Mr.Arthur Shipman is the head of the firm of Shipman and Co., the wealthy jewellers.

He is a widower, and lives very quietly by himself in his own old-fashioned way in the small Kensington house, leaving it to his two married sons to keep up the style and swagger befitting the representatives of so wealthy a firm.
"'I have only known Mr.Knopf a very little while,' he explained to the detectives.

'He sold me two or three stones once or twice, I think; but we are both single men, and we have often dined together.

Last night he dined with me.

He had that afternoon received a very fine consignment of Brazilian diamonds, as he told me, and knowing how beset I am with callers at my business place, he had brought the stones with him, hoping, perhaps, to do a bit of trade over the nuts and wine.
"'I bought L25,000 worth of him,' added the jeweller, as if he were speaking of so many farthings, 'and gave him a cheque across the dinner table for that amount.