The Adventures of the Eleven Cuff-Buttons

by James Francis Thierry

  CHAPTER XVII

  Holmes quietly hid behind a large beer-barrel at the foot of thestairs, while I could hear old man Tooter rattling several bottles atthe other end of the cellar, and talking to himself the while.

  "Let's see: Here's the beautiful Amontillado wine from that lovelySpain that gave me my Teresa," muttered the aged dotard.

  Then I heard the sound of something gurgling in his throat, evidentlythe Spanish wine that he had poured out, as there was always a goodsupply of glasses alongside the wine-bins.

  "Now where in thunder did I put that diamond cuff-button?" came thevoice of Tooter again, while I sat still on the top step of thecellar-stairs, just inside the door, from which point I could see thetip of Holmes's long, lean, aquiline nose peering out from behind thebarrel below me.

  "It isn't under the Muenchener barrel,--it must be under theDortmunder," continued Tooter to himself, as I heard him laboriouslyheave over the barrel and paw around on the cement floor under it, inthe space between the head of the barrel and the raised ends of thestaves, "Ah! here it is,--the cute little diamond that that nuttyGeorge has been after, which I have been keeping since last Monday tooblige a fellow-sport, Billie Budd, but which I have decided must betaken out of the vulgar crude cuff-button and reset in an engagementring for Teresa, since she is so dippy after historical relics!"

  Then I heard a long-drawn sigh of relief, as Tooter drew himself afoaming stein-ful of the Dortmunder beer.

  In a minute more he started back toward the stairs, and as he passedthe barrel there at the foot of the stairs, Holmes suddenly jumped outand grabbed him with both hands, seizing the diamond cuff-button fromhim at the same instant.

  "Ah! I've got you now, old wine-bibber! old diamond-thief! Look thounot upon the German beer when it is light yellow, or it shall surelyget thee, sooner or later!" shouted Holmes in triumph, while Tooterwas so surprised and scared he could hardly speak. "Watson, you canunlock the door up there now, and we'll proceed to the Earl's usualplace of business and disburse unto him his tenth stolen cuff-button.You fooled me all right yesterday morning, Tooter, but,--by thebrainless cranium of Barnabas Letstrayed, I've certainly got the goodson you now!"

  I unlocked the cellar-door and stepped out into the kitchen, where theFrench and Russian pancake-tossers stared in astonishment as HemlockHolmes came marching up the cellar-stairs with a firm hand on UncleTooter's shoulder, and then columned left in a parade through thedining-room on the way to the library.

  "At-ten-_shun_!" called out my partner. "Present cuff-button! Salute!Most noble Earl of Puddingham, here is your tenth and second laststolen gem!"

  Thereupon Holmes laid the glittering thing in the Earl's hand, whilethat worthy fell back weakly in his chair and stammered:

  "What? Is Uncle Tooter guilty too? Ye gods and little fishes! Up tothe very last I had hoped that none of the disgrace of this robberywould rest upon his sturdy shoulders, but now I see that it has,anyhow. And I suppose he claims that Billie Budd made him do it,against his better nature, like all the other simps you have jerkedup, eh?"

  "Yes, Billie Budd was in on this too," replied Holmes, as hecarelessly lit another coffin-nail and turning around, calmly blew thesmoke in the face of Thorneycroft, who had just come in; "but the oldgent didn't have to tell me that. I overheard him conversing tohimself about it down in your worshipful wine-cellar, where he had thecuff-button hidden under a beer-barrel. If Tooter ever expects to getalong well in the diamond-swiping business, he will certainly have tocut out the highly reprehensible habit of talking to himself,particularly when somebody else might be listening. I guess that'sall, Earl, for the present, although if I were you I would keep theseten recovered cuff-buttons in some safer place than that dinky littlejewel cabinet on your dresser, since a little bird recently informedme that the desperate William X. Budd, the author of all theseatrocities, is about to visit Normanstow Towers to-morrow morning, andattempt to carry them all off for good. Be advised in time now,George."

  And Holmes quietly pushed Uncle Tooter into a Turkish rocker back ofhim, and walked serenely out of the room, his cocky old head in theair, and with me trailing humbly along behind him, because it hadbecome the usual thing with me.

