested in the individual history of
collection weapons," Rand said. "You show me a collection that's full of
known-history arms, and I'll show you a collection that's either full of
junk or else cost three times what it's worth. And you show me a
collector who blows money on history, and nine times out of ten I'll show
you a collector who doesn't know guns. I saw one such collection, once;
every item had its history neatly written out on a tag and hung onto the
trigger-guard. The owner thought that the patent-dates on Colts were
model-dates, and the model-dates on French military arms were dates of
fabrication."

Pierre wrinkled his nose disgustedly. "God, I hate to see a collection
all fouled up with tags hung on things!" he said. "Or stuck over with
gummed labels; that's even worse. Once in a while I get something with a
label pasted on it, usually on the stock, and after I get it off, there's
a job getting the wood under it rubbed up to the same color as the rest
of the stock."