In the 95 years, a succession of events over which there is no need to go into detail led us to Sherlock Holmes and me to spend some weeks in one of our great university towns and during this time we pass the small but instructive adventure which I am about to relate. As easily understood, in detail that might help the reader to accurately identify the university or the criminal, it would be inappropriate and offensive. The best thing you can do with a scandal so painful it is to fall into oblivion. However, with due discretion, may refer the incident itself, since they can reveal some of the qualities that brought fame to my friend. So I will try to avoid telling the mention of details that could be used to identify the facts in a particular place or give clues to the identity of those involved.
resided then in a furnished room, near a library where Sherlock Holmes was doing laborious research on legal documents from the former England ...., investigations which led to results so striking that it could serve as a subject of one of my future narratives. They later received a visit from an acquaintance, Mr. Hilton Soames, professor and tutor of the college of San Lucas. Mr. Soames was a tall, thin, nervous and excitable temperament. I had always known it was a restless, but this time he was in such a state of uncontrollable agitation that it was obvious something was very abnormal.
-Confío, señor Holmes, en que pueda usted dedicarme unas horas de su valioso tiempo. Nos ha ocurrido un incidente muy lamentable en San Lucas v, la verdad, de no ser por la feliz coincidencia de que se encuentre usted en la ciudad, no habría sabido qué hacer.
-Ahora mismo estoy muy ocupado y no quiero distracciones -respondió mi amigo-. Preferiría, con mucho, que solicitara usted la ayuda de la policía.
-No, no, amigo mío; bajo ningún concepto podemos hacer eso. Una vez que se recurre a la ley, ya no es posible detener su marcha, y se trata de uno de esos casos en los que, por el prestigio del colegio, resulta esencial evitar el escándalo. Usted es tan conocido por su discreción and by their powers, and is the only man in the world who can help. Please, Mr. Holmes, who do what you can.
The character of my friend had not improved by being deprived of their cozy quarters in Baker Street. Without their notebooks, their chemicals and comfortable feel uncomfortable disorder. He shrugged with a gesture of forced acceptance, while our visitor described its history with hasty phrases and all kinds of nervous gestures.
"I have to explain, Mr. Holmes, that tomorrow is the first day of exams for the Fortescue Scholarship. I am one of the examiners. My subject is Greek, and the first test is translating long passages of text in Greek, which the candidate has not seen before. This text is printed on the examination paper and, of course, the candidate could prepare it in advance would have a huge advantage. For this reason, we put great care in maintaining the secrecy of the year.
"Today, about three, came from the press the evidence in this review. The exercise is to translate half a chapter of Thucydides [1]. I had to read carefully, since the text must be absolutely correct. At half-past four had not yet finished. However, he promised to take tea in the room of a friend, so I stopped testing at my office. I was gone over an hour. As you know, Mr. Holmes, our school rooms have double doors: a green baize lined inside and a solid oak outside. As I approached the outer door of my office I saw with amazement a key in the lock. For a moment I thought I had forgotten my own key here, but felt in my pocket it was well in place. To my knowledge, the only copy that existed was my servant, Bannister, a man who spent ten years taking care of my room and whose honesty is above suspicion. In fact, I found that it was his key, which had come into my room to ask if I wanted area, and that it had forgotten to leave the key in the lock. He must get to my room very soon after I get out of it. His carelessness with the key would not have had any importance at another time either, but in this particular day has been a most deplorable consequences.
[1] Thucydides (460-400 BC), famous Greek historian, author of the History of the Peloponnesian War, a very well known to students of Greek. In fact, the student cheater did not need to copy the text of the review, it would have sufficed to make some references that would allow identification of the fragment, and then locate it in the book.
"As I looked at the desk, I realized that somebody had been stirring my papers. The evidence came in three long strips of paper. I had left them together, and now lay on the ground, another at a table near the window and the third was where I had left.
Holmes showed signs of interest for the first time.
"The first page of text, on the ground, the second in the window, and the third where you left off," he said.
