in't the
fifth diamond cuff-button!" And he held it up to view. "Now how in
Tophet did that get into a pocket of the pool-table? I must freely
confess that I hadn't expected it. Wait a moment, here comes somebody
along the corridor."

In a minute more, the reddened and anxious face of Egbert Bunbury, the
first footman, appeared in the doorway.

"Well, what's on your mind, Eggie? Nothing but hair, as usual!"
inquired Holmes, as sarcastic as ever.

Egbert, however, didn't wait to reply when he saw who was inhabiting
the billiard-room; but turned and ran for dear life back along the
corridor.

Holmes brought his Marathon legs into play then, and soon captured the
obese footman, who puffed like a porpoise in the firm and muscular
grasp of the detective, who nabbed him just at the head of the stairs.

"Now, Eggie, the game is up for you as well as for the other four
culprits, so you might as well begin to spill out your little
narration of how it happened that you absent-mindedly left a valuable
gem in a pool-table pocket," Holmes admonished, giving the gem to the
Earl and jerking the perspiring footman into a more erect posture.

The Earl was contemplating his hireling, his face expressive of mixed
emotions, the rest of us filling up the background as usual.

"Well, that man Billie Budd, 'e swiped the shiners, so 'e did,"
stammered Egbert, his eyes avoiding his master's, "and 'e prevailed
hon me to 'ide one of them for 'im. Said 'e would reward me when 'e
came back to dispose of them. But Hi didn't mean any 'arm by it, Your
Lordship,--er, Mr. 'Olmes. The reason Hi lost the cuff-button in 'ere
was because Hi was shooting a little game of pool by myself just now,
with the thing in my 'and, so Hi could hadmire it, and when Hi made
the last shot, it rolled away. Hi didn't know which pocket it went
into, and just then Hi 'eard some one coming, so Hi beat it."

"Well, you can beat it again, Bunbury. Back to the woods for you! I'll
sentence you to help Yensen clean out the horses' stalls for your
theft," said the Earl.

The fat footman, glad to be rid of the inquisition, went downstairs in
a hurry.

Our little party now returned to the billiard room and finished our
game, also a few more, playing until Donald MacTavish, the second
footman, came in and announced luncheon, it now being twelve o'clock.
After luncheon, during which Holmes made several more cracks about the
possible guilt of others in the diamond robbery,