you can't tell but that
you'll be beaten out of your eye-teeth the next minute!"

As Holmes stepped out of the Puddingham coach and started up the broad
stone stairway leading to the main entrance of the five-story castle,
he stumbled over a good-sized rock lying on the graveled road at the
foot of the stairs, and would have landed on his revered nose if I had
not caught him.

"I fear that this is a bad omen," said the Earl, frowning; "but I
trust it may not prevent the success of our undertaking."

"Don't worry! I wasn't hurt," answered Holmes.

And we went up the stairway together.

The great bronze door opened, and a lady dressed in the latest London
style (or maybe it was Paris) greeted us with:

"Welcome to Normanstow Towers, Mr. Holmes, and Dr. Watson, also. I am
sure that my husband the Earl and all of us will be more than glad if
you recover the lost diamond cuff-buttons for us."

"I hope so, madame," said Holmes, as the Earl formally introduced us.
"We will certainly do our best."

The butler, standing beside the Countess Annabelle, winked at us as
she went into the drawing-room on one side of the corridor, and
beckoned to us to enter the library on the other side.

"Well, Harrigan, you may pour us out each a glass of wine," said the
Earl, as Holmes, Lord Launcelot, and I followed him into the room.

The library was a very handsomely furnished library, but it looked as
if the noble master of Normanstow Towers did more drinking than
reading in its luxurious interior, as three trays with at least a
dozen empty glasses stood on the broad mahogany table, while a
decanter of whiskey, a siphon of seltzer-water, and five quart bottles
of wine decorated a smaller table at one side.

The butler filled four glasses with some excellent Burgundy, and as we
finished them, the Earl said:

"Where are Uncle Tooter, Mr. Hicks, and Mr. Budd,--and Thorneycroft,
too, Harrigan?"

"They're all up in the billiard room, trying to forget the unseemly
tragedy that has marred the tranquil tenor of our lives here," replied
Harrigan, winking at us again.

"Well, I only wish I, too, could forget it; but how can I? King George
will never receive me again if those precious cuff-buttons aren't
coughed up."

And the Earl started up the stairs to the second floor. "Come on up
and join them, Mr. Holmes, before you begin your usual tape-measuring,
snooping around with a magnifying-glass, and analyzing cigar ashes!
You see, I'm