  "Watson," said he, when he had led me out through a side entrance ontothe noble castle lawn, "something tells me that we should take alittle stroll around these lovely flower-beds that Herr Blumenroth hasbeen so assiduously taking care of. See, there's the old boy now,kneeling down by that geranium bed over there, while his bone-headedassistant, Demetrius What's-his-name, wheels the barrowful offertilizer down from the shed behind the stables. Let's go over."

  We joined the elderly and phlegmatic gardener, and after joshing him alittle about the beauty of the plants he was growing, Holmes began toask him some leading questions about whether Lord Launcelot hadn'tbeen loafing around the flower-beds on the previous Easter Monday at atime when he naturally would be expected to be up in the billiardroom, shooting his head off at his favorite indoor game.

  Heinrich was not at all backward about informing on the Earl's juniorbrother, and I gathered from his very frank remarks that he, Heinrich,did not hold a very high opinion of the said Launcelot's intellectualabilities. It seems that the latter had been loafing around Blumenrothmost of the day Monday, and several times the gardener had caught himmonkeying with his trowel, trying to dig up one of the flower-beds ina very unscientific manner, which same monkeying had greatlyexacerbated Heinrich's none too admirable temper.

  "It looked as if he was trying to hide something under the ground, Mr.Holmes, like a dog burying a bone," said the gardener to us; "andafter he had kept it up awhile, interfering with my work all the time,I could stand it no longer and told him loudly to beat it, which hedid. As soon as he was gone, I quickly turned over all the earth inthe flower-bed with my trowel, but couldn't find a thing, so I supposethe simp must have taken it away with him, whatever it was."

  "Not caring at all whether it was one of the diamond cuff-buttons wehave been after or not, eh? My, but aren't you the independent cuss,Heinie? Why didn't you tell me this last Tuesday morning, when Iinterrogated you, among all the servants, huh?"

  "Because you simply asked me then what I knew about the stolendiamonds, and I told you quite truthfully that I didn't know who stolethem, though I might have added, just as truthfully, that I didn'tcare a darn _who_ stole them! Sufficient unto the job is the regularlabor thereof, without helping quasi-detectives from London to dotheir work for them. I'm being paid by the Earl to take care of thegardens, and that only; while you're the guy that he's paying to findhis cussed old cuff-buttons for him. I wouldn't give a nickel for thewhole lot of them, anyhow!"

  And the gardener calmly turned his back on us, and went ahead with hisspading up, while Demetrius spread the fertilizer.

  "Gosh, that guy takes my breath away, he's so fresh! But then, we'vegot all the information out of him that we need, so come along,Watson."

  Holmes then led me back to the castle, where we entered and proceededalong till we met Lord Launcelot idly fingering the keys of the pianoin the music-room.

  "Ah, good afternoon, Your Lordship," said Holmes suavely, as weentered the room and Launcelot faced about on the piano-stool towardus. "This thing called music is indeed a delightful surcease from thedull cares of the day, but finer still would be the resolution inyoung men of noble lineage to keep their lily-white hands off ofproperty that is not listed on the tax-duplicate in their name, and torefrain from dishonest and secret contact with uncouth crooks fromAustralia, who induce them to forget their family pride and to concealvaluable gems from the eye of the law! In other words, to come rightdown to brass tacks, you stole one of the diamond cuff-buttons,--goldarn it!--and I want you to hand it back to me before I become sobrutal as to seize you and take it away from you!"

  Launcelot, however, did not avow his probable guilt so readily as hisbrother's revered uncle-in-law had done, but laughed right in Holmes'sface as the latter concluded his little speech
of accusation.

  "Why, you old false alarm you,--do you think for a minute that you canbluff me like that? I didn't take any of the cuff-buttons. Go on andguess again. Maybe the cat took 'em, or maybe George walked in hissleep and threw them away down the road!" said he.

  But his pleasantry was lost on Hemlock Holmes, who advanced a steptoward him and, in menacing tones, demanded the instant return of thefinal cuff-button. At this point the door from the corridor opened,and old Uncle Tooter came in, without any present contrition for hisrecently confessed share in the robbery showing in his face.

