noon
His return to Troyon 's , whereas an enterprise which Lanyard had been contemplating for several years -- in fact , ever since the death of Bourke -- came to pass at length almost purely as an affair of impulse . He had come through from London by the afternoon service -- via Boulogne -- travelling light , with nothing but a brace of handbags and his life in his hands . Two coups to his credit since the previous midnight had made the shift advisable , though only one of them , the later , rendered it urgent . Scotland Yard would , he reckoned , require at least twenty-four hours to unlimber for action on the Omber affair ; but the other , the theft of the Huysman plans , though not consummated before noon , must have set the Chancelleries of at least three Powers by the ears before Lanyard was fairly entrained at Charing Cross . Now his opinion of Scotland Yard was low ; its emissaries must operate gingerly to keep within the laws they serve . But the agents of the various Continental secret services have a way of making their own laws as they go along : and for these Lanyard entertained a respect little short of profound . He would not have been surprised had he ran foul of trouble on the pier at Folkestone .