eleven o'clock
If , upon the pretence of examining some of the stock , he could linger in the furniture shop for half-an-hour , he would be enabled to get upon the track of Ferrara ! His mind made up , he walked along and entered the shop . For the next half-an-hour , he passed from item to item of the collection displayed there , surveying each in the leisurely manner of a connoisseur ; but always he kept a watch , through the window , upon the photographer 's establishment beyond . Promptly at eleven o'clock a taxi cab drew up at the door , and from it a slim man alighted . He wore , despite the heat of the morning , an overcoat of some woolly material ; and in his gait , as he crossed the pavement to enter the shop , there was something revoltingly effeminate ; a sort of cat-like grace which had been noticeable in a woman , but which in a man was unnatural , and for some obscure reason , sinister . It was Antony Ferrara ! Even at that distance and in that brief time , Robert Cairn could see the ivory face , the abnormal , red lips , and the long black eyes of this arch fiend , this monster masquerading as a man .