ten minutes to seven
he said . `` Have the racer to meet me at seven o'clock , half-way along Pall Mall . '' Never for a moment did he relax his vigilance . Observing every precaution when he left The Chancery Agency , he spent the intervening time at one of his clubs , from which , having made an early dinner , he set off for Pall Mall at ten minutes to seven . A rakish-looking gray car resembling a giant torpedo was approaching slowly from the direction of Buckingham Palace . The driver pulled up as Paul Harley stepped into the road , and following a brief conversation Harley set out westward , performing a detour before heading south for Lower Claybury , a little town with which he was only slightly acquainted . No evidence of espionage could he detect , but the note of danger spoke intimately to his inner consciousness ; so that when , the metropolis left behind , he found himself in the hilly Surrey countryside , more than once he pulled up , sitting silent for a while and listening intently .