"
"We must look into it. Robinson has been stationed here four years.
Siddle is not old, but he has been in business in Steynholme more years
than that. But--you'll pardon me, I'm sure, Mr. Winter--may I take it
that you are really interested in the chemist's history?"
The superintendent was perplexed, or he would not have adopted his
professional method of semi-apologetic questions with a man from
the C.I.D.
"I hardly know what I'm interested in," laughed Winter. "Grant didn't
kill the lady. I shall be slow to credit Elkin with being the scoundrel
he looks. Siddle, and Tomlin, if you please, are regarded as starters in
the Doris Martin Matrimonial Stakes, and I don't think Tomlin could ever
murder anything but the King's English. It is Siddle's _volte face_ that
bothers me."
"Um!" murmured Mr. Fowler. He was not an uneducated man, but _volte
face_, correctly pronounced, was unfamiliar in his ears.
"The change was so marked," went on the detective. "I gather that Siddle
is a stickler for charity and fair dealing. He didn't abandon the role,
of course. It was the sheer ingenuity of his method that caught my
attention. So I simply catalogue him for research.
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