The Return of Sherlock Holmes
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 armchair 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 shrank 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 aware, with several sharp spikes. As he
passed your window he saw, by means of his great height, these
proofs upon your table, and conjectured what they were. No harm
would have been done had it not been that, as he passed your
door, he perceived the key which had been left by the
carelessness of your servant. A sudden impulse came over him to
enter, and see if they were indeed the proofs. It was not a
dangerous exploit for he could always pretend that he had simply
looked in to ask a question.
“Well, when he saw that they were indeed the proofs, it was then
that he yielded to temptation. He put his shoes on the table.
What was it you put on that chair near the window?”
“Gloves,” said the young man.
Holmes looked triumphantly at Bannister. “He put his gloves on
the chair, and he took the proofs, sheet by sheet, to copy them.
He thought the tutor must return by the main gate and that he
would see him. As we know, he came back by the side gate.
Suddenly he heard him at the very door. There was no possible
escape. He forgot his gloves but he caught up his shoes and
darted into the bedroom. You observe that the scratch on that
table is slight at one side, but deepens in the direction of the
bedroom door. That in itself is enough to show us that the shoe
had been drawn in that direction, and that the culprit had taken
refuge there. The earth round the spike had been left on the
table, and a second sample was loosened and fell in the bedroom.
I may add that I walked out to the athletic grounds this morning,
saw that tenacious black clay is used in the jumping-pit and
carried away a specimen of it, together with some of the fine tan
or sawdust which is strewn over it to prevent the athlete from
slipping. Have I told the truth, Mr. Gilchrist?”
The student had drawn himself erect.
“Yes, sir, it is true,” said he.
“Good heavens! have you nothing to add?” cried Soames.
“Yes, sir, I have, but the shock of this disgraceful exposure has
bewildered me. I have a letter here, Mr. Soames, which I wrote to
you early this morning in the middle of a restless night. It was
before I knew that my sin had found me out. Here it is, sir. You
will see that I have said, ‘I have determined not to go in for
the examination. I have been offered a commission in the
Rhodesian Police, and I am going out to South Africa at once.’”
“I am indeed pleased to hear that you did not intend to profit by
your unfair advantage,” said Soames. “But why did you change your
purpose?”
Gilchrist pointed to Bannister.
“There is the man who set me in the right path,” said he.
“Come now, Bannister,” said Holmes. “It will be clear to you,
from what I have said, that only you could have let this young
man out, since you were left in the room, and must have locked
the door when you went out. As to his escaping by that window, it
was incredible. Can you not clear up the last point in this
mystery, and tell us the reasons for your action?”