MIDNIGHT
It lifted readily , without tearing , its gum was wet and more abundant than usual -- in fact , it felt confoundedly like library paste , a pot of which , in an ornamental holder , was among the fittings of the escritoire . On the desk pad of blotting paper , too , Victor detected marks of fresh paste defining the contour of the flap . With a countenance whose inscrutability alone was a threat , Victor took out and conned the telegraph form . `` CONSULTATION SET FOR MIDNIGHT TO-NIGHT TAKING YOUR ADVICE SHALL NOT ATTEND BUT LEAVE FOR BRIGHTON ELEVEN P.M. '' A message ostensibly so open and aboveboard that it had n't been thought worth while to hide its wording under the cloak of a code . There was no signature -- unless one were clever or wise enough to transpose the two final letters and take them in relation to the word immediately preceding . `` Eleven , M.P. '' , however , could mean nothing to anybody but Victor -- except a body clever enough to hide a dictograph detector in a turnip . So Victor saw no reason to believe that Nogam , although undoubtedly guilty of the sin of prying , had been able to read the meaning below the surface of this communication .