Tonight, we’ll read “The Beryl Coronet” from “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,” written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, published in 1892.

A beryl coronet is an emerald crown.

This story begins with a prominent banker making a loan equivalent to two million US dollars today to a socially prominent client, who leaves a beryl coronet as collateral. Imagine going to the bank and asking for a two million dollar loan. As collateral, you secretly offer the banker someone else’s fancy royal crown. Do you think that would work? Well, it may have worked in tonight’s episode.