about five o'clock
`` The conditions are that not a word about this business appears in print , either now or in the future until we have a criminal in the dock , '' he said . `` Accepted , '' said Peters . Furneaux laughed shrilly , even derisively , but him his colleague treated with majestic disdain . Then , the chemist having reentered the village , the group broke up , Peters to search his brains for `` copy '' which should be readable yet contain no hint of the new trail , Winter to take train to Knoleworth , and Furneaux to tackle Fred Elkin , who , he had ascertained earlier , would drive home from a neighboring hamlet about five o'clock . Elkin had returned when the detective reached the house , a somewhat pretentious place , half farm , half villa , and altogether horsey . The entrance hall bristled with fox masks and brushes . A useful collection of burnished bits and snaffles hung on a side wall .