“I was so taken aback that for some time I made no reply, and as I sat considering this amazing proposition, the silence was suddenly broken by a suppressed sneeze from the other side of the hedge.

“Hearn and I started to our feet.  Immediately hurried footsteps were heard in the lane outside the hedge.  We raced up the garden to the gate and out through a side alley, but when we reached the lane there was not a soul in sight.  We made a brief and fruitless search in the immediate neighbourhood, and then turned back to the house.  Hearn was deathly pale and very agitated, and I must confess that I was a good deal upset by the incident.

“‘This is devilish awkward,’ said Hearn.

“‘It is rather,’ I admitted; ’but I expect it was only some inquisitive yokel.’

“‘I don’t feel so sure of that,’ said he.  ’At any rate, we were stark lunatics to sit up against a hedge to talk secrets.’

“He paced the garden with me for some time in gloomy silence, and presently, after a brief request that I would think over his proposal, took himself off.

“I did not see him again until I met him last night on the yacht.  Pitford called on me in the morning, and invited me to come and dine with them.  I at first declined, for my housekeeper was going to spend the evening with her sister at Eastwich, and stay there for the night, and I did not much like leaving the house empty.  However, I agreed eventually, stipulating that I should be allowed to come home early, and I accordingly went.  Hearn and Pitford were waiting in the boat by the steps—­for the yacht had been moved out to a buoy—­and we went on board and spent a very pleasant and lively evening.  Pitford put me ashore at ten o’clock, and I walked straight home, and went to bed.  Hearn would have come with me, but the others insisted on his remaining, saying that they had some matters of business to discuss.”

“Which way did you walk home?” asked Thorndyke.

“I came through the town, and along the main road.”

“And that is all you know about this affair?”

“Absolutely all,” replied Draper.  “I have now admitted you to secrets of my past life that I had hoped never to have to reveal to any human creature, and I still have some faint hope that it may not be necessary for you to divulge what I have told you.”

“Your secrets shall not be revealed unless it is absolutely indispensable that they should be,” said Thorndyke; “but you are placing your life in my hands, and you must leave me perfectly free to act as I think best.”

With this he gathered his notes together, and we took our departure.

“A very singular history, this, Jervis,” he said, when, having wished the sergeant “Good-night,” we stepped out on to the dark road.  “What do you think of it?”

“I hardly know what to think,” I answered, “but, on the whole, it seems rather against Draper than otherwise.  He admits that he is an old criminal, and it appears that he was being persecuted and blackmailed by the man Hearn.  It is true that he represents Jezzard as being the leading spirit and prime mover in the persecution, but we have only his word for that.  Hearn was in lodgings near him, and was undoubtedly taking the most active part in the business, and it is quite possible, and indeed probable, that Hearn was the actual deus ex machina.”