  "What's this stiff of a Holmes trying to hand you now, Launcie myboy?" he inquired, as Holmes turned and faced him angrily at theinterruption and I held myself ready for an emergency.

  "Why, the old magnifying-glass-peeker says that I stole one of theEarl's cuff-buttons! Wouldn't that frost you? I've been trying to getit into his head that he's struck a snag here, but he can't see itthat way," replied Launcelot, rising from the piano-stool and brushingoff his trouser-legs.

  "Well, he'll have to, anyhow--that's all," said Tooter, and he added,as he grabbed Holmes around the body with both arms: "Run like h----now, Launcie, and I'll hold him until you're safe!"

  Launcelot instantly ran out of the room at top speed, while Holmes andTooter wrestled around for a moment; then the former jerked himselfaway and chased out into the corridor after me, and up the stairway,where I had started to pursue the recreant Launcelot.

  "Here, get out of the way, Watson, and let somebody run that _can_run!" he yelled, as he overtook me, legging it up four steps at atime.

  The two of us then chased Launcelot up flight after flight of thegreen-carpeted stairs, to the second, third, fourth, and fifthstories, while I nearly lost my breath as we came to the fifth and topfloor and saw Launcelot disappearing through a trapdoor leading to thecastle roof. Up the narrow little wooden ladder we bounced after him,through the trapdoor, and out onto the broad spreading roof of theancient and venerable Normanstow Towers.

  "Oh, gee! first down in the cellar, and then up on the roof! Thisdetective business is getting my goat!" I panted, leaning against achimney-top where I stood gasping for breath, while the indomitableHolmes pursued the fleeing Launcelot across the stone roof to theopposite side, and there cornered him finally in an angle formed bythe battlemented wall surrounding the roof and a small tower about tenfeet in diameter at its edge.

  Launcelot was squeezed up against the gray stone embrasure at thatplace by Holmes, who quickly forced the eleventh and last diamondcuff-button out of his nerveless grasp, then turned triumphantly tome, his faithful but out-of-breath squire, while the spring breezesruffled the sparse hair on his uncovered head, and the gentleafternoon sun shone down on as queer a scene as had ever taken placeduring our association,--crying:

  "Well, here we are at last, Watson. We've got each and every one ofthe Earl's diamonds now, and our labors are over, with a large part ofCounty Surrey as the smiling audience for the finale of our littledetective drama, as we stand up here sixty feet or more above theground! Now let's go down and acquaint His Honor the Earl with theglad tidings before the wind blows all my hair off!"

  He led the way back to the trapdoor, and down through it to thestairs, with Lord Launcelot following after us like a whipped cur.

  CHAPTER XVIII

  When we got down to the library, which seemed to be the Earl's usualhang-out, we found His Lordship sitting in a chair, with a book in hislap, but with his somewhat gloomy eyes gazing on the floor, and oldUncle Tooter, with his back turned to him, looking out of the window,as if they had just had a quarrel,--which was the case.

  "Two o'clock on Thursday afternoon in Easter week and all is well,Your Lordship!" said Holmes triumphantly, with a smile over his mobileface that spread from ear to ear as he advanced and politely tenderedthe final diamond cuff-button to the Earl. "I have now the very greatpleasure of presenting you with the last remaining stolen heirloom ofthe ancient House of Puddingham, thus recovering all the articlesstolen from you on Easter Sunday night and throughout Easter Monday,which recovery is due to my herculean efforts, ably assisted from timeto time by my old side-kicker, Doctor Watson. The only thing nowremaining to be done is to seize Billie Budd when he comes up here indisguise to-morrow morning, and ship him into London with a ball andchain around his ankles."

  The Earl arose and feelingly congratulated Holmes on the recovery ofthe gems, shaking hands with him warmly, and added:

  "You will pardon me for not seeming more enthused over the event thanI am, but Uncle Tooter and I have just had some words, the result ofwhich is that he will leave this castle Friday afternoon with hisbride-to-be, Teresa Olivano; and my six good pairs of diamondcuff-buttons will be sent in by express to the Bank of England, thereto be placed in an iron-bound, steel-doored safety deposit vault,where no Billie Budds can break in and hypothecate them!"