"Exactly, sir. You astonish me. How can you know that?
"Please continue your very interesting exhibition.
"For a moment I thought that Bannister had taken the unpardonable liberty to discuss my papers. However, he denied in the most strict, and I am convinced that telling the truth. The other possibility is that someone, in passing, noting the key in the door and knowing that I was not, had come to look at the papers. At stake is a considerable sum of money, the scholarship is very high, and an unscrupulous person could very well be at risk to gain an advantage over their peers.
"A Bannister the incident affected him deeply. He almost fainted when we found, without any doubt, that someone had been messing with the papers. I gave him a little brandy and left him slumped in a chair while I more closely inspected the room. I soon discovered that the intruder had left other traces of their presence, as well as the roles scrambled. In the table of the window had several chips of a pencil that had taken
tip. I also found a broken piece of mine. Obviously, the very rascal had copied the text in a hurry had broken the pencil and had been forced to sharpen again.
- Excellent! "Said Holmes, who began to recover his good humor as the case was attracting his attention. Have you had much luck.
"That's not all. I have a new desk, with a perfect surface, red leather. I am willing to swear, and also Bannister, who was spotless and without blemish. And now I am having a clean cut about three inches long [2], not a scratch, but a court with all of the law. And not only that: also found on the table a ball of putty or black clay, with specks that look like sawdust. I am convinced that all such traces he left the man who was snooping in the papers. We found no footprints or other evidence of their identity. I did not know what to do, when suddenly I remembered that you were in town, and I came away to put the matter in hand. Help me, Mr. Holmes! Give yourself aware of my problem or find out who has been or will have to postpone consideration until prepare new exercises, and how it can not be done without explanation, we will be involved in a nasty scandal that cast a stain not only on school, but on the entire university. Above all we must resolve this matter quietly and discreetly.
[2] Seven inch.
"I'll be happy to take a look and offer the advice I can," said Holmes, rising and putting on his coat. This case is not entirely without interest. Was anyone to visit him in his room after you receive the exams?
"Yes, young Daulat Ras, an Indian student living in the same stair, came to ask some details about the exam.
- Do you have it to test? "Yes.
- "And the papers were on his desk?
"I'm almost sure they were rolled.
- But you could tell they were proofs?
"Possibly.
- "No one else in your room?
-No.
- Did anyone know that the evidence was there?
"No more than the printer.
- Did Bannister knew this guy?
"No, certainly not. No one knew.
- Where is Bannister now?
"The poor man is very sick. I left him lying on a couch, he had great urgency to come to see you.
- you left the door open?
"Before the tests kept under lock and key.
"Then, Mr. Soames, the thing comes down to this: unless the Indian student realized that the roll were the proofs of the examination, the man who was found by sniffing the chance, not knowing they were there.
"That seems to me.
Holmes exhibited a smile enigmatic.
"Well," he said. Let's see. This case is not for you, Watson, is mental, not physical. Okay, if you insists you can come. Lord Soames, we are available.
-The living room of our client had a long, low window with lattice overlooking the courtyard of the old school, with its old walls covered in lichen. A Gothic door gave access to a worn stone staircase. The teacher's room was on the ground floor. Above hosted three students, one on each floor. It was almost dusk when we arrived at the scene of the mystery. Holmes stopped and watched with interest the window. He approached her and stood in tiptoe and craning his neck, looked into the room.
"It must have come through the door. Here is no more than opening a pane of glass, "said our learned guide.
"Dear God," said Holmes, looking at our guest with a curious smile. Well, if we can not find anything here, you'd better go inside.
The teacher opened the outer door and invited us to his room. We stayed at the threshold while Holmes examined the carpet.
"I'm afraid there are no fingerprints," he said. And would be difficult for one day so dry. It seems that your servant has recovered. You said that you left in an armchair. Which?
"In this it is next to the window.
I see. About this table. Now you can enter, I'm done with the carpet. Let us first see the small table. Of course, it is clear what has happened. The guy came in and took the papers, one sheet, the center table. Brought to the table by the window, because from here I could see if you approached the yard, and would have time to escape.
