anything is amiss?"
"No, sir; not a word."
"You haven't seen any of them?"
"No, sir."
"Very good. Now, Mr. Soames, we will take a walk in the quadrangle,
if you please."
Three yellow squares of light shone above us in the gathering gloom.
"Your three birds are all in their nests," said Holmes, looking up.
"Halloa! What's that? One of them seems restless enough."
It was the Indian, whose dark silhouette appeared suddenly upon his
blind. He was pacing swiftly up and down his room.
"I should like to have a peep at each of them," said Holmes. "Is it
possible?"
"No difficulty in the world," Soames answered. "This set of rooms is
quite the oldest in the college, and it is not unusual for visitors
to go over them. Come along, and I will personally conduct you."
"No names, please!" said Holmes, as we knocked at Gilchrist's door. A
tall, flaxen-haired, slim young fellow opened it, and made us welcome
when he understood our errand. There were some really curious pieces
of mediaeval domestic architecture within. Holmes was so charmed with
one of them that he insisted on drawing it on his note-book, broke
his pencil, had to borrow one from our host, and finally borrowed a
knife to sharpen his own. The same curious accident happened to him
in the rooms of the Indian--a silent, little, hook-nosed fellow, who
eyed us askance and was obviously glad when Holmes's architectural
studies had come to an end. I could not see that in either case
Holmes had come upon the clue for which he was searching. Only at the
third did our visit prove abortive. The outer door would not open to
our knock, and nothing more substantial than a torrent of bad
language came from behind it. "I don't care who you are. You can go
to blazes!" roared the angry voice. "To-morrow's the exam, and I
won't be drawn by anyone."
"A rude fellow," said our guide, flushing with anger as we withdrew
down the stair. "Of course, he did not realize that it was I who was
knocking, but none the less his conduct was very uncourteous, and,
indeed, under the circumstances rather suspicious."
Holmes's response was a curious one.
"Can you tell me his exact height?" he asked.
"Really, Mr. Holmes, I cannot undertake to say. He is taller than the
Indian, not so tall as Gilchrist. I suppose five foot six would be
about it."
"That is very important," said Holmes. "And now, Mr. Soames, I wish
you good-night."
Our guide cried aloud in his astonishment and dismay. "Good gracious,
Mr. Holmes, you are surely not going to leave me in this abrupt
fashion! You don't seem to realize the position. To-morrow is the
examination. I must take some definite action to-night. I cannot
allow the examination to be held if one of the papers has been
tampered with. The situation must be faced."
"You must leave it as it is. I shall drop round early to-morrow
morning and chat the matter over. It is possible that I may be in a
position then to indicate some course of action. Meanwhile you change
nothing--nothing at all."
"Very good, Mr. Holmes."
"You can be perfectly easy in your mind. We shall certainly find some
way out of your difficulties. I will take the black clay with me,
also the pencil cuttings. Good-bye."
When we were out in the darkness of the quadrangle we again looked up
at the windows. The Indian still paced his room. The others were
invisible.
"Well, Watson, what do you think of it?" Holmes asked, as we came out
into the main street. "Quite a little parlour game--sort of
three-card trick, is it not? There are your three men. It must be one
of them. You take your choice. Which is yours?"
"The foul-mouthed fellow at the top. He is the one with the worst
record. And yet that Indian was a sly fellow also. Why should he be
pacing his room all the time?"
"There is nothing in that. Many men do it when they are trying to
learn anything by heart."
"He looked at us in a queer way."
"So would you if a flock of strangers came in on you when you were
preparing for an examination next day, and every moment was of value.
No, I see nothing in that. Pencils, too, and knives--all was
satisfactory. But that fellow does puzzle me."
"Who?"
"Why, Bannister, the servant. What's his game in the matter?"
"He impressed me as being a perfectly honest man."
"So he did me. That's the puzzling part. Why should a perfectly
honest man--well, well, here's a large stationer's. We shall begin
our researches here."
There were only four stationers of any consequence in the town, and
at each Holmes produced his pencil chips and bid high for a
duplicate. All were agreed that one could be ordered, but that it was
not a usual size of pencil and that it was seldom kept in stock. My
friend did not appear to be depressed by his failure, but shrugged
his shoulders in half-humorous resignation.
"No good, my dear Watson. This, the best and only final clue, has run
to nothing. But, indeed, I have little doubt that we can build up a
sufficient case without it. By Jove! my dear fellow, it is nearly
nine, and the landlady babbled of green peas at seven-thirty. What
with your eternal tobacco, Watson, and your irregularity at meals, I
expect that you will get notice to quit and that I shall share your
downfall--not, however, before we have solved the problem of the
nervous tutor, the careless servant, and the three enterprising
students."
Holmes made no further allusion to the matter that day, though he
sat lost in thought for a long time after our belated dinner. At
eight in the morning he came into my room just as I finished my
toilet.
"Well, Watson," said he, "it is time we went down to St. Luke's. Can
you do without breakfast?"
"Certainly."
"Soames will be in a dreadful fidget until we are able to tell him
something positive."
"Have you anything positive to tell him?"
"I think so."
"You have formed a conclusion?"
"Yes, my dear Watson; I have solved the mystery."
"But what fresh evidence could you have got?"