  "Yes, that's right," said Tooter, facing around in Holmes's direction;"and I can add that I am darned glad that I am not to be shadowed anddogged around by such a long-legged piece of impudence as you anylonger. If a gentleman decides to play a trick on his nephew-in-law byhiding a worthless bauble for a few days, it's none of _your_business, and he should not be treated as if he was a hardenedcriminal for it. I am worth eight million pounds, and I don't have totake your sass, or the Earl's either, if I don't feel like it."

  And the speaker cleared his throat and looked defiantly at me, as if Iwere responsible for all of Holmes's actions.

  "Eight million pounds of what? Turnips?" said my unimpressed partner."That doesn't cut any ice with me whatever! I only did my duty ingoing after the stolen gems in the most strenuous manner possible, andif you feel like putting on the gloves with me to have it out, I willmeet you at any time at my rooms, 221-B Baker Street, in London, andthen we'll see who's the better man."

  And Hemlock lit another cigarette.

  "Here, here! You don't have to fight about it, you know. I guess it'sbad enough for Uncle Tooter to leave me to-morrow, without a threat offisticuffs. Not that I care a hang about the social _mesalliance_ he'scommitting in marrying the Countess's maid, but the fact of hisimplication in the robbery has me all cut up."

  "Well, if that's the way you feel about it, Earl, you'd better grabhold of something for support when I inform you that the person whohad the eleventh and last cuff-button in his wrongful possession wasnone other than your beloved brother and heir, Lord Launcelot. Here hecomes now. I guess he must have been so out of breath from that hardrace up to the roof that he couldn't walk down again as fast as wecould."

  Here Holmes pointed to Launcelot, who came into the library just thenwith a frown on his face and with most of his recent defiant mannergone. The Earl sat down hard in his chair, put his hands over his facefor a moment, and then hollered for help to his best friend,--thebutler.

  "O Harrigan, Harrigan!" he called, "pour me out a glass of thestiffest brandy you've got in the place, with a dash of absinthe init! Help! Life-saving service quick!"

  "Yes, yes; I'm coming!" shouted Harrigan, who came running in, andministered unto the Earl's needs from the supply of potables that wasalways kept handy on the sideboard in the dining-room, so he wouldn'thave to lose so much time going all the way down to the wine-cellar.

  "And say,--pour out a glass or two, or a decanter or two, of thecastle's best wine for the Honorable Mr. Holmes, who has just nowrecovered all my stolen diamond cuff-buttons, Joe. Give him abarrelful of it if he can stand it,--give him anything he wants!--onlyfor the love of Mike let me try to forget that the ancient honor ofour noble House of Dunderhaugh and Puddingham has gone to pot in theunwelcome fact that my only brother and sole heir to the title, thatshrimp of a Launcelot, has been mixed up in the robbery!"

  The Earl yammered away at the butler for some time, while yours trulydid not forget to help himself to the drinks while they were passingaround, although I knew as a physician that they were not exactly thebest thing for the lining of my stomach.

&nb
sp; "Now then, Your Lordship, if you are sufficiently revived to talkbusiness again, I would suggest that you give all those elevenrecovered cuff-buttons, together with the twelfth and last one thatthe thieves didn't get, to me," said Holmes, "and I will keep themsafely in my coat-pocket for you until you are ready to send them into the bank in the city, protected the while by the revolver in myhip-pocket. I suppose you might as well forgive Launcelot as youforgave the others for their thefts, or rather for their receipt ofstolen goods from Budd, as the main thing now will be to nab him, theauthor of the crime, when he comes to-morrow."

  "Yes, I suppose so, Holmes," replied the Earl. "Come over to my roomand I'll give you all the gems for safe keeping. Launcelot, yourummie, I'll forgive you, although I shouldn't; and I warn you andUncle Tooter both not to interfere when Holmes arrests Buddto-morrow."

  "All right, George. Thanks!" murmured Launcelot with downcast eyes,and Tooter also nodded assent.

  When Holmes had got all the twelve gems stowed away in his right-handcoat-pocket, the Earl spoke of writing out a check for the twentythousand pounds' reward he had promised him, but Holmes unexpectedlydemurred,--saying he would wait until Billie Budd was capturedfirst,--instead of grabbing feverishly for the coin, as I naturallythought he would.