"Well, actually, I could not see me," said Soames, "because I went through the side door.
- Ah! Good stuff! Anyway, that's what he thought. Let me see the three strips paper. No fingerprints, no sir. Let's see, first took it and copied it.
How long would take to do so, using all possible abbreviations? At least a quarter of an hour. Once copied, knocked her down and took the second strip. Should go for half when you came back and he had to leave in a hurry ... with a lot of hurry, since they do not have time to put the papers in place, so you would not notice someone had been here. Would not you heard hurried steps down the stairs to enter?
"Well the truth is no.
"Well. He wrote with such frenzy that he broke the pencil and, as you already noted, was to sharpen. This is interesting, Watson. The pen was brand, more or less normal size, with soft lead, blue outside, with the manufacturer's name in silver letters, and the remaining part will have no more than an inch and a half long. Search this pencil, Mr. Soames, and have their man. As a bonus track, I will say it has a large knife and very blunt.
Mr. Soames was somewhat overwhelmed by this flood of information.
"Everything else I understand," he said, but the truth, that detail the length ...
Holmes wielded a small chip with the letters NN and a blank back.
- See?
"No, I fear that even so ...
-Watson, I have always been unfair to you. There are other equally. What could this NN mean? Are at the end of a word. As everyone knows, Johann Faber is the best known maker of pencils. Is it not obvious that what is left of the pen is just what comes after 'Johann'? Table-side inclined to give him electric light and continued: "I hoped I had used a paper-thin enough to make it any mark on the polished surface. But no, I do not see anything. I do not think that we can get anything over here. Now for the coffee table. I guess this is the putty black goop that you mentioned. More or less hollow pyramidal
, I see. As you rightly said, there seems to be grains of sawdust embedded. Well, well, this is very interesting. And the cut ... a good blow, yes sir. Start with a thin scratch and just a real rip. Lord Soames, I am indebted to you for directing my attention to this case. Where da that door?
"My bedroom
- Did you come here after the event?
"No, I went straight to pick you.
"I'd take a look. What nice room in the old style! Would you mind waiting a moment while I look down? No, I do not see anything. What is that curtain? Ah, you hang your clothes behind. If someone was forced to hide in this room would have to do here, because the bed is too low and the cabinet is very shallow. I guess no one here ...
When Holmes drew the curtain I could see, by a certain rigidity and alertness in his position, he was on guard against any emergency. But the truth is that behind the curtain hiding no more than three or four outfits, hung a row of hangers. Holmes _v turned suddenly ducked to the ground.
- Caramba! What is this?
It was a small pyramid, made with a kind of black putty, exactly as he had on his desk. Holmes held it in his palm and held it to electricity.
"It seems that your visitor has left traces in his bedroom, and not only in their living room, Mr. Soames.
- What could I find here?
"I think it is very clear. You returned an unexpected path and he did not notice his arrival until you were going in the door. What could I do? Collected everything I could give him away and ran to hide in the bedroom.
- Good heavens, Mr. Holmes! Do not tell me the whole time I was here talking to Bannister had stuck to that individual, without us knowing.
"So I see it.
"There must be another alternative, Mr. Holmes. I do not know if you noticed my bedroom window.
-Con lattice lead daffodils, three separate panels, one
hinged to open and big enough to drive a man.
"Exactly. And it gives a corner of the courtyard, so that is almost invisible. The guy may have come here, let that trail across the room and then to find the open door, she escaped.
"Let's be practical," he said. I seemed to understand that there are three students who use this ladder and usually go in front of his door.
"Yes.
- And the three are presented in this review?
"Yes.
- Do you have reason to suspect any of them more than others?
Soames hesitated.
