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"Bull-dog Drummond" (1920) by Herman Cyril McNeile (aka "Sapper")
The first of the successful Bulldog Drummond detective adventure series. Drummond is a demobilised ex-soldier, bored with life after the end of World War I, who seeks excitement as a private detective. The novels continued to be published until 1954 and were adapted for film (from 1922), stage (1925), radio (1941), and television (1957). The character was influential on many subsequent creations, such as Ian Fleming's James Bond.
Captain Hugh Drummond, D.S.O., M.C., late of His Majesty's Royal Loamshires, was whistling in his morning bath. Being by nature of a cheerful disposition, the symptom did not surprise his servant, late private of the same famous regiment, who was laying breakfast in an adjoining room.
After a while the whistling ceased, and the musical gurgle of escaping water announced that the concert was over. It was the signal for James Denny—the square-jawed ex-batman—to disappear into the back regions and get from his wife the kidneys and bacon which that most excellent woman had grilled to a turn. But on this particular morning the invariable routine was broken. James Denny seemed preoccupied, distrait.