A few
minutes after three o'clock
Mr. Siddle strolled on . Winter bent over , keen to discern the gray-backed fish which must be lurking in those clear depths and rippling shallows . The sun , transmuted into Greenwich time , exercised an extraordinary influence on the seemingly humdrum life of Steynholme that day . A few minutes after three o'clock -- just too late to observe either Winter or Siddle -- P.C. Robinson strolled forth from his cottage . He glanced up the almost deserted high-street , in which every rounded cobble and white flagstone radiated heat . A high-class automobile had dashed past twice in forty minutes , but the pace was on the borderland of doubt , so the guardian of the public weal had contented himself with recording its number on the return journey . But his thoughts were far a-field from joyriders , stray cattle , hawkers without licenses , and other similar small fry which come into the constabulary net .