In The Master-Blackmailer, Holmes is asked by his brother, Mycroft, to negotiate with notorious blackmailer Charles Augustus Milverton on the behalf of Lady Eva Blackwell. When Milverton refuses to compromise for less than the initial amount he asked for in order to make an example of Lady Blackwell, Holmes and Watson break into Milverton's study to retrieve the letters he was using to blackmail her. While they are there, a woman named Lady Huksley, whose husband died because of Milverton's blackmail, comes into the study and shoots him, taking a piece of paper with code and an "M" made of four crossed swords on it. Holmes destroys all of Milverton's papers and he and Watson manage to escape from the police. They later visit Lady Huksley, who denies knowing anything about the paper or the