The Bachman Books

'Well, I'll be honest with you. The motor probably cost him four hundred. I'd like to go at least five. Six hundred tops. '

'You and this cousin really get along, don't you?'

'We grew up together,' he said sincerely. 'I think I'd give my right arm to Nick, if he wanted it. '

'Well, let me show you something,' Harry said. He picked a key out of the bundle on his ring and went to one of the glass cabinets. He opened it, climbed up on a stool, and brought down a long, heavy rifle with an inlaid stock. 'This may be a little higher than you want to go, but it's a beautiful gun. ' Harry handed it to him.

'What is it?'

'That's a four-sixty Weatherbee. Shoots heavier ammunition than I've got here in the place right now. I'd have to order however many rounds you wanted from Chicago. Take about a week. It's a perfectly weighted gun. The muzzle energy on that baby is over eight thousand pounds . . . like hitting something with an airport limousine. If you hit a buck in the head with it, you'd have to take the tail for a trophy.'

'I don't know,' he said, sounding dubious even though he had decided he wanted the rifle. 'I know Nick wants trophies. That's part of-'

'Sure it is,' Harry said, taking the Weatherbee and chambering it. The hole looked big enough to put a carrier pigeon in. 'Nobody goes to Boca Rio for meat. So your cousin gutshoots. With this piece, you don't have to worry about tracking the goddam animal for twelve miles through the high country, the animal suffering the whole time, not to mention you missing dinner. This baby will spread his insides over twenty feet. '

'How much?'

'Well, I'll tell you. I can't move it in town. Who wants a freaking anti-tank gun when there's nothing to go after anymore but pheasant? And if you put them on the table, it tastes like you're eating exhaust fumes. It retails for nine-fifty, wholesales for six-thirty. I'd let you have it for seven hundred.'

'That comes to . . . almost a thousand bucks. '

'We give a ten percent discount on orders over three hundred dollars. That brings it back to nine.' He shrugged. 'You give that gun to your cousin, I gaarantee he hasn't got one. If he does, I'll buy it back for seven-fifty. I'll put that in writing, that's how sure I am.'

'No kidding?'

'Absolutely. Absolutely. Of course, if it's too steep, it's too steep. We can look at some other guns. But if he's a real nut on the subject, I don't have anything else he might not have two of. '

'I see.' He put a thoughtful expression on his face. 'Have you got a telephone?'

'Sure, in the back. Want to call your wife and talk it over'?'

'I think I better.'

'Sure. Come on.'

Harry led him into a cluttered back room. There was a bench and a scarred wooden table littered with gun guts, springs, cleaning fluid, pamphlets, and labeled bottles with lead slugs in them.

'There's the phone,' Harry said.

He sat down, picked up the phone, and dialed while Harry went back to get the Magnum and put it in a box.

'Thank you forcalling the WDST Weatherphone,' the bright, recorded voice said. 'This afternoon, snow flurries developing into light snow late this evening-'

'Hi, Mary?' he said. 'Listen, I'm in this place called Harvey's Gun Shop. Yeah, about Nicky. I got the pistol we talked about, no problem. There was one right in the showcase. Then the guy showed me this rifle-'

'--clearing by tomorrow afternoon. Lows tonight will be in the thirties, tomorrow in the mid to upper forties. Chance of precipitation tonight--'

'I -so what do you think I should do?' Harry was standing in the doorway behind him; he could see the shadow.

'Yeah,' he said. 'I know that.'

'Thank you for dialing the WDST Weatherphone, and be sure to watch Newsplus-Sixty with Bob Reynolds each weekday evening at six o'clock for a weather update. Good-bye.'

'You're not kidding. I know it's a lot.'

'Thank you for calling the WDST Weatherphone. This afternoon, snow flurries developing into--'

'You sure, honey?'

'Chance of precipitation tonight eight percent, tomorrow--'

'Well, okay.' He turned on the bench, grinned at Harry, and made a circle with his right thumb and forefinger. 'He's a nice guy. Said he'd guarantee me Nick didn't have one.'

'--by tomorrow afternoon. Lows tonight-' 'I love you too, Mare. Bye.' He hung up. Jesus, Freddy, that was neat. It was, George. It was. He got up. 'She says go if I say okay. I do.' Harry smiled. 'What are you going to do if he sends you a Thunderbird?' He smiled back. 'Return it unopened.' As they walked back out Harry asked, 'Check or charge?' 'American Express, if it's okay.' 'Good as gold.' He got his card out. On the back, written on the special strip, it said:

BARTON GEORGE DAWES

'You're sure the shells will come in time for me to ship everything to Fred?'

Harry looked up from the credit blank. 'Fred?'