At eleven
we shall drive as far as Church Row. It is a quarter of an
hour's walk from there to Appledore Towers. We shall be at work
before midnight. Milverton is a heavy sleeper and retires
punctually at ten-thirty. With any luck we should be back here
by two, with the Lady Eva's letters in my pocket."
Holmes and I put on our dress-clothes, so that we might
appear to be two theatre-goers homeward bound. In Oxford Street
we picked up a hansom and drove to an address in Hampstead.
Here we paid off our cab, and with our great-coats buttoned up,
for it was bitterly cold and the wind seemed to blow through us,
we walked along the edge of the Heath.
"It's a business that needs delicate treatment," said Holmes.
"These documents are contained in a safe in the fellow's study,
and the study is the ante-room of his bed-chamber. On the other
hand, like all these stout, little men who do themselves well,
he is a plethoric sleeper. Agatha -- that's my FIANCEE -- says
it is a joke in the servants' hall that it's impossible to wake
the master. He has a secretary who is devoted to his interests
and never budges from the study all day.
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