"All right, go to it, Holmes," said the Earl. "I guess you know how. I give you carte blanche to go as far as you like."
We at once adjourned to the drawing-room, at the right side of the front of the first floor of the castle, and Hemlock Holmes issued his orders.
"Your Lordship, the first thing I will pull off is an examination of every one on the place,—your relatives, friends, servants and all,—no one is exempt. Your own story I have heard. Now, then——"
Here we were interrupted by the constable whom Holmes had set to guard the front of the castle, who came in and said:
"Hi beg pahdon, Mr. 'Olmes, but here is Inspector Bahnabas Letstrayed, just arrived from London, to see that everything is hall right."
"I don't see how it could be, when he ain't right himself!" snapped Holmes, with a frown, as the bulky form of our old friend in previous adventures loomed up in the doorway. "Well, come in, you old nuisance," he added, as he motioned him to one end of the room. "It's enough to make a man bite a piece out of the wall when he has to contend with two such rummies as you and Doc Watson around him, particularly when he has a job on hand that requires close and attentive brain-work."
Inspector Letstrayed removed his tweed cap and joined us over by the mantel, with a fatuous smile on his large face.
"As I was about to say, when Barnaby butted in, the first man who noticed any of the cuff-buttons stolen, next to the Earl himself, was Luigi Vermicelli, his Italian valet. Call him in," ordered Holmes.
On a motion from the Earl, his secretary Thorneycroft went out to the corridor and brought in the more or less scared valet.
"What's your full name?" demanded Holmes.