A trip to university for Watson and Holmes after a stolen exam paper…
Sherlock Holmes arrives in a famous university town (Watson withholds from us which one but presumably it is Oxford or Cambridge) to assist Mr. Hilton Soames, a lecturer at St Luke’s College. Someone has been into Soames’s office and looked at an exam he was due to give the next day. Leaving his office, when he returned an hour later, he found a key left in the lock. The key belongs to his servant, Bannister, who had forgotten his key after he found Soames was gone for tea. The proofs to the exam were found out of place, with one near the window, another one on the floor, and the last still resting on the desk. Bannister swears that he did not touch the papers or see anyone else in the room. Suspicion turns to the three students due to take the exam…
While perhaps not a case with a great deal at stake, this was an intriguing one with the smallest of clues eventually solving the mystery. I found it interesting that Sherlock uses people’s behaviour here, questioning the simplest choice of seat in a room, as opposed to the physical clues that are left behind.
Tomorrow there is a violent murder in The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez…