olice inspector, fast asleep in one of the splint-bottomed chairs, as
usual. Holmes picked up a cue, and playfully poked Letstrayed in the
ribs with it.

"Wake up, Barney, and hear the birds sing!" he called out.

The sleepy inspector jumped up in surprise, while the other four men
laughed and continued their game, and the Earl and I sat down as
Holmes walked over and butted into the playing.

"Say, I don't think that Hicks is holding his cue just right,
fellows," said he, grabbing that worthy's cue away from him and
leaning over the table to try a shot himself. "Look,--this is the way
to do it!"

"Aw, you're not holding it right yourself, Holmes," said Launcelot,
who prided himself on his knowledge of billiards.

"Sneeze, kid, your brains are dusty. I guess I could shoot pool and
billiards along with the world's experts when you were studying your
A, B, C's! You see, I'm forty-nine years old, while you're barely
thirty," replied the old boy, as sassy as ever.

"Hicks, I'm astonished at your playing," he continued in an
authoritative tone; "why, a man so smart as to keep a diamond
cuff-button hidden for three days while he confides in the Earl's chef
down in the pantry should be able to play this intellectual game
better than that!"

The Canadian's mouth opened, and his eyes bulged out with fright as he
heard his recent deeds thus published to the assembled crowd, while
all his audience showed astonishment as great as Hicks's.

"Now, look me in the eye, William Hicks!" Holmes went on, pointing his
finger at his victim, "and tell His Lordship the Earl if that isn't
the actual truth I just spoke."

"Er--er, ah,--I guess it is. I can't see how you ever found it out,
but that crook of a Budd he came to me with one of the gems, and
induced me to keep it for him till he called for it," was the
admission of the confused Hicks, who, with reddened face, sheepishly
fished out the stolen cuff-button and handed it to the astonished
Earl.

"And now Billie Hicks is a thief, too!" said the latter. "How the Sam
Hill did you ascertain _that_, Holmes?"

"Well, if Mr. Hicks hadn't been so careless as to stand around in the
spilled flour on the pantry-floor when he was foolishly confiding his
little game to the chef, perhaps I wouldn't have been able to
apprehend him now," replied Holmes, clearing his throat. "Are you
awake there, Letstrayed? You see that's how it's done, examining the
incriminating stains on the soles of th