"The regular rifle of the British army twenty years ago. This belonged to Private Stanley Ortheris. He took it with him that day he went out to look for a native deserter who was making things unpleasant by night for the old regiment. Ortheris had his two companions with him, and while they waited Learoyd told the story 'On Greenhow Hill.' At its end, the deserter appeared and Ortheris ended his career at long range. 'Mayhap there was a lass tewed up wi' him, too,' opined Learoyd."
I nodded, for I liked the story well.
"Here is the pistol," said Mr. Gooch, "that was found by the side of Mr. John Oakhurst, gambler, who struck a streak of bad luck on the 23d of November, 1850, and handed in his checks on the 7th of December, 1850."
Then I asked about a hammer that lay among other objects on the table.
"It is not a weapon, exactly," admitted Mr. Gooch, "but it belonged to Adam Bede. He used it in making a coffin, the night his father was drowned. The musket is the one with which Carver Doone shot Lorna in the church. That peculiar machine in the corner? It doesn't look earthly, does it? As a matter of fact, it is a heat ray apparatus which was employed by the Martians in the War of the Worlds."
We moved around the room slowly, Mr. Gooch sometimes pointing to weapons which hung high above our heads, and sometimes taking them down so I could examine them closely. In this more satisfactory fashion he now showed me a remarkable axe. The haft was of rhinoceros horn, wound with copper wire. This handle was over a yard long. The head was of steel. As I had suspected, the axe had belonged to Umslopogaas, the Zulu warrior. With this axe he had terrorized the French cook Alphonse, and with it he fought his great fight at the head of the stairway. It had numerous nicks in the horn handle—each nick representing a man killed with it in battle.
"Here is another knife which figured in a murder," said Mr. Gooch. "Tess killed Alec D'Urberville with it. And this is the unsheathed sword that lay between Tristram and Iseult."
On a shelf in a corner was a piece of some red stone. I inquired about it, remarking that it did not seem to belong to the collection,