midnight
His clothes , and the various articles Mrs. Bunting had bought for him during the first two days he had been there , were carefully arranged in the chest of drawers . He had lately purchased a pair of boots . Those he had arrived in were peculiar-looking footgear , buff leather shoes with rubber soles , and he had told his landlady on that very first day that he never wished them to go down to be cleaned . A funny idea -- a funny habit that , of going out for a walk after midnight in weather so cold and foggy that all other folk were glad to be at home , snug in bed . But then Mr. Sleuth himself admitted that he was a funny sort of gentleman . After she had done his bedroom the landlady went into the sitting-room and gave it a good dusting . This room was not kept quite as nice as she would have liked it to be .