noon
`` I should advise you to write your note before you start ; it may be that some unexpected opportunity for handing it to her may present itself . '' `` I will do that ; but let us sally out first and pick up two suits at some dealer in old clothes . There will be sure to be two or three of these in the poorer quarter . '' The disguises were procured without difficulty , and putting them in a small wallet they started before noon on their walk . In four hours they reached the boundary of the Marquis of Ribaldo 's estate . Going into a wood they assumed the disguises , packed their own clothes in a wallet , and hid this away in a clump of bushes . Then they again started -- Gerald Burke with his arm in a sling and Geoffrey limping along with the aid of a thick stick he had cut in the wood .