midday
I know that the Baron grinned in my face , and that I fell forward heavily upon the table , my heart gripped in the spasm of death . Of what occurred afterwards I have no recollection , for when I slowly regained knowledge of things around me , I found myself lying beneath a bare , leafless hedge in a grass field . I managed to struggle to my feet , and discovered myself in a bare , flat , open country . As far as I could judge it was midday . I got to a gate , skirted a hedge , and gained the main road . With difficulty I walked to the nearest town , a distance of about four miles , without meeting a soul , and to my surprise found myself in Hitchin . The spectacle of a man entering the town in evening dress and hatless in broad daylight was no doubt curious , but I was anxious to return to London and give information against those who had , without any apparent motive , laid an ingenious plot to poison me .