Sherlock Holmes and I were spending a few weeks in a college town while he researched some obscure subject in a library. One evening Mr. Hilton Soames came to visit us at our boardinghouse. We didn't know him well, but he'd always impressed me as a nervous fellow. When we entered the parlor, he was so agitated that I knew something unusual had happened.
"Please sit down." I gestured toward a chair, but Soames was too excited to sit. "I know you're a lecturer at St. Luke's College," I said, "but I can't remember your subject."
"He teaches Greek," Holmes replied impatiently. "Why are you here, Mr. Soames?"
"We've had an unfortunate incident at the college." Soames wrung his hands in dismay. "If you weren't in town, Mr. Holmes, I don't know what I'd do. I hope you can spare me a few hours of your valuable time."
Holmes frowned. "I'm very busy right now and don't want to be distracted. If you have a problem, call the police."
Soames appeared startled by Holmes' rudeness. I was less surprised. Away from the comfort of our Baker Street rooms, the famous detective was even grumpier than usual.
"Good-bye." Holmes turned to leave the parlor.
"Please, Mr. Holmes, you're the only one who can help me!" Soames seemed quite frantic. "You're more than a great detective. You're also famous for your discretion. Summoning the police will result in a lot of unwanted publicity—and possibly, a terrible scandal for me and the college."
Heaving a sigh and turning around, Holmes motioned for him to continue.
Soames said that tomorrow was the first day of an exam for a very competitive scholarship. The winner would receive a huge amount of money. Soames was in charge of this first portion, which involved translating a chapter from Greek to English.
"As you can imagine," Soames went on, "a great deal of secrecy surrounds this exam. Absolutely no one can see the Greek text ahead of time. If a student were to get hold of it in advance, he'd have a huge advantage."
"More than an advantage—he would be cheating!" I said.
"I gather that's what happened?" Holmes asked as the two of us sat down.
Soames gave a miserable nod and dropped into a chair too.
"Around three o'clock this afternoon, the printer delivered proofs of the exam to my rooms. My job was to correct any mistakes and return the proofs. Then the final version could be printed in time for tomorrow afternoon's exam."
By four-thirty Soames had not finished reviewing the proofs, but he was meeting a friend for tea. So he left the three pages of proofs on his desk, carefully locked the door, and went out. When he returned, he was horrified to see a key in the lock to his door.
"What time was this?" Holmes asked.
"Sometime between five-thirty and six," Soames said. "My own key was in my pocket, and my servant, Bannister, has the only duplicate."
"And this Bannister," Holmes said, "do you trust him?"
"Oh, yes! He's an older man, who has looked after my rooms for ten years and is completely honest."
Soames returned to his story. As Soames stood looking at the key, Bannister happened to come down the stairs.
"Oh, there's my key!" Bannister cried. "I wondered where I'd left it."
"Did you enter my rooms while I was out?" Soames asked.
"Yes, sir. I brought your tea as usual at five o'clock. When I realized you'd gone out, I removed the tea tray, and I must have forgotten my key."
Soames was angry at Bannister's carelessness but didn't want to scold him on the stairs, where someone might overhear. He asked Bannister to come into his rooms.
"The moment we entered my sitting room," Soames said, "I knew that someone had tampered with the proofs. I had left them in a neat pile on my desk, but now they were scattered about the room. One page was on the floor; another was on a small table by the window. The third page was still on my desk."
"Oh, really?" Holmes lifted his eyebrows at this new information.
"For a moment I wondered if Bannister had gone through my papers. But he denied that, and I'm convinced he was telling the truth because he immediately collapsed into a chair. He was upset that his carelessness has caused me a grave problem."
"Was he all right?" I asked in concern.
"He nearly fainted, and I was feeling dizzy with anxiety myself," Soames said. "We were both concerned that a student had entered my rooms. Everyone in the academic world has heard of this scholarship. Can you imagine how much damage a cheating scandal would inflict upon the college?"
I nodded, picturing the story on the front page of every newspaper.
Soames said there were other signs that someone had been in his sitting room. On the table by the window, he found some pencil shavings and broken lead.
"The rascal was copying the exam so quickly that he broke his pencil and had to sharpen it!" Soames said.
Holmes rubbed his hands together with glee. "That was a lucky find, Soames!"
I could tell Holmes was recovering his good humor as he became engrossed in the case.
"That's not all," Soames said. "My brand-new desk had a three-inch cut in its red leather top. Not a mere scratch, Mr. Holmes, a cut! I also found a small piece of what looks like black clay on the desktop. I've never seen anything like it before."
"Could it be some type of eraser?" I asked.
"No." Soames shook his head. "It's mixed with specks of a substance like sawdust."
Soames continued to search his sitting room but didn't find any footprints or other signs of the intruder.
"I was unsure of what to do, but then I remembered you were in town," Soames said to Holmes. "So I locked the proofs in my desk and rushed off to consult you."
"Where is Bannister now?" Holmes asked.
"I was in such a hurry that I left him collapsed in the chair. He was still upset, poor fellow. Oh, say that you'll help me, Mr. Holmes!" Soames pleaded. "If the mystery isn't solved, the exam will be postponed."
"And you'll have a lot of explaining to do," I said.
Soames turned to me. "You can't begin to imagine the number of people who will have to be notified. There's the head of the classics department, the dean—"
"Well then, we'd better get busy," Holmes interrupted. "If you can wait a moment, Mr. Soames, we'll fetch our overcoats and set off to examine the scene of the crime."