"It's a very delicate question. I do not like to spread suspicion when there is no evidence. "Let's hear
suspicion. Seek and I testing. "In that case, I will explain briefly the nature of the three men who live in these rooms. In the first Gilchrist plant is very good student and athlete, playing in the rugby team and cricket at school, and represented the university in hurdles and long jump. A nice young male. His father was the notorious Sir Jabez Gilchrist, who ruined the races. My student was in poverty, but is very diligent and hardworking and will succeed.
'lives on the second floor Daulat Ras, the Indian. A silent and inscrutable, like most Indians. Take very good school, though the Greek is his weak point. It is serious and methodical.
"The top floor corresponds to Miles McLaren. A bright guy when he gets to work ... one of the best brains in the college; but it is fickle, dissolute and lack of principles. In its first year was about to be expelled by a scandal of cards. He has spent lazing around the course and should not feel very calm before this test.
"In other words, you suspect it.
"I do not dare say so. But of the three, would be perhaps the least improbable.
"Exactly. Now, Mr. Soames, let's see how is your servant, Bannister.
Bannister proved to be a man in his fifties, pale, clean-shaven and gray hair. Had not yet recovered from this sudden disturbance of the quiet routine of his life. His flabby features trembled with nervous spasms and his fingers could not sit still.
"We're investigating this regrettable incident," said Professor Bannister.
"Yes, sir.
"I have understood," said Holmes, "that you left your key in the lock forgotten.
"Yes, sir.
- Is not it strange that happens on the very day they were here those papers?
"It was a great misfortune, sir. But it has happened to me ever again.
- What time you came into the room?
"About half past four. Tea time Mr Soames.
- How long was inside?
"Seeing that he was not, I left immediately.
- Did you look at papers on the table?
"No, sir, I assure you.
- How could he left the key in the door?
"He had his hands on the tea tray, and I thought back then to pick up the key. But I forgot.
- outside door handle it?
"No, sir.
- "So that was open all the time?
"Yes, sir.
"When Mr. Soames returned and called him, is changed you much?
"Yes, sir. In all my years here, that many had never happened such a thing. I nearly fainted, sir.
"That I have heard. Where were you when you started to feel sick?
- What where was I? Well, right here near the door.
"It's very funny because he went to sit in that chair next to the corner. Why not sit on any of these other chairs?
I do not know, sir. Neither noticed me where I sat.
I do not think that is fixed at all, Mr. Holmes, "said Soames. Was very bad ... completely ghastly.
- Do were you here when he left the teacher?
"Nothing more than a minute or so. Then I closed the door and went to my room.
- who do you suspect?
"Oh lord, I can not tell. Do not think there is a gentleman in this university can do that to their advantage. No, sir, I do not.
Thanks. That's enough, "said Holmes. Ah, yes, one more thing. Did not you be told none of the three men you serve something goes wrong, right?
"No, sir, not a word.
- Have you seen any of them? "No, sir.
"Okay. Now, Mr. Soames, if it looks good, we will walk around the yard. Three
square of yellow light shone upon us through the gathering darkness.
"Your three birds are all in their nests," said Holmes, looking up, Go! What is that? One of them seems quite restless.
It was the Indian, whose dark silhouette had suddenly appeared through the curtains, making rapid strides from one side to another room.
"I'd take a look in their rooms," said Holmes. Is it possible?
"No problem," said Soames. This set of rooms is the old school, and it is not uncommon for visitors to come see them. Join me and I will guide them.
-No names, please, "said Holmes as we called Gilchrist's door.
opened it a tall, thin, straw-colored hair, who welcomed us to learn our purposes. The room contained some truly curious details of medieval domestic architecture. Holmes was so delighted that he insisted on drawing it in his notebook, during the operation, broke the pencil, had to borrow one of our young host and, finally, he borrowed a knife to get her pencil. The same curious incident will occur again in the Indian Room, a small and quiet individual, with an aquiline nose, looking at us sideways and did not conceal his joy when Holmes gave her graduation architecture. In either case it seemed that Holmes had found the track I was looking for. As for our third visit, was frustrated. The outer door was not opened to our calls, and the only positive that we came across was a torrent of expletives.
