Mr. Liebeler. The witness indicates that because of the stock and the rifle barrel are separate when the rifle is broken down, it seems natural, does it not, Mr. Paine, to place the barrel and action of the rifle directly over the top of the stock when wrapping it this way?

Mr. Paine. Yes.

Mr. Liebeler. If you do that, you would not have the sense of grasping the muzzle of the rifle or of a pipe when you picked up the package?

Mr. Paine. And this, putting the barrel below the stock, doesn't leave, offset the package in the way that gave me the problem with the folding shovel in there. The symmetrical shovel if I wrapped that in some fashion. Also it mustn't rattle. He is going to have to tie it firmly with string not to have it as monolithic or solid as it had been. The barrel, I must have just felt the barrel, I felt a pipe, and the barrel had to be sticking out beyond the stock.

Mr. Liebeler. You think that because the barrel of the rifle had to be sticking out behind the stock and because when the rifle is placed in the package in two different pieces, it is difficult to tie it tightly enough to keep it from rattling and you would infer that the rifle was put together when it was in the package in your garage, assuming that there was a rifle in the package in the garage? Did you ever tell the FBI that you were sure in the light of recent events that you were sure it was a rifle in the package?

Mr. Paine. I told the FBI the description or the suggestion of a rifle as the object brought together these loose pieces or loose concepts on the offset bulk which was the butt end, and the pipe, the 30-inch pipe I drew in the picture, so it made sense. The picture jelled when the rifle was suggested as an object.

Mr. Liebeler. And so you concluded that it was likely that there was, in fact, a rifle in the package?

Mr. Paine. Yes; I thought that was so.

Mr. Liebeler. I show you Commission Exhibit 364, which is a replica of a paper sack or package which was found in the School Book Depository, after the assassination. I point out to you that Commission 364 is merely a replica of the actual sack that was found. The actual sack that was found is Commission Exhibit 142, and it has now been discolored because it has been treated by the FBI for fingerprints.

Mr. Paine. Yes.