CHAPTER II.
P.C.ROBINSON "TAKES A LINE" "It will help me a lot, sir," he said, "if you tell me now what you know about this matter.

If, as seems more than likely, murder has been done, I don't want to lose a minute in starting my inquiries.

In a case of this sort I find it best to take a line, and stick to it." His tone was respectful but firm.

Evidently, P.C.Robinson was not one to be trifled with.

Moreover, for a sleuth whose maximum achievement hitherto had been the successful prosecution of a poultry thief, it was significant that the unconscious irony of "a case of this sort" should have been lost on him.
"Do you really insist on conducting your investigation while the body is lying here ?" demanded Grant, deliberately turning his back on the girl in the distant cottage.
"Not that, sir--not altogether--but I must really ask you to clear up one or two points now." "For goodness' sake, what are they ?" "Well, sir, in the first place, how did you come to find the body ?" "I walked out into the garden after finishing breakfast a few minutes ago, and noticed the rope attached to the staple, just as you see it now." "Did you walk straight here ?" "No.