I was right; he had come back from the dinner-party.
He listened to the repetition of the story of the Rev.Ellis Shorter with the genuine simplicity and respect which he never failed to exhibit in dealing with any human being.

When it was over he said simply: "Do you know a man named Captain Fraser ?" I was so startled at this totally irrelevant reference to the worthy collector of chimpanzees with whom I ought to have dined that evening, that I glanced sharply at Grant.

The result was that I did not look at Mr Shorter.

I only heard him answer, in his most nervous tone, "No." Basil, however, seemed to find something very curious about his answer or his demeanour generally, for he kept his big blue eyes fixed on the old clergyman, and though the eyes were quite quiet they stood out more and more from his head.
"You are quite sure, Mr Shorter," he repeated, "that you don't know Captain Fraser ?" "Quite," answered the vicar, and I was certainly puzzled to find him returning so much to the timidity, not to say the demoralization, of his tone when he first entered my presence.
Basil sprang smartly to his feet.
"Then our course is clear," he said.

"You have not even begun your investigation, my dear Mr Shorter; the first thing for us to do is to go together to see Captain Fraser." "When ?" asked the clergyman, stammering.
"Now," said Basil, putting one arm in his fur coat.
The old clergyman rose to his feet, quaking all over.
"I really do not think that it is necessary," he said.
Basil took his arm out of the fur coat, threw it over the chair again, and put his hands in his pockets.
"Oh," he said, with emphasis.