noon
There was no doubt , however , after Mr. Claridge 's arrival at ten o'clock -- the cameo was gone . Mr. Claridge , utterly confounded at his loss , explained incoherently , and with curses on his own carelessness , that he had locked the precious article in his desk on relinquishing work on it the previous evening , feeling rather tired , and not taking the trouble to carry it as far as the safe in another part of the house . The police were sent for at once , of course , and every investigation made , Mr. Claridge offering a reward of five hundred pounds for the recovery of the cameo . The affair was scribbled off at large in the earliest editions of the evening papers , and by noon all the world was aware of the extraordinary theft of the Stanway Cameo , and many people were discussing the probabilities of the case , with very indistinct ideas of what a sardonyx cameo precisely was . It was in the afternoon of this day that Lord Stanway called on Martin Hewitt . The marquis was a tall , upstanding man of spare figure and active habits , well known as a member of learned societies and a great patron of art . He hurried into Hewitt 's private room as soon as his name had been announced , and , as soon as Hewitt had given him a chair , plunged into business .