Marlowe next put through a call to Bill Barnett of Caltech.

“Bill, this is Geoff Marlowe ringing from the offices. I wanted to tell you that there’ll be a pretty important meeting here tomorrow morning at ten o’clock. I’d like you to come along and bring a few theoreticians along. They don’t need to be astronomers. Bring several bright boys … No, I can’t explain now. I’ll know more tomorrow. I’m going on the 60-inch tonight. But I’ll tell you what, if you think by lunch-time tomorrow that I’ve got you out on a wild-goose chase, I’ll stand you a crate of Scotch … Fine!”

He hummed with excitement as he hurried down to the basement where Jensen had been working earlier in the evening. He spent some three-quarters of an hour measuring Jensen’s plates. When at last he was satisfied that he would know exactly where to point the telescope, he went out, climbed into his car, and drove off towards Mount Wilson.

Dr Herrick, the Director of the Observatory, was astonished to find Marlowe waiting for him when he reached his office at seven-thirty the following morning. It was the Director’s habit to start his day some two hours before the main body of his staff, “in order to get some work done’, as he used to say. At the other extreme, Marlowe usually did not put in an appearance until ten-thirty, and sometimes later still. This day, however, Marlowe was sitting at his desk, carefully examining a pile of about a dozen positive prints. Herrick’s surprise was not lessened when he heard what Marlowe had to say. The two men spent the next hour and a half in earnest conversation. At about nine o’clock they slipped out for a quick breakfast, and returned in time to make preparations for a meeting to be held in the library at ten o’clock.