three o'clock in the morning
Every policeman knows that , therefore , two men coming into London are innocent strangers , according to Scotland Yard . ' ` But then we may be taken up for fast driving , and think of the terrible burden we carry . ' ` We 're safe on the country roads , and I 'll slow down when we reach the suburbs . ' It was approaching three o'clock in the morning when a huge motor car turned out of Trafalgar Square , and went eastward along the Strand . The northern side of the Strand was up , as it usually is , and the motor , skilfully driven , glided past the piles of wood-paving blocks , great sombre kettles holding tar and the general _ débris _ of a re-paving convulsion . Opposite Southampton Street , at the very spot so graphically illustrated by George C. Haité on the cover of the _ Strand Magazine _ , Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stopped his motor . The Strand was deserted .