"'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.
"For observation purposes an astronomical telescope is not of much use
unless the movement of the earth is counteracted," he said. "Usually, the
dome of an observatory swings on a specially contrived axis, but that is
a very expensive structure, so my telescope is governed by a clockwork
attachment and moves on its own axis."
Mr. Fowler nodded. He was really a very well informed man for a country
police-officer; he understood clearly.
Pages:
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57