twenty minutes after nine,
Tuesday morning, April
He hit me on the forehead , and I did n't know anything more until just a moment ago , when I woke up with a headache , and only one cuff-button left . If Mr. Holmes can lay hands on the unholy miscreant who is guilty of this and the previous outrages , he will have earned my everlasting gratitude , also a reward of twenty thousand pounds , -- double what I had Thorneycroft offer him yesterday . '' `` That sounds like business , '' said Holmes , as he jumped up , the Earl and all of us being finished by this time . `` Watson , you can put it down in your little red notebook that at precisely '' -- here he glanced up at the ornate clock on the mantelpiece -- `` twenty minutes after nine , Tuesday morning , April the ninth , 1912 , the burglar-hunt began ; just exactly twenty-four hours , by the way , since we were first informed of the Earl 's loss . '' `` All right , go to it , Holmes , '' said the Earl . `` I guess you know how . I give you _ carte blanche _ to go as far as you like . ''