we shall drive as far as Church Row. It is a quarter of an

hour's walk from there to Appledore Towers. We shall be at work

before midnight. Milverton is a heavy sleeper and retires

punctually at ten-thirty. With any luck we should be back here

by two, with the Lady Eva's letters in my pocket."

Holmes and I put on our dress-clothes, so that we might

appear to be two theatre-goers homeward bound. In Oxford Street

we picked up a hansom and drove to an address in Hampstead.

Here we paid off our cab, and with our great-coats buttoned up,

for it was bitterly cold and the wind seemed to blow through us,

we walked along the edge of the Heath.

"It's a business that needs delicate treatment," said Holmes.

"These documents are contained in a safe in the fellow's study,

and the study is the ante-room of his bed-chamber. On the other

hand, like all these stout, little men who do themselves well,

he is a plethoric sleeper. Agatha -- that's my FIANCEE -- says

it is a joke in the servants' hall that it's impossible to wake

24.05.2007