  "Well, there's nothing to do now but kill time until to-morrow whenthat scoundrel shows up in a spurious disguise," said Holmes, as hemoved toward the door. "I move that we shoot several games of poolupstairs for the rest of this eventful afternoon.

  "It ought to be about time now for old Chief Sleepy-eye to waddle inand ask about the stolen gems, after I've dug them all up, I guess."

  "Old who, did you say?" inquired Thorneycroft with a smile.

  "Why, old Chief Sleepy-eye,--that lethargic and comatose old piece ofcheese that you call Letstrayed, of course. I suppose his ancestormust have got the name Letstrayed because he was let stray away fromsome asylum for the feeble-minded. Look, here he is now! Speak of thedevil and he appears, darned if he don't!"

  It was indeed the slow-moving and ponderous Inspector BarnabasLetstrayed that loomed up in the doorway and inquired about thecuff-buttons, while Holmes answered him very sharply:

  "Wake up and come to life, old General Incompetence! All the elevenshiners have now been run down and captured before they could biteanybody, by me, you understand, me,--your ancient rival!"

  "Well, er--ah, I suppose I shall have to send in a formal report toScotland Yard about it, then, so the authorities will have officialcognizance of the matter," said Letstrayed, as he scratched hissomewhat thick head.

  At this moment, the bell rang, and Egbert the first footman, answeringit, brought in a telegram from Scotland Yard, which Letstrayed hadjust mentioned, and handed it to him. Holmes snatched it out of hishand, tore it open, and hastily read it to the crowd:

  INSPECTOR BARNABAS LETSTRAYED, NORMANSTOW TOWERS, SURREY,

  Have you found Puddingham's cuff-buttons yet? Answer.

  O. U. DOOLITTLE, CHIEF OF SCOTLAND YARD.

  "Wouldn't that knock the specs off your grandmother's nose?" sneeredHolmes.

  He hurriedly scrawled a reply, which he gave to the waiting messengeroutside the front door, while Letstrayed fumed and stammered inprotest.

  This was the sarcastic message my partner sent back to London:

  O. U. DOOLITTLE (well-named), CHIEF OF SCOTLAND YARD, LONDON,

  No, of course not. How could he, when I grabbed them all? Now roll over and go to sleep again.

  HEMLOCK HOLMES.

  We all gave it up, and willingly joined the masterful dictator of thecastle in the billiard-room on the fourth floor, where we played pooland billiards until the evening shadows fell and Donald the secondfootman came in and announced dinner.

  The dinner passed off without excitement, except for the Earl's risingand proposing the health of Hemlock Holmes, which was responded toenthusiastically by all present except Letstrayed, who insisted onsaying "we" instead of "you" when speaking to Holmes about the creditfor the recovery of the gems. After dinner we adjourned to the musicroom, where the Countess Annabelle entertained us as on the eveningbefore, playing a number of selections on the piano, including onelittle song entitled, "Once I Loved A Spanish Maid," which sherepeated a couple of times with the evident purpose of kidding heruncle about his forthcoming marriage with her maid Teresa.

  The next morning dawned bright and clear, with the sun shining warmly,and after breakfast we took a walk around the lawn in the rear of thecastle, where Holmes claimed that intuition told him that Billie Buddwould appear. It got around to a quarter after nine, and while we werechinning with Blumenroth the gardener and Yensen the coachman, Inoticed a farmer dressed in a suit of blue overalls and a wide-brimmedstraw hat come strolling along the graveled driveway that led back tothe stables. He was a harmless-looking fellow, with bushy graywhiskers and old-fashioned spectacles, and he came up and addressed usin a somewhat squeaky voice, which aroused Holmes's suspicions atonce.

  "I say, gentlemen, could you tell me who has charge of His Lordship'shay in the stables? My name is Samuel Simmons, a farmer down the roada piece, and I would like to buy a ton or two of his hay, if hedoesn't want too much for it."

  And the alleged farmer took off his old straw hat and fanned himselfwith it after his long walk.

