The Adventures of the Eleven Cuff-Buttons
Page 4
CHAPTER IV
The ever-smiling butler we had met the day before, whose spirits didnot seem dampened by the tragedies that had lately occurred, movedaround the table silently and quickly as he waited on us seven menpartaking of breakfast, with a dead man in the other room.
As I watched them there, I noticed that the five habitues of thecastle all seemed rather embarrassed when Holmes looked at them, andwould then look the other way, evidently on account of his brutalremark to the Earl's brother.
Harrigan had just brought me a second cup of coffee, holding it poisedover the edge of the table, when the door opened, and His Lordship,the deceased Earl of Puddingham, walked in on us, looking very pale,with one hand pressed to his forehead.
I felt cold chills creep over me, as Harrigan dropped the cup ofcoffee crash-_splash_ on the floor, yelling:
"Good-night! A ghost!"
Every one else in the room was so surprised that he sat speechless,except Holmes. Billie Budd swallowed a peach-stone in hisastonishment, and coughed and spluttered for quite a while.
"What, aren't you dead, George?" Launcelot finally managed to gasp, asthe Earl walked over to his vacant chair at the head of the table andsat down in it.
"Why, no; of course not. You're a fine bunch of rumdums, though, Imust say, to leave a man like that, after he's been assaulted androbbed!" said the Earl, as he motioned to Harrigan to bring him somebreakfast.
Holmes turned to me, with his customary irritating grin, and said:"Well, Doc; what did I tell you? Never count your coroner's feesbefore they're hatched!"
The Earl bade Harrigan summon one of the footmen and tell him to carrythe news of his sudden return to life to the Countess in her roomupstairs. Then he proceeded with his breakfast, just as much alive asever.
"For the benefit of you who do not know, I will say that I have a verypeculiar heart," he volunteered after a pause, "and it sometimes stopsbeating entirely for a while. All that I remember since I retired lastnight,--with my clothes on, after tossing off a few more glasses inthe library,--was being awakened in the middle of the night by someone opening the door, darting over to me, and jerking the diamondcuff-button out of my right cuff, which was on the side nearest thedoor, and my rising up out of bed to hit him a crack, when I wasknocked unconscious in my struggles by the iron poker, which theintruder seized from the fireplace. He hit me on the forehead, and Ididn't know anything more until just a moment ago, when I woke up witha headache, and only one cuff-button left. If Mr. Holmes can lay handson the unholy miscreant who is guilty of this and the previousoutrages, he will have earned my everlasting gratitude, also a rewardof twenty thousand pounds,--double what I had Thorneycroft offer himyesterday."
"That sounds like business," said Holmes, as he jumped up, the Earland all of us being finished by this time. "Watson, you can put itdown in your little red notebook that at precisely"--here he glancedup at the ornate clock on the mantelpiece--"twenty minutes after nine,Tuesday morning, April the ninth, 1912, the burglar-hunt began; justexactly twenty-four hours, by the way, since we were first informed ofthe Earl's loss."
"All right, go to it, Holmes," said the Earl. "I guess you know how. Igive you _carte blanche_ to go as far as you like."
We at once adjourned to the drawing-room, at the right side of thefront of the first floor of the castle, and Hemlock Holmes issued hisorders.
"Your Lordship, the first thing I will pull off is an examination ofevery one on the place,--your relatives, friends, servants andall,--no one is exempt. Your own story I have heard. Now, then----"
Here we were interrupted by the constable whom Holmes had set to guardthe front of the castle, who came in and said:
"Hi beg pahdon, Mr. 'Olmes, but here is Inspector Bahnabas Letstrayed,just arrived from London, to see that everything is hall right."
"I don't see how it could be, when he ain't right himself!" snappedHolmes, with a frown, as the bulky form of our old friend in previousadventures loomed up in the doorway. "Well, come in, you oldnuisance," he added, as he motioned him to one end of the room. "It'senough to make a man bite a piece out of the wall when he has tocontend with two such rummies as you and Doc Watson around him,particularly when he has a job on hand that requires close andattentive brain-work."
Inspector Letstrayed removed his tweed cap and joined us over by themantel, with a fatuous smile on his large face.
"As I was about to say, when Barnaby butted in, the first man whonoticed any of the cuff-buttons stolen, next to the Earl himself, wasLuigi Vermicelli, his Italian valet. Call him in," ordered Holmes.
On a motion from the Earl, his secretary Thorneycroft went out to thecorridor and brought in the more or less scared valet.
"What's your full name?" demanded Holmes.
"Luigi Vittorio Vermicelli."
"Where were you born?"
"At Brescia, in the north of Italy."
"How old are you,--and where did you work before you gave the Earl thebenefit of your services?"
