in the creek,
Holmes ran our boat in near the opposite shore and succeeded in
hitting the side of Demetrius's boat with the prow of our own.

Demetrius yelled something unintelligible,--in his native Greek, I
guess,--and the collision threw him overboard, on the outer side of
his boat, whereupon he began to swim across the creek to the farther
side.

"Come back here, or I'll throw this oar at you!" yelled Holmes,
pulling it out of the row-lock, too excited to think of the revolver
in his pocket, while I strove to row the boat as well as I could with
the one remaining oar.

Owing to Holmes's gyrations with the other oar, our boat capsized too,
and the three of us were now struggling in the cold, muddy water,
which, fortunately, was only shoulder-deep. We found it quicker to
wade out than to swim out, and as Demetrius scrambled up the opposite
bank of the creek, Holmes was upon him, and grabbed him this time with
an unbreakable grip.

"Here are the two cuff-buttons, Mr. Holmes," faltered the gardener, as
he nervously fumbled at his vest-pocket and handed over the two gems,
none the worse for the wetting they had received. "Please don't kill
me now. Billie Budd made me and Vermicelli keep the cuff-buttons for
him, after he said he stole them; and as he didn't come back yet, we
thought we'd sell 'em ourselves. And I'm liable to catch pneumonia
from all this, anyhow!"

"We'll see about that when we get back to the castle,--I've got seven
of them now out of the eleven. Seven, come eleven!" said Holmes with a
grim smile, as he put the two causes of Demetrius's downfall in his
own pocket.

The strangely assorted trio now walked back to the castle, the few
villagers we met at the edge of Hedge-gutheridge staring at us in
surprise on seeing our drenched and streaming condition.

The golden April sun was low in the western sky as we turned in at the
castle grounds, and I felt good and hungry, I can tell you, after all
the excitement. After explaining what had happened to the gaping
habitues of the castle, I hustled upstairs with Holmes, and we changed
our wet clothes immediately, putting on dry ones, after advising
Demetrius to do the same. I prescribed a hot drink of whiskey-punch
apiece for us in order to ward off pneumonia; and by half-past six we
were ready for dinner.

Everything passed off as well as before, and Holmes was effusively
congratulated by the Earl for his recovery of the sixth and seventh
diamond cuff