  "Well, Sam, the guy who has charge of it is the coachman over there,that fat little fellow with the red face standing under the peachtree," replied Holmes in a well modulated tone, but with his eyesglittering with suppressed excitement. "And I suppose the Earl wouldsell you part of it, as I have good reason to know, to my cost, thathe has more of it up there in the loft than he needs, and I think thatyou do, too. Weren't you up in the hayloft last Tuesday afternoon,Sam? Sure you were, and what's more, your name then was William X.Budd or I'm a Chinaman!"

  And Holmes yelled out as he lunged at the so-called Samuel Simmons andpulled away his false whiskers, thereby disclosing to my astoundedeyes the well-remembered face of Budd the crook.

  Budd waited not a second, but put his speedy limbs into action downthe driveway toward the open road a blamed sight faster than he camein, his spectacles and straw hat falling to the ground, while Holmesand I took after him as rapidly as we could.

  "Hey! head him off! head him off there, somebody, for the love ofHeaven!" shouted Holmes.

  Our hopes were rewarded by Harrigan the butler, who came running outof a side entrance of the castle and made a flying leap at Budd fromthe side, just as the latter passed him.

  Harrigan seized the runner around the knees, and they both came with acrash to the ground (making as fine a football tackle as I ever saw),where they rolled and wrestled, the butler on top.

  Holmes and I ran up to them, and we soon got a pair ofhandcuffs,--which Holmes always carried with him,--around Budd'swrists and jerked him to his feet, while Harrigan arose and brushedoff his clothes, just in time to meet the Earl, who hastened out ofthe castle and came over and clapped the butler on the back, shakinghands with him effusively.

  "By Jove, Harrigan, you're a prince! Accept my heartiest thanks forthe good work you did in capturing that scoundrel. I saw the wholething from one of the windows, and knew right away that it must beBudd, in spite of the farmer's disguise," chortled the Earl. "Goinside and pour yourself out a glass of the best wine in the place onme!"

  Harrigan left us with a grin, while Budd, handcuffed in Holmes'sgrasp, stood and scowled at us and ground his teeth with rage as thegreat detective said:

  "We've got him at last, Your Lordship, and he'll certainly get allthat's coming to him now. Just go inside and telephone down to thevillage to send up two of their constables, in order that he may beescorted into London in a manner befitting the enormity of the crimehe has committed."

  But as the Earl turned away to reenter the castle, the desperate Buddmade another attempt to escape, and succeeded i
n breaking away fromHolmes. Down the driveway he tore at a mile a minute or so, holdinghis manacled hands up before him, while Holmes for a moment seemed tobe dying of heart failure, judging by the appearance of his face.

  "Great guns!" he yelled, and a couple of other expletives as well, ashe ran after the fugitive again; "he mustn't get away now, after allthe trouble we've had to get him!"

  But Budd developed remarkable speed, and there was no one now to headhim off by a flank movement. But suddenly Holmes spied a farmerdriving a small wagon with a single horse along the road out in front.

  "Here! your horse and wagon are commandeered in the name of the law!"he shouted, jumping into the wagon and jerking the reins away fromtheir astonished owner. Then he whipped up the horse after the fleeingBudd, who was making a large cloud of dust behind himself down theroad toward the village. In a minute or two, the Earl and I, standingon the front lawn, saw Holmes and the farmer overtake Budd, with theirhorse galloping, and the wagon tearing along most of the time on threewheels. Leaping out of the wagon at just the right moment, myresourceful partner landed squarely on the back of Budd, and bore himto the ground in a cloud of dust and execrations, while the farmer,stopping his panting horse, got out and assisted Holmes to tie upBudd's ankles with a piece of rope that he fortunately had with him inthe wagon. Then they lifted the now powerless crook into the wagon,and drove more slowly back to the castle, while Holmes explained thesituation to the farmer.

  "Well, I guess we might as well use this conveyance to take Budd downto the railroad station ourselves," said Holmes, as the wagon stoppedin front of us, and he patted his coat-pocket where he had the dozencuff-buttons. "Those constables would probably take a year getting outhere anyhow, and I can also take your twelve cuff-buttons that causedall the trouble into London with me, instead of your waiting to sendthem by express. I'll take 'em to the Bank of England all right, get areceipt from the safety deposit department there, and mail it to you;and you can mail me your check for the twenty thousand pounds reward.You know my address, 221-B Baker Street. I can't stand on ceremony now,as I want to get this fellow Budd into the hands of the jailer P. D.Q., before he pulls off another attempted escape, so I'll just ask youto say good-by to Her Ladyship the Countess for me, and give my regardsto Joe Harrigan, Louis La Violette, and Heinie Blumenroth,--the onlythree among the servants who showed any brains,--and my prayers forbrains for all the others. Ta, ta! George! You're a pretty good fellowyourself!"

