r sleep!"

In a moment His Lordship and the others,--including the Countess this
time,--came in, and we all sat down to breakfast. As Harrigan was
pouring out a cup of coffee for Thorneycroft, the latter said to the
Earl: "Do you know that to-day is the tenth of the month,--Wednesday,
April the tenth?"

"Well, what of it, Eustace? _Ich kebibble_ about the date, just so Mr.
Holmes here recovers my diamond cuff-buttons for me," replied the
Earl, as he smiled at my partner.

"Why, on the tenth of each month you have to send a check for ten
pounds to the treasurer of the Society for the Amelioration of
Indigent Pearl-Divers of the Andaman Islands, in London, according to
the promise you signed last fall," said Eustace.

"Do I?" said the Earl, stirring his oatmeal. "Well, I fell for it in
the fall all right--haw! haw!"

Everybody laughed, as in duty bound when the boss cracks a joke, no
matter how punk it is; and then Holmes put his oar in.

"I say, Thorneycroft, is the pearl-diving business out there in the
Andamans as good as the diamond-swiping industry in this country?"

CHAPTER X

Thorneycroft, greatly embarrassed at the brutal insinuation of Holmes,
colored deeply, and didn't seem to know what to say for a moment.

"Why, how should I know? If you've got the goods on anybody, as the
quaint American expression has it, go ahead and arrest them," he
finally stammered.

"What peculiar things you _do_ say, Mr. Holmes," said the Countess,
leaning forward with interest, as she looked meaningly at Lord
Launcelot. "I wonder if your remarkable talents will discover who made
away with my best pair of shoes last night. I missed them the first
thing this morning, as they were the ones I wore Easter Sunday,
Monday, and Tuesday, and I wanted to wear them again to-day."

"Why, _my_ shoes are gone, too! I thought at first I had mislaid them
in my room, but a thief must have been in the castle!" chorused
everybody at once, while I heard Holmes quietly chuckle in his throat.
"If a certain person in high social standing," continued the Countess,
"thinks that such outrages, first the theft of the Earl's diamond
cuff-buttons and then the theft of our shoes, are to be lightly
condoned because of his close relationship to the Earl, then he is
greatly mistaken!"

And she again looked daggers at Lord Launcelot.

"Oh, come, come, Your Ladyship," protested Holmes with a smile, "you
mustn't be too hard on your brother-in-la