twenty minutes after seven
Suffice it to say , however , that the reason I made you people walk out on the wet grass yesterday was not because I own stock in a cough-and-cold medicine company , as you might think , but because I wanted whatever telltale stains there might be on the six pairs of shoes -LRB- indicating to my trained eye where their owner had been recently -RRB- to become moistened and to stick more firmly to the shoes , so they would n't dry up and get knocked off before I could grab the shoes and inspect them . You see , Watson , there are more ways of killing a cat than by choking it to death with butter ! '' As the sarcastic old cuss continued his lecture , he shoved all the twelve shoes he had examined into the lower drawer of the dresser in the room , locking it and putting the key in his pocket . `` I guess breakfast must be about ready now , '' said Holmes , as he glanced at his watch ; `` it 's twenty minutes after seven . If there 's any of that whiskey left that we found on the shelf in the lavatory yesterday morning , I 'm going to help myself to some more of it . I feel kind of chilly after sitting up for an hour inspecting the shoes . '' We washed , after Holmes had taken the chill-remedy , and were passing down the front stairway to the lower hall on our way to the dining-room when I suddenly thought of the consequences of our nocturnal escapade .