four o'clock in the morning
Some trick of memory came to his aid . In an hotel at Lyons he had watched a valet packing just such an object with the remainder of his employer 's luggage , and was told , on inquiry , that it contained foils . But why foils ? ... at four o'clock in the morning ? ... in a country where men might still requite an outrage by an appeal to the law of the jungle ? Hastily drawing from his breast pocket the letter intrusted to him , he examined the superscription . It was addressed simply to the Marquis of Scarland , and must surely be a document of immense significance , or the young Viscount would not have brought him all the way from London to act as messenger rather than intrust it to the post .