nearly six o'clock before
It is equally certain that this house can not be more than a mile or two from Oxshott , since Garcia was walking in that direction and hoped , according to my reading of the facts , to be back in Wisteria Lodge in time to avail himself of an alibi , which would only be valid up to one o'clock . As the number of large houses close to Oxshott must be limited , I adopted the obvious method of sending to the agents mentioned by Scott Eccles and obtaining a list of them . Here they are in this telegram , and the other end of our tangled skein must lie among them . '' * * * It was nearly six o'clock before we found ourselves in the pretty Surrey village of Esher , with Inspector Baynes as our companion . Holmes and I had taken things for the night , and found comfortable quarters at the Bull . Finally we set out in the company of the detective on our visit to Wisteria Lodge . It was a cold , dark March evening , with a sharp wind and a fine rain beating upon our faces , a fit setting for the wild common over which our road passed and the tragic goal to which it led us .