midnight
This was the message : `` Sir Lionel Barton murdered . Meet me at his house at once . -- WEYMOUTH , INSPECTOR . '' ALTHOUGH we avoided all unnecessary delay , it was close upon midnight when our cab swung round into a darkly shadowed avenue , at the farther end of which , as seen through a tunnel , the moonlight glittered upon the windows of Rowan House , Sir Lionel Barton 's home . Stepping out before the porch of the long , squat building , I saw that it was banked in , as Smith had said , by trees and shrubs . The facade showed mantled in the strange exotic creeper which he had mentioned , and the air was pungent with an odor of decaying vegetation , with which mingled the heavy perfume of the little nocturnal red flowers which bloomed luxuriantly upon the creeper . The place looked a veritable wilderness , and when we were admitted to the hall by Inspector Weymouth I saw that the interior was in keeping with the exterior , for the hall was constructed from the model of some apartment in an Assyrian temple , and the squat columns , the low seats , the hangings , all were eloquent of neglect , being thickly dust-coated .