ed, as Holmes turned and faced him angrily at the
interruption and I held myself ready for an emergency.

"Why, the old magnifying-glass-peeker says that I stole one of the
Earl's cuff-buttons! Wouldn't that frost you? I've been trying to get
it into his head that he's struck a snag here, but he can't see it
that way," replied Launcelot, rising from the piano-stool and brushing
off his trouser-legs.

"Well, he'll have to, anyhow--that's all," said Tooter, and he added,
as he grabbed Holmes around the body with both arms: "Run like h----
now, Launcie, and I'll hold him until you're safe!"

Launcelot instantly ran out of the room at top speed, while Holmes and
Tooter wrestled around for a moment; then the former jerked himself
away and chased out into the corridor after me, and up the stairway,
where I had started to pursue the recreant Launcelot.

"Here, get out of the way, Watson, and let somebody run that _can_
run!" he yelled, as he overtook me, legging it up four steps at a
time.

The two of us then chased Launcelot up flight after flight of the
green-carpeted stairs, to the second, third, fourth, and fifth
stories, while I nearly lost my breath as we came to the fifth and top
floor and saw Launcelot disappearing through a trapdoor leading to the
castle roof. Up the narrow little wooden ladder we bounced after him,
through the trapdoor, and out onto the broad spreading roof of the
ancient and venerable Normanstow Towers.

"Oh, gee! first down in the cellar, and then up on the roof! This
detective business is getting my goat!" I panted, leaning against a
chimney-top where I stood gasping for breath, while the indomitable
Holmes pursued the fleeing Launcelot across the stone roof to the
opposite side, and there cornered him finally in an angle formed by
the battlemented wall surrounding the roof and a small tower about ten
feet in diameter at its edge.

Launcelot was squeezed up against the gray stone embrasure at that
place by Holmes, who quickly forced the eleventh and last diamond
cuff-button out of his nerveless grasp, then turned triumphantly to
me, his faithful but out-of-breath squire, while the spring breezes
ruffled the sparse hair on his uncovered head, and the gentle
afternoon sun shone down on as queer a scene as had ever taken place
during our association,--crying:

"Well, here we are at last, Watson. We've got each and every one of
the Earl's diamonds now, and our labors are over, with a large p