There Was an Old Woman [= The Quick And the Dead]

Inspector Queen was regarding his eminent son with suspicion. “Ellery, is this another ‘trap’ of yours?”

Ellery sighed, and sat down in the straight-backed chair to lean forward with his elbows on his knees. “It rather reminds me,” he began, “of Mother Goose—”

“Oh, my gosh,” groaned the Sergeant.

“Who killed Robert and Maclyn? ‘I’, said the Sparrow,” murmured Mr. Queen, unabashed. “Wonderful how those jingles which were originally political and social satires keep cropping up in this case. I don’t know if the Cock Robin thing was one of those, but I do know the identity of the Sparrow. Except, Charley, that I can’t tell you the ‘who’ without first telling you the ‘how.’ You wouldn’t believe me otherwise.”

“Tell it any way you please,” begged Sheila. “But tell it, Ellery!”

Ellery lit a cigaret slowly. “Thurlow bought fourteen guns when he launched his dueling career. Fourteen... Sergeant, how many of those did you manage to round up?”

Velie started. “Who, me? Twelve.”

“Yes. Specifically, the two used in the duel with Bob Potts, the one the Old Woman stole from Thurlow’s hoard in that false closet of his, and the nine you found there afterwards, Sergeant. Twelve in all. Twelve out of the fourteen we knew Thurlow had purchased from the small-arms department of Cornwall & Ritchey. So two were missing.”

Ellery looked about absently for an ashtray. Sheila jumped up and brought him one. He smiled at her, and she ran back to her chair. “Two were missing,” he resumed, “and subsequently we discovered which two. They were exact duplicates in manufacture and type of the two guns Thurlow had produced for his duel with Bob: a .25-caliber Colt Pocket Model automatic, and a Smith & Wesson number known as the S. & W. 38/32 revolver, with a 2-inch barrel.

“That struck me as a curious fact. For what were the first twelve weapons?” Ellery took his inventory from his wallet. “A Colt .25 automatic, Pocket Model; a Smith & Wesson .38 — the .38/32 revolver with 2-inch barrel; a Harrington & Richardson .22, Trapper Model; an Iver Johnson .32 Special, safety hammerless automatic; a Schmeisser .25 automatic, safety Pocket Model; a Stevens .22 Long Rifle, single-shot Target pistol; an I. J. Champion .22 Target single action; a Stoeger Luger, 7.65 millimeter, refinished; a New Model Mauser of 7.63 millimeter caliber with a ten-shot magazine; a High Standard hammerless automatic Short, 22 caliber; a Browning 1912 of 9-millimeter caliber; and an Ortgies of 6.35-millimeter caliber.”

Ellery tucked away his memorandum. “I even remarked at the time that every one of the twelve guns listed was of different manufacture. I might have added what was evident from the list itself: that not only were the twelve utterly different in manufacture, but they were as nearly varied in caliber and type as one could reasonably gather in a gun shop.

“Yet the thirteenth and fourteenth weapons — the two missing ones — were exact duplicates of the first two on the list; not merely similar, but identical.” Ellery stared at them. “In other words, there were two pairs of guns in the fourteen items Thurlow bought at Cornwall & Ritchey’s. Why? Why two Colt .25 automatics of the Pocket Model type, whose overall length is only four and a half inches, as we pointed out at the time? Why two S. & W. 38/32’s, whose overall length is only six and one-quarter inches? Hardly dueling pistols, by the way! — although of course they could serve that purpose. There were much larger and longer pistols in Thurlow’s arsenal for such romantic bravura as a duel at dawn. Why those, and such little fellows, too?”

“Coincidence?” asked Sheila.

“It might have been coincidence,” admitted Ellery. “But the weight of logic was against it, Sheila. Because what happened? In giving Bob his choice of weapons at the dinner table the evening before the duel, Thurlow didn’t offer Bob one of a pair of guns — one of the pair of Colt .25 automatics we know he had at that time, or one of the pair of Smith & Wessons — which would have been the natural thing to do in a duel. No, Thurlow offered Bob his choice of two quite dissimilar weapons. Coincidence? Hardly. I could only say to myself: There must have been some purpose, some motive, some plan behind this.”

“But what?” Inspector Queen frowned.

“Well, Dad, what was the effect of Bob’s choosing one of the two dissimilar guns Thurlow offered him? This: that no matter which weapon Bob chose — whether he chose the Colt automatic or the Smith & Wesson revolver — Thurlow was left not with one gun for himself, but a pair.”

“A pair!” exclaimed Charley. “Of course! Since Bob picked the Smith & Wesson, Thurlow was left with two identical Colts!”

“And it would have been the same if Bob had selected the Colt,” nodded Ellery. “Thurlow couldn’t lose, you see — he had to be left with a pair of identical weapons. The question was: What was the advantage to Thurlow in this? I couldn’t answer it then; but I can now!”