nearly ten o'clock
Now the shipowner had to wait patiently for nightfall before the first definite move of his game could be played . One of his secrets of success was that he never allowed his mind to worry him . He shut the matter completely out of his conscious thoughts ; got a trunk telephone call to his London office ; sent off some cables to his New York office ; and generally immersed himself on business matters quite unrelated to the Matheson case . It was nearly ten o'clock that night before Arthur Dean returned from an errand on which he had been sent . In his arms was a bulky brown-paper parcel . He opened it in the privacy of his employer 's sitting-room , and remembering the advice given him that morning as to the way to present a business report , pointed silently to a small slit in the side of the fur-lined coat , where it would cover a man 's ribs . On the inner lining of the coat there was a dark stain around the slit , though the immersion in the river had of course washed away any definite blood-clot .