The evening world. Newspaper, April 8, 1905, Page 11

¢ Price | Cent EVEN, x ; The New Sherlock Holmes Adventures. (COPYRIGHT, 196, BY DIN PRESS PUBLISHING ©O,) Including Special Color Supplement. (COPYRIGHT, 1M6, BY THE PRESS PUBLISHING Co.) eran TO THE EVENING WORLD. SATURDAY. APRIL 87, 1908. No. 9 OF THE SERIES. 1Gse MYSTERY & THREE % STUDENTS. By Str A. Conan Doyle. Author of ‘The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,”’ “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” ‘The Ad- ventures of Brigadier Gerard,” ‘The Sign of the Four,” ‘‘A Study in Scarlet,” &c. (Copyright, 197}, by A. Conan Doyle and Collier's Weekly.) (Copyright, 1905, by McClure, Phillips & Co.) (Copyright, 1995, by the Preas Publishing Company.) This ts the Ninth Story of the Series, There are four more. They will be pub- lished in THE EVENING WORLD. one every Saturday, fur the next four weeks. Next Saturday—The Adventure of the Gold Pince-Nez. Holmes stirred for the first time. "a “The first page on the floor, the second in the window, the third f where you left it," said he. “Exactly, Mr. Holmes. You amaze me. How could you possibly know that?” “Pray continue your very interesting statement.” “For an instant I imagined that Bannister had taken the unpar- donable liberty of examining my papers. He denied it, however, with the utmost earnestness, and I am convinced that he was speaking the truth, The alternative was that some one passing had observed the key in the door, had known that I was out and had entered to look bs at the papers. A large sum of money is at stake, for the scholarship is a very valuable one, and an unscrupulous man might very well run ae a risk in order to gain an advantage over his fellows, T was in the year '95 that a combination of events, into which I need not enter, caused Mr. Sherlock Holmes and myself to spend some weeks in one of our great university towns, and it was during this time that the small but instructive adventure which I am about to re- late befell us. It will be obvious that any de- tails which would help the render to exactly “Bannister was very much upset by the incident. He had nearly fainted when we found that the papers had undoubtedly been tam- pered with. I gave him a little brandy and left him collapsed in a 4 chair, while I made a most careful examination of the room, I soon saw that the intruder had ‘left other traces of his presence besides the rumpled papers. On the table in the window were several shreds Sy from #8 pencil which had been sharpened. A broken tip of lead was lying there also, Evidently the rascal had copied the paper in a great hurry, had broken his pencil and had been compelled to put a fresh point to it.” “Excellent!” said Holmes, who was recoveringghis good-humor bs Ay identify the college or the criminal would be Injudicious and offensive. So painful a scandal may well be allowed to die out. With due dis- cretion, the incident itself may, however, be described, since it serves to iliustrate some of as his attention became more engrossed by the case. ‘Fortune has those qualities for which my friend was re-~ been your friend.’ ~~ “This was not all { have a new writing-table with a fine surface markable, I will endeavor in my statement to avoid such terms as would serve to limit the of red leather. I am prepared to swear, and so ts Bannister, that It events to any particular place or give a clue to was smooth and unstained, Now, I found a clean cut in it about three ‘a the people concerned. inches long—not a mere scratch, but a positive cut. Not only this, We were residing at the time in furnished but on the table I found a small ball of blagk dough or clay, with lodgings close to a library where Sherlock Holmes was pursuing some laborious re- Specks of something which looks like sawdust in it. I am convinced shat these marks were left by the man who rifled the papers. There fy were no footmarks and no other evidence as to his identity. I was at my wits’ ends, when suddenly the happy thought occurred to me that you were in the town, and I came straight round to put the matter into your hands. To help me, Mr. Holmes! You see my dilemma. Hither I must find the man or else the examination must be post- poned untii fresh papers are prepared; and since this cannot be done without explanation, there will ensue a hideous scandal, which will throw a cloud not only on the college tut on the university. Above all things, I desire to settle the matter quietly and discreetly,” “I shall be happy to look into it and to give you such advice as I can," said Holmes, rising. and putting on his overcoat. ‘The case is y | | | searches in early English charters—researches which led to results so striking that they may be the subject of one of my future narratives. Here it was that one evening we received a visit from an acquaintance, Mr, Hilton Soames, tutor and lecturer at the Col- lege of St. Luke's, Mr. Soames was a tall, spare man, of a nervous and excitable temperament. I had always known him to bo restless in his manner; but on this particular occasion he was in such a state of uncon- trollable agitation that it was clear something very unusual had oc- curred, “I trust, Mr, Holmes, that you can spare me a few hours of your val- uable time. We have had a very painful Incident at St. Luke's, and really, but for the happy chance of your being in town, I should have been at a loss what to do.” “T am very busy just now, and I desire no distractions,’’ my triend answered. “I should much prefer that you called in the aid of the police.” 