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. 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.
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. Can you do without breakfast? It is not for nothing that I have turned myself out of bed at the untimely hour of six. It is a fair argument that wherever No. 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. I feared that you had given it up in despair. What am I to do?
Plot Summary of the Adventure of the Three Students by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Shall the examination proceed? 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!
- Fundamentals Of Marital Therapy (Basic Principles Into Practice)!
- Blood War: Blood Destiny, Book 8.
- Navigation menu.
I think that we are now sufficiently imposing to strike terror into a guilty breast. Kindly ring the bell! 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? But it seems probable enough, since the moment that Mr. Up to now you may have spoken the truth, but now I know that you have lied.
The Three Students () - IMDb
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. 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.
Gilchrist, sir; I never said a word—never one word! 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.
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? Listen, and see that I do you no injustice. 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.
The man who entered knew that the papers were there. How did he know? 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.
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. 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.
He put his shoes on the table. What was it you put on that chair near the window? Holmes looked triumphantly at Bannister. 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. 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. I have been offered a commission in the Rhodesian Police, and I am going out to South Africa at once. 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?
When he was ruined I came to the college as servant, but I never forgot my old employer because he was down in the world. I watched his son all I could for the sake of the old days. Well, sir, when I came into this room yesterday when the alarm was given, the very first thing I saw was Mr. I knew those gloves well, and I understood their message. Soames saw them the game was up. I flopped down into that chair, and nothing would budge me until Mr. Soames he went for you. Then out came my poor young master, whom I had dandled on my knee, and confessed it all to me.
Could you blame me, sir? As to you, sir, I trust that a bright future awaits you in Rhodesia. For once you have fallen low. Let us see in the future how high you can rise. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. HubPages and Hubbers authors may earn revenue on this page based on affiliate relationships and advertisements with partners including Amazon, Google, and others.
To provide a better website experience, owlcation. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.
Adaptations of the Adventure of the Three Students
For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: Spoiler Alert - Plot Summary of the Adventure of the Three Students In essence, The Adventure of the Three Students deals simply with a case of cheating in exams, a crime which is hardly on par with murder, blackmail or theft of crown jewels, but it was a problem given over to Sherlock Holmes because of the possibility of scandal.
Questions must be on-topic, written with proper grammar usage, and understandable to a wide audience. This website uses cookies As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons. This is used to prevent bots and spam. This is used to detect comment spam. This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized.
This is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site.
The Adventure of the Three Students
Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized. This is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. This is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.
This is feature allows you to search the site. Some articles have Google Maps embedded in them. This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. Some articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. Bannister was indeed the one who covered for Gilchrist.
He felt that he had to, for old times' sake: Bannister was once Gilchrist's father's butler. Holmes then explains the remaining clues. The scratch on the desk was caused by Gilchrist's spiked jumping shoes as he grabbed them in his haste, and the clay blobs fell from his shoes. Bannister had collapsed in the chair to hide Gilchrist's gloves, which he saw had been left on the chair. For his part, Gilchrist credits Bannister with convincing him not to profit from his misdeed, and presents Soames with a letter stating his wish not to sit the exam, but accept an offer in South Africa for the Rhodesian Police.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. January Learn how and when to remove this template message. Retrieved 12 December Retrieved from " https: Sherlock Holmes short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle short stories.