  "Good-by, Holmes, and my best congratulations for capturing that manBudd the second time. I'll mail you the check right away, so you'llget it this afternoon in town."

  And the Earl waved his hand at us, as I climbed into the wagon andjoined Holmes on our farewell trip. Halfway down to the village, Itook my handkerchief, at Holmes's command, and made a gag out of it totie in Budd's mouth, to prevent the flow of a very profane line oftalk that he inflicted on the atmosphere.

  The farmer's name was Henry Hankins, and Holmes gave him a ten-poundnote for his trouble in helping to recapture Budd. At the village, thethree of us lifted the bound, gagged and shackled Budd out of thewagon and into a passenger coach on the 9:50 train for London, whereHolmes silenced all excited inquirers by calmly showing them his card,at which every one drew back abashed, some even taking off their hatsat sight of the celebrated name.

  In a half-hour's time we arrived at the station in London, and whenBudd was lifted out onto the platform, he showed his still impenitentdesperation by actually trying to escape a third time, handcuffed andwith his ankles tied as he was, by hopping along, both feet together.

  We collared him soon, though, and bundled him into a cab for ScotlandYard, where, upon his arrival, the scoundrel again caused a rumpus byjumping and twisting around when they went to put him into aprison-cell, so that it required the combined efforts of four fatpolicemen to hold him down.

  "Gosh! I feel as if I could sleep for a year, after all thatexcitement out at Normanstow Towers!" sighed Holmes, as he mopped hisforehead on arriving finally at our old rooms on Baker Street, about aquarter after eleven that Friday morning.

  "Same here, Holmes. You have nothing on me in that respect," I said,as I threw off my coat and put on my well-worn lavender smokingjacket, preparatory to sitting down in my old chair and enjoying agood, quiet, peaceful smoke before luncheon, far from the maddingdiamond-thieves' ignoble strife.

  After luncheon, served by our old reliable landlady, Mrs. Hudson, whostill did business at the old stand unmoved by the shame that hadrecently come to the noble House of Puddingham, we played chess untiltwo o'clock, when the mail-carrier brought us an envelope addressed toHolmes, with an earl's coronet engraved on it. Tearing it open, Holmesfound it to be a short note from our late host and friend the Earl,with a thin, pale blue check for twenty thousand perfectly good poundssterling enclosed with it, drawn on the Bank of England, filled out inThorneycroft's handwriting, and signed, as per the nobiliary custom,with simply the one word: "Puddingham."

  "And the date of the check is April 12, 1912, Watson. And now I'mgoing to keep my promise I made to you out in the woods yesterdaymorning back of the castle," smiled Holmes, "I split with youfifty-fifty. When I go down to the bank now to deposit this check,I'll write you one of mine for ten thousand pounds, and you can comealong to endorse it, deposit it to your credit, and we'll leave theEarl's diamond cuff-buttons at the safety deposit vault, mailing himthe receipt for them from there."

  "Holmes, you're certainly a gentleman and a scholar," I said."Thanks."

  On our return from the bank, after a few more games of chess, we hadan early dinner and retired to a much needed rest, in our bedroomadjoining the celebrated sitting-room, but I couldn't get the case outof my head, and inquired:

  "Say, Holmes, old boy, how was it you didn't grab Launcelot firstinstead of last, when you got all the evidence at once?"

  Holmes had a grouch on just then,--for some reason or other,--and heanswered me by throwing one of his shoes in my direction, which Ihastily dodged by shoving my head under the bedclothes as he growled:

  "Didn't you just make the equivalent of fifty thousand Yankee dollarsfor three or four days' work, the most of which I did, Watson? For thelove of Pete, stow it away in your historical records somewhere andforget it! Dry up and lemme go to sleep now, or I'll climb out thereand settle your hash for good!"