- I do not care who you are! You can go to hell! Roared an angry voice. Tomorrow is the test and I can not waste time anyone.
- How rude! "Said our guide, red with indignation, as we walked down the stairs. Naturally, he did not realize it was me who called them, yet their behavior is unpresentable and, given the circumstances, quite suspicious.
Holmes' reaction was curious.
- Could you tell me the exact height of this young? He asked.
"Really, Mr. Holmes, I would not know what to say. Is higher than the Indian, though not as Gilchrist. I guess about five feet six inches [3].
[3] Approximately one meter seventy.
"That is very important," said Holmes. Now, Mr. Soames, I wish you good night.
Our guide told voices his surprise and disappointment.
- Good heavens, Mr. Holmes! You will not leave me so suddenly! I do not think you realize the situation. The test is tomorrow. I have to take any specific action tonight. I can not allow the examination be held if one of the exercises is rigged. You have to face the situation.
"You have to leave things as they are. Tomorrow I'll stop by here first thing in the morning and talk about the issue. You may then find me in a position to suggest any course of action. Meanwhile, you do not change anything, absolutely anything.
"Very well, sir.
"And stay calm. No doubt that you will find a way to solve their difficulties. I'll take the putty black and pencil shavings. Goodbye.
When we went out into the darkness of the patio windows look again. The Indian still taking walks around the room. The other two were invisible.
"Well, Watson, what do you think? Holmes asked as we left. It's like a parlor game, something like three-card trick, is not it? There you have your three men. It has to be one of them. Choose. For what is decided?
"The foul-mouthed individual of the top floor. It has the worst record. However, that India also seems a good bird. Why is he walking around the room without stopping?
"That does not mean anything. Many people do when they are trying to learn something from memory.
"We looked a very rare.
-So would you if you fall over a bunch of strangers when I was preparing a review for the next day and could not miss a minute. No, it does not say anything. In addition, pencils and knives ... everything was as expected. The one who intrigues me is that guy ...
- Who?
"Why, Bannister, the servant. What does it look him in this matter?
-A gave me the impression of being a completely honest man.
"Me too, and that's what intrigues me. Why would a man completely honest a. .. Well, well, here is a major stationary. We begin here our investigations. The city
were only four stationers of any importance, and in each Holmes showed his pencil shavings and offered a high price for the same pencil. In all he said they could order it, but it was a little size current and almost never had stock. The failure did not seem depressed to my friend, who shrugged with resignation almost funny.
"There's nothing to do, my dear Watson. This track, which was the best and most conclusive, has led nowhere. But, indeed, I'm pretty sure that even without it, we can develop a sufficient explanation. By Jove! Dear friend, it's almost nine, and our landlady said something about peas at seven v average. I see, Watson, that the smoking habit of constantly and that irregularity at meals, they will end by asking that they leave, and I share his fall from grace ... but not before there teacher solved the problem of nervous, the servant neglected and the three intrepid students.
Holmes did not return to make any comment on the case that day, though he sat lost in thought for a long time after our delayed dinner.
At eight o'clock next came into my room when I was finishing wash up.
"Well, Watson said. Time to go to San Lucas. Can you do without breakfast?
"Of course.
-Soames is a bundle of nerves until we can say something concrete.
- What do you have something concrete to say?
"I think so.
- Have you reached any conclusion?
"Yes, my dear Watson, I have solved the mystery.
"But ... What new insights could be found?
- Ah! Not for nothing I got out of bed at ungodly hour like six in the morning. I invested two hours of hard work and have logged at least five miles, but something I make out clearly. Look at this!
out his hand, and the palm were three little pyramids of black putty.
- Why, Holmes, yesterday was only two!
"And this morning I got another. It does not seem very safe to assume that the source of number three is the same as the numbers one and two. Do not you think, Watson? Well, let's get up and rid the friend of her torment Soames.
