Fowler was puzzled, and did not hesitate to show it. He believed, not
without reasonable cause, that this young man was concealing some element
in the situation which might prove helpful in the quest for the murderer.
He resolved to strike off along a new track.

"I am informed," he went on, speaking with a deliberateness meant to
be impressive, "that you did entertain another lady as a visitor
last night."

Grant allowed his glance to dwell on Robinson for an instant. Hitherto he
had ignored the man. Now he surveyed him as if he were a viper.

"It will be a peculiarly offensive thing if the personality of a helpless
and unoffending girl is brought into this inquiry," he cried. "'Brought
in' is too mild--I ought to say 'dragged in.' As it happens, astronomy is
one of my hobbies. Last evening, as the outcome of a chat on the subject,
Doris Martin, daughter of the local postmaster, came here to view Sirius
through an astronomical telescope. There is the instrument," and he
pointed through P.C. Robinson to a telescope on a tripod in a corner of
the room. The gesture was eloquent. The burly policeman might have been a
sheet of glass. "As you see, it is a solid article, not easily lifted
about. It weighs nearly a hundred-weight."

"Why is it so heavy?"

The superintendent had a knack of putting seemingly irrelevant questions.
Robinson had been disconcerted by it earlier in the day, but Grant seemed
to treat the interruption as a sensible one.