eleven o'clock
A few hours before I had undoubtedly fallen in the estimation of the stolid constable when , instead of asking him questions regarding the tragedy , I had inquired the position of the wine cellar , and obtained possession of the key that opened its portal . The sight of bin after bin of dust-laden , cobwebbed bottles , did more than anything else to reconcile me to my lonely vigil . There were some notable vintages represented in that dismal cavern . It was perhaps half-past ten or eleven o'clock when I began my investigations . I had taken the precaution to provide myself with half a dozen so-called electric torches before I left London . These give illumination for twenty or thirty hours steadily , and much longer if the flash is used only now and then . The torch is a thick tube , perhaps a foot and a half long , with a bull 's - eye of glass at one end .