Stephen KingTHE REAPER'S IMAGE
'We moved it last year, and it was not easy,' Mr. Carlin said as they walked up the stairs. 'We had to move it by hand, of course. No other way. We insured it before we even took it out of the case in the drawing room.'
Spangler said nothing. The man was a fool. Johnson Spangler had learned a long time ago that the only way to talk to a fool was to ignore him.
'We insured it for a quarter of a million dollars,' Mr. Carlin continued when they reached the second floor. He smiled. 'And it cost a lot, too.' He was a little bald man, wearing glasses, not quite fat.
It was a long corridor, and Spangler looked at the walls with a cool professional eye. Samuel Claggert had bought a lot, but he hadn't bought well. Like so many of the industry emperors of the 1800's, he bought mostly rubbish and understood nothing about Art.
The walls were covered with imitation drapes, madonnas, angels, candelabra, and the like. Of course the old man had a few interesting things. And if the Samuel Claggert Private Museum was 98 percent junk, there were always some things like the precious long rifle over the fireplace, the quaint little casket on the dinner table, and, of course, the...
'The Delver looking-glass was moved from downstairs after a rather unfortunate... incident,' Mr. Carlin said suddenly. 'There had been others, of course, but this time they really tried to destroy the mirror. The woman, Miss Sandra Bates, came in with a rock in her pocket. Fortunately, she missed and only damaged a corner of the case. The mirror was unharmed. The Bates girl had a brother...'
'No need to give me the details,' Spangler said quietly. 'I know the history of the Delver glass very well.'
'Amazing, isn't it?' Carlin asked. 'There was that English duchess in 1709... and the Pennsylvania merchant in 1746... not to mention...'
'I know the history,' Spangler repeated quietly. 'It's the authenticity of the glass I'm interested in, not the stories.'
'Well, of course!' Mr. Carlin laughed. 'It's been examined by many experts, Mr. Spangler.'