Indeed, the unfortunate professor was in a sorry state when we got nervous rooms. Within hours begin the tests, and he still wavered between the facts disclose or allow the guilty opted to the substantial scholarship. So great was his mental agitation he could not sit still, and ran towards Holmes with hands outstretched in a gesture of anxiety.
- Thank God it has come! I feared that he had ignored the case. What do I do? "We went with the test?
"Yes, yes, go ahead, of course.
"But ... What that rascal?
-not present.
- Do you know who is?
"I think so. Since the matter is not going to make public, we must attribute to some powers and decide on our own, in a small private martial. Stand there, Soames, Please! You there, Watson! I'll take this chair in the center. Well, I think I seem impressive enough to strike terror into a guilty heart. Please ring the bell!
Bannister went to the call and stepped back with evident surprise and fear our judicial pose.
"Please close the door," said Holmes. And now, Bannister, will you please tell us the truth about yesterday's incident?
The man turned pale to the roots of hair.
"I've told you everything, sir.
- Do not have anything to add?
"Nothing at all, sir.
"In that case, I must ask you a few suggestions. As he sat in that chair yesterday, why would not you to hide any object that would have revealed who was in the room?
Bannister's face looked like a corpse.
"No, sir, certainly not.
"It was only a suggestion," Holmes said softly. Frankly admit that I can not prove it. But it seems quite likely if we consider that as Mr Soames turned away you left out the man who was hiding in that bedroom.
Bannister licked his dry lips.
"There was no man.
- What a pity, Bannister! So far, it could be that had told the truth, but now I know he lied.
Bannister's face took an expression of sullen defiance.
"There was no man, sir.
"Come, come, Bannister.
"No, sir, there was nobody.
"In that case, you can not provide more information. Want you please stay in your room? Get there by the door of the bedroom. Now, Soames, I'll ask you to kindly go to the room of young Gilchrist and say come down here to yours.
A minute later, the teacher returned, accompanied by the student. He was a man with a magnificent figure, tall, slim and agile, springy step and with an attractive face and sincere. His worried blue eyes wandered from one to another of us, and finally rested with expresión de absoluto desaliento en Bannister, situado en el rincón más alejado.
-Cierre la puerta -dijo Holmes-. Y ahora, señor Gilchrist, estamos solos aquí, y no es preciso que nadie se entere de lo que ocurre entre nosotros, de manera que podemos hablar con absoluta franqueza. Queremos saber, señor Gilchrist, cómo es posible que usted, un hombre de honor, haya podido cometer una acción como la de ayer.
El desdichado joven retrocedió tambaleándose, y dirigió a Bannister una mirada llena de espanto y reproche.
-¡No, no, señor Gilchrist! ¡Yo no he dicho una palabra! ¡Ni una palabra, señor! -exclamó el sirviente.
"No, but now I have," said Holmes. Well, sir, you will notice that after what he said Bannister, his position is untenable, and that the only chance that remains is to make a sincere confession.
For a moment, Gilchrist, with upraised hand, tried to contain the trembling of her face. But a moment later it had fallen to his knees in front of the table, his face buried in her hands, she burst into a storm of anguished sobs.
"Come, come," said Holmes gently. To err is human, and at least nobody can accuse you of being a hardened criminal. It may be less violent to you that I will explain to Mr Soames what happened, and you can correct me if I'm wrong. Do you prefer it that way? Okay, okay, do not bother to reply. Listen, and you'll see that I am not unfair to you.
"Mr. Soames, from the moment you told me that nobody, not even Bannister, knew that the evidence was in his room, the case began to take concrete form in my mind. Of course, we can discard the printer, since it could review the exercises in your own office. Neither the Indian seemed suspicious: if the tests were on a roll, it is unlikely that he knew what it was. On the other hand, seemed too coincidental that someone would dare to enter the room, so not premeditated, the very day that the reviews were on the table. That too was rejected. The man who entered knew that tests were here. How did you know?