"Thirty-two. I was valet to a prominent banker in Venice."
"Ever been in jail?"
"Why, er,--yes," and the Italian became embarrassed. "I was arrestedfor intoxication once just before I left Venice; but I was imprisonedfor only ten days."
"So you fell off the water-wagon, eh,--even in the watery city?"commented Holmes. "Well, were you sober when you put away the Earl'sshirt last night, with the diamond cuff-buttons in it,--that is, soberenough to notice that the buttons were really there in the cuffs?"
"Oh, yes, sir. I am quite sure that the cuff-buttons must have beenstolen during the night."
"Did you hear any noise Sunday night to indicate that burglars weregetting in?"
"No, sir; not a thing. I didn't even hear the dog bark, as he usuallydoes. I think that the cuff-buttons were stolen by somebody inside thecastle."
"Ah, ha! This is getting interesting," said Holmes, with animation."And whom do you suspect? Anybody in particular?"
"Yes, sir. I suspect Donald MacTavish, the second footman. I saw himwith something shiny in his hand last night, which he hastilyconcealed when he saw me coming."
"That will be all, Luigi," said Holmes; "you are excused."
The valet looked like Mephistopheles, as he glanced around with atriumphant expression on his swarthy face, and left the room.
"Bring in Lord Launcelot's valet next, Thorneycroft," said Holmes."And we may as well sit down, as the examination of this crowd willtake some time."
The Earl and the rest of us found chairs in the drawing-room asThorneycroft, looking very important, hustled out in the corridor torope in the next victim. The constables had the servants allconsiderably frightened, and they stood around on one foot with mixedexpressions on their faces. In a moment the other valet confronted us.
"State your name, age, previous place of employment, and whether youhave ever been arrested," commanded Holmes, who seemed to be speedingup a little on his inquisition.
I wondered at my friend's somewhat more nervous manner as he questionedthe second servant, until I noticed his old cocaine-squirter beingshoved gently back into his pocket with his left hand, as he pointedhis right forefinger at the servant. Holmes had evidently just sneakedin an extra shot in the arm without any one's getting wise, and I, whoknew him of old, was sure that he would have a fit on for severalhours.
"Peter Adrian Van Damm. Twenty-nine. Pretorius Brothers'diamond-importing house in Amsterdam, Holland. No, sir," replied thevalet, just as quickly as Holmes had questioned him.
"I see that you are not to be flustered," nodded Holmes approvingly;"also that you are familiar with diamonds. What would you think of aman who would steal the Earl's diamond cuff-buttons?"
"I would say that he didn't show very good taste. They are too largeand crude. Not fit to be worn to a prize-fight," answered Van Dammcalmly.
"Impudent fellow! I'll fire you for that," growled the Earl.
"Hold on, Your Lordship, we may need this man later. Don't do anythingrash. Th
orneycroft, send candid Peter out, and bring in the firstfootman," Holmes commanded, consulting a list of the servants, whichthe Earl had given him.
"What's your name, age, previous place of employment, andprison-record,--if any?" snapped Holmes impatiently, as he noticed theobese face and low brow of the man before him.
"Why, er,--ah,--my name is Hegbert Bunbury, sir. Hi ham forty-twoyears old. Hi hused to work for the Duke of Bridgerswold, sir, but Hi'ave come down hin the world, sir, and now Hi ham working for honly ahearl. Er, what was that hother question you harsked me, sir?"
"I asked if you had any prison-record."
"Well, now, what a question, Mr. 'Olmes! Do you really think that Hiwould stoop so low as to swipe 'Is Lawdship's cuff-buttons?"
"I didn't ask you whether you stole the cuff-buttons or not. I'll findout soon enough whether you did. What I want to know is whether youhave ever been arrested for anything before."
And Holmes scowled at the fat footman before him, who fidgeteduneasily as he replied:
"Well, er,--ah, yes; Hi was put in chokey once about ten years ago forlifting a diamond stick-pin belonging to a fellow-servant when Hi wasworking for the Duke of Bridgerswold; but Hi gave it back to him, Hihassure you Hi did, Mr. 'Olmes."
"After they compelled you to, I suppose, by the third degree,"commented Holmes, as he glanced meaningly at the Earl, who frownedheavily at Bunbury. "Well, do you suspect anybody here of stealing thecuff-buttons?"
A smile passed over the footman's face, as he replied:
"Yes, sir; Hi 'ave no 'esitation whatever in saying that Hi suspectTeresa Olivano, the Countess's Spanish maid, of having stolen them."
"I think that I can account for that accusation," said Uncle Tooter toHolmes. "This fellow Bunbury was recently rejected when he proposedmarriage to Teresa. Now, you beat it out of here at once," he added,as he turned to the footman, "and keep your fake suspicions toyourself."