ten minutes past nine
The distempered walls , save for a severe and solitary etching of a former Commissioner , were nude in all their unloveliness . A heavy deal table -LRB- upon which rested a blotting-pad , a pewter ink-pot , several newspapers and two pens -RRB- together with three deal chairs , built rather as monuments of durability than as examples of art , constituted the only furniture , if we except an electric lamp with a green glass shade , above the table . This was the room of Detective-Inspector Dunbar ; and Detective-Inspector Dunbar , at the hour of our entrance , will be found seated in the chair , placed behind the table , his elbows resting upon the blotting-pad . At ten minutes past nine , exactly , the door opened , and a thick-set , florid man , buttoned up in a fawn colored raincoat and wearing a bowler hat of obsolete build , entered . He possessed a black mustache , a breezy , bustling manner , and humorous blue eyes ; furthermore , when he took off his hat , he revealed the possession of a head of very bristly , upstanding , black hair . This was Detective-Sergeant Sowerby , and the same who was engaged in examining a newspaper in the study of Henry Leroux when Dr. Cumberly and his daughter had paid their second visit to that scene of an unhappy soul 's dismissal . `` Well ? ''