4 “No, no, my dear sir; such a course Is utterly impossible. When ie once the"law is evoked it cannot be stayed again; and this is just-one of ¢ those cases where, for the credit of the college, it is most essential to fi avoid scandal, Your discretion is as well known as your powers, and Bi you are the one man in the world who can help me. I bey you, Mr. u not entirely devoid of Interest. Had any one visited you in your room after the papcrs came to you?" Yes; young Daulat Ras, an Indian student, who lives on the same stair, came in to ask me some particulars about the examination,” “For which he was entered?” “Yes,” “And the papers were on your table?” "To the best of my bellet, they were rélled up, | | “But might be recognized as proofs?” } io) Holmes, to do what you can," “Possibly,” Ly My friend's temper had not improved since he had been deprived of “No one else in your room?” j Fi the congenial surroundings of Baker street. Without his scrap-books, “No.” » Hie his chemicals and his homely untidiness, he was an uncomfortable man, “Did any one know that these proofs would be there?” | He shrugged his shoulders in ungracious acquiescence, while our visitor {n burried words and with much excitable gesticulation poured forth his story, “I must explain to you, Mr, Holmes, that to-morrow ia the first day of the ox- “No one save the printer.” “Did this man Bannister know?" 5 “No, certainly not. No one knew.” “Where is Bannister now?" “He is very ill, poor fellow. I left him collapsed in the chair, I was in such a hurry to come to you,” omination for the Fortescue Scholarship. I am one of the examiners, My subject is Greek, and the first of the papers consists of a large passage of Greek transla- tion which the candidate has not seen. This passage is printed on the examination rh paper, and it would naturally be an immense advantage if the candidate could pre- Dare it in advance. For this reason, great care is taken to keep the paper secret, “To-day, about 8 o'clock, the proofs"of this paper arrived from the printers, The exercise consists of half a chapter of Thucydides, I had to read it over carefully, aa the text must be absolutely correct. At 4.30 my task was not yet completed. I had, however, promised to take tea in a friend’s rooms, so I left the proof upon my deak. I was absent rather more than an hour. “You are aware, Mr, Holmes, that our college doors are double—a green baize “You left your door open?" “LT locked up the papers frst.” “Then it amounts to this, Mr. Soames: that, unless the Indian student recognized the roll as being proofs, the man who tampered with them came upon them accidentally without knowing that they were there.” , Sena “So it seems to me.” Holmes gave an enigmatic smile. “Well,” said he, “let us go round, Not one of your cases, Watson—mental, not physical. All right; come if you want to, Now, Mr. Soames—at your disposal!" one within and a heavy oak one without. As I approached my outer door I was The sitting-room of the client opened by a long, low, latticed window on to the ancient amazed to see @ key in it. For an instant I imagined that I had left my own there, my leaving it. His forgetfulness about the key would have mattered little upon lchen-tinted court of the old college. A gothic arched door led to a worn stone staircase. On but on feeling in my pocket I found that it was all right. The only duplicate which any other occasion, but on this one day it has produced the most deplorable con- the ground floor was the tutor's room, Above were three students, one on each story, It was existed, so far as I knew, was that which belonged to my servant. Bannister—a man sequences, already twilight when we reached the scene of our problem, Holmes halted and looked earnestly who has looked after my room for ten years and whose honesty ts absolutely above “The moment I looked at my table I was aware that some one had rummaged at the window. Then he approached it, and, standing on tip-toe with his neck craned, he looked suspicion. I found that the key was indeed his; that he had entered my room {o among my papers. The proof was in three long slips. 1 had left them all together, into the room. i know if I wanted tea, and that he had vory carelessly left the key in the door when Now, I found that one of them was lying on the floor, one was on the aide table near “He must have entered through the door, There is no opening except the one pane,” sald our $ he came out, His visit to my room must have been within a very fow minutes of the window and the third was where [ hud left it.” learned guide, aege he ste iS a a, Waconia ‘ ih i