"Aha! It is not for nothing that I have turned myself out of bed at
the untimely hour of six. I have put in two hours' hard work and
covered at least five miles, with something to show for it. Look at
that!"
He held out his hand. On the palm were three little pyramids of
black, doughy clay.
"Why, Holmes, you had only two yesterday!"
"And one more this morning. It is a fair argument that wherever No. 3
came from is also the source of Nos. 1 and 2. Eh, Watson? Well, come
along and put friend Soames out of his pain."
The unfortunate tutor was certainly in a state of pitiable agitation
when we found him in his chambers. In a few hours the examination
would commence, and he was still in the dilemma between making the
facts public and allowing the culprit to compete for the valuable
scholarship. He could hardly stand still, so great was his mental
agitation, and he ran towards Holmes with two eager hands
outstretched.
"Thank Heaven that you have come! I feared that you had given it up
in despair. What am I to do? Shall the examination proceed?"
"Yes; let it proceed by all means."
"But this rascal--?"
"He shall not compete."
"You know him?"
"I think so. If this matter is not to become public we must give
ourselves certain powers, and resolve ourselves into a small private
court-martial. You there, if you please, Soames! Watson, you here!
I'll take the arm-chair in the middle. I think that we are now
sufficiently imposing to strike terror into a guilty breast. Kindly
ring the bell!"
Bannister entered, and shrunk back in evident surprise and fear at
our judicial appearance.
"You will kindly close the door," said Holmes. "Now, Bannister, will
you please tell us the truth about yesterday's incident?"
The man turned white to the roots of his hair.
"I have told you everything, sir."
"Nothing to add?"
"Nothing at all, sir."
"Well, then, I must make some suggestions to you. When you sat down
on that chair yesterday, did you do so in order to conceal some
object which would have shown who had been in the room?"
Bannister's face was ghastly.
"No, sir; certainly not."
"It is only a suggestion," said Holmes, suavely. "I frankly admit
that I am unable to prove it. But it seems probable enough, since the
moment that Mr. Soames's back was turned you released the man who was
hiding in that bedroom."
Bannister licked his dry lips.
"There was no man, sir."
"Ah, that's a pity, Bannister. Up to now you may have spoken the
truth, but now I know that you have lied."
The man's face set in sullen defiance.
"There was no man, sir."
"Come, come, Bannister!"
"No, sir; there was no one."
"In that case you can give us no further information. Would you
please remain in the room? Stand over there near the bedroom door.
Now, Soames, I am going to ask you to have the great kindness to go
up to the room of young Gilchrist, and to ask him to step down into
yours."
An instant later the tutor returned, bringing with him the student.
He was a fine figure of a man, tall, lithe, and agile, with a springy
step and a pleasant, open face. His troubled blue eyes glanced at
each of us, and finally rested with an expression of blank dismay
upon Bannister in the farther corner.
"Just close the door," said Holmes. "Now, Mr. Gilchrist, we are all
quite alone here, and no one need ever know one word of what passes
between us. We can be perfectly frank with each other. We want to
know, Mr. Gilchrist, how you, an honourable man, ever came to commit
such an action as that of yesterday?"
The unfortunate young man staggered back and cast a look full of
horror and reproach at Bannister.
"No, no, Mr. Gilchrist, sir; I never said a word--never one word!"
cried the servant.
"No, but you have now," said Holmes. "Now, sir, you must see that
after Bannister's words your position is hopeless, and that your only
chance lies in a frank confession."
For a moment Gilchrist, with upraised hand, tried to control his
writhing features. The next he had thrown himself on his knees beside
the table and, burying his face in his hands, he had burst into a
storm of passionate sobbing.
"Come, come," said Holmes, kindly; "it is human to err, and at least
no one can accuse you of being a callous criminal. Perhaps it would
be easier for you if I were to tell Mr. Soames what occurred, and you
can check me where I am wrong. Shall I do so? Well, well, don't
trouble to answer. Listen, and see that I do you no injustice.
"From the moment, Mr. Soames, that you said to me that no one, not
even Bannister, could have told that the papers were in your room,
the case began to take a definite shape in my mind. The printer one
could, of course, dismiss. He could examine the papers in his own
office. The Indian I also thought nothing of. If the proofs were in a
roll he could not possibly know what they were. On the other hand, it
seemed an unthinkable coincidence that a man should dare to enter the
room, and that by chance on that very day the papers were on the
table. I dismissed that. The man who entered knew that the papers
were there. How did he know?
"When I approached your room I examined the window. You amused me by
supposing that I was contemplating the possibility of someone having
in broad daylight, under the eyes of all these opposite rooms, forced
himself through it. Such an idea was absurd. I was measuring how tall
a man would need to be in order to see as he passed what papers were
on the central table. I am six feet high, and I could do it with an
effort. No one less than that would have a chance. Already you see I
had reason to think that if one of your three students was a man of
unusual height he was the most worth watching of the three.
"I entered and I took you into my confidence as to the suggestions of
the side table. Of the centre table I could make nothing, until in
your description of Gilchrist you mentioned that he was a
long-distance jumper. Then the whole thing came to me in an instant,
and I only needed certain corroborative proofs, which I speedily
obtained.
"What happened was this. This young fellow had employed his afternoon
at the athletic grounds, where he had been practising the jump. He
returned carrying his jumping shoes, which are provided, as you are
