midnight
And with any assurance that Ekstrom would come alone , he might have been content to wait . Not only had he through too intimate acquaintance with his methods every assurance that Ekstrom would never brave alone what he could induce another to risk with him , but Lanyard was never one willing to play the passive part . A banal axiom of all warfare applied : The advantage is with him who fights upon the offensive . Since midnight the offensive had shifted from Lanyard 's grasp to the enemy 's . He was determined to recapture it ; and that was something never to be accomplished by sitting still and waiting for events to unfold , but only by carrying the war into the enemy 's camp . He delayed , then , only long enough to change his clothing and to conceal about him certain properties which it seemed unwise to expose to chance discovery on the part of Ekstrom or in the ever-possible event of police intervention . Within five minutes from the time of his return he was closing behind him the private door .