"When we first came to his room, I looked out the window. I was amused that you assumed that I considered the possibility that someone had come around, in the full light of day and exposed to the gaze of all who occupy those rooms opposite. Such an idea was absurd. What I did was calculate how high they had to be a man to see from outside the roles they had on the table. My height is six feet and had to tiptoe to see them. A person lower than I would have had the slightest chance. As you see, and since then had reason to believe that if one of your three students was higher than normal, that was the most convenient monitoring.
"I came here and I made you a participant in the information provided the side table. The coffee table did not say anything, until you, describing Gilchrist, said he practiced long jump. Then all became clear at once, and I just needed some evidence to confirm, and I soon get.
"Here's what happened: the young man had spent the afternoon in the athletic practicing the jump. Returned with the shoes to jump, which, as you know, have several nails into the sole. As he passed the window he saw, thanks to his height, roll up your table tests, and imagined what it was. No nothing bad would have happened not because, as he passed her door, said the key to the careless servant had left there forgotten. Then it took a sudden impulse to go and see if indeed it was testing the test. Was in no danger, because he could always claim that he had entered only to ask you a query.
"Well, when it was found that, in fact, it was the tests, when he succumbed to temptation. He left his shoes on the table. What he left behind in that chair there next to the window?
-gloves, "said the young man.
Holmes glanced triumphantly at Bannister.
-left his gloves in his chair and took the tests, one by one to copy. Assumed that the teacher return to the front door and it would come. But as we know, came through the side door. When I heard, you were already at the door. There was no escape. Left forgotten gloves, but picked slippers and rushed into the bedroom. Will have noticed that the cut is very light on the one hand, but is becoming deeper towards the bedroom door. That is proof enough that someone had pulled the shoes in that direction, and indicated that the culprit had taken refuge there. On the table was a patchwork of land surrounding a nail. A second blob broke off and fell to the floor in the bedroom. I can add that this morning I went to the athletics track, I found the jumping pit has a very sticky black clay and took a sample, along with some fine sawdust that is poured on top to prevent the athlete from slipping. Did I say the truth, Mr. Gilchrist?
The student had been standing.
"Yes, sir, is true," he said.
- heavens! Do not have anything to add? "Said Soames.
"Yes, sir, I have something, but the impression has caused me to be so shamefully exposed left me stunned. I have a letter here, Mr. Soames, I wrote this morning, after a night without sleep. I wrote before I knew that my fraud had been discovered. Here it is, sir. That she will say: "I decided not to take the exam. I've been offered a position in the police Rhodesia and immediate delivery to South Africa. "
" I am pleased to know that there really trying to take advantage of an advantage as ill-gotten, "said Soames. But what made him change his intentions? Gilchrist told
Bannister.
"This is the man who put me in the right direction," he said.
"Well, Bannister," said Holmes. With what we have said, will be clear that only you could have left out this young man because you stayed in the room and had to close the door to leave. No one can believe that I could escape through that window. Can not clarify this last detail of the mystery, explaining why did what he did?
"It's very simple, sir, but you could not know, nor with his intelligence he would have known. Time was, sir, in which Butler was the late Sir Jabez Gilchrist, this young gentleman's father. When he was broke, I went to work as a servant in college, but I never forgot my former master because he had fallen into disgrace. I always did everything I could for her son, recalling old times. Well, sir, when I walked into this room yesterday after the alarm was given, the first thing I saw was the brown gloves Mr. Gilchrist on that chair. He knew those gloves and understood the message enclosed. If Mr. Soames saw them, all was lost. So I slumped in his chair, and nothing could move him until Mr. Soames came to pick you. Then came out of hiding my poor gentleman, whom I had cradled in my lap, and I confessed everything. Was it not natural, sir, I tried to save him, was not natural v also be made to speak as he would have his late father, making him realize he could not profit from his wrongdoing? Can you blame me for it, sir?
"Certainly not," said Holmes heartily, as she put feet. Well, Soames, I think we've solved your little problem, and at home waiting for us breakfast. Come, Watson. As for you, sir, I trust that you wait for a bright future in Rhodesia. For once you have fallen low. Let's see how high they can go in the future.
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