whose honesty is absolutely above suspicion. I
found that the key was indeed his, that he had entered my room to know
if I wanted tea, and that he had very carelessly left the key in the
door when he came out. His visit to my room must have been within a very
few minutes of my leaving it. His forgetfulness about the key would
have mattered little upon any other occasion, but on this one day it has
produced the most deplorable consequences.

"The moment I looked at my table, I was aware that someone had rummaged
among my papers. The proof was in three long slips. I had left them all
together. Now, I found that one of them was lying on the floor, one was
on the side table near the window, and the third was where I had left
it."

Holmes stirred for the first time.

"The first page on the floor, the second in the window, the third 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 unpardonable
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 someone passing had observed the key in the door,
had known that I was out, and had entered to look 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 a risk in order to gain an
advantage over his fellows.

"Bannister was very much upset by the incident. He had nearly fainted
when we found that the papers had undoubtedly been tampered with. I gave
him a little brandy and left him collapsed in a 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 from a 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 recovering his good-humour as his
attention became more engrossed by the case. "Fortune has been your
friend."

"This was not all. I have a new writing-table with a fine surface of red
leather. I am prepared to swear, and so is Bannister, that it was
smooth and unstained. Now I found a clean