midnight
When Robert Audley had completed this brief record , which he drew up with great deliberation , and with frequent pauses for reflection , alterations and erasures , he sat for a long time contemplating the written page . At last he read it carefully over , stopping at some of the numbered paragraphs , and marking some of them with a pencil cross ; then he folded the sheet of foolscap , went over to a cabinet on the opposite side of the room , unlocked it , and placed the paper in that very pigeon-hole into which he had thrust Alicia 's letter -- the pigeon-hole marked Important . Having done this , he returned to his easy-chair by the fire , pushed away his desk , and lighted a cigar . `` It 's as dark as midnight from first to last , '' he said ; `` and the clew to the mystery must be found either at Southampton or in Essex . Be it how it may , my mind is made up . I shall first go to Audley Court , and look for George Talboys in a narrow radius . '' `` Mr. George Talboys .