"Eastover."
"When they left your shop how did they go away?"
"A cab was waiting at the door for them, and I walked out to it with them."
"There were only two of them, you think?"
"No. There was a third person waiting for them in the cab, and it was that very circumstance which made me anxious to have my things brought back as soon as possible. If I had been able to, I should have even declined to let them go."
"Why so?"
"Well, to tell you that would involve a story. But perhaps I had better tell you. It was in this way. About three years ago, through a distant relative, I got to know a man named Draper."
"Draper!" I cried. "You don't mean—but there, I beg your pardon. Pray go on."
"As I say, I got to know this man Draper, who was a South-Sea trader. We met once or twice, and then grew more intimate. So friendly did we at last become, that I even went so far as to put some money into a scheme he proposed to me. It was a total failure. Draper proved a perfect fraud and a most unbusiness-like person, and all I got out of the transaction was the cases of curios and weapons which this man Eastover hired from me. It was because—when I went out with my customers to their cab—I saw this man Draper waiting for them that I became uneasy about my things. However, all's well that ends well, and as they returned my goods and paid the hire I must not grumble."
"And now tell me what you know of Draper's present life," the Inspector said.