wanted there?"

"I think it is clear enough. You came back by an unexpected way, and so
he had no warning until you were at the very door. What could he do?
He caught up everything which would betray him, and he rushed into your
bedroom to conceal himself."

"Good gracious, Mr. Holmes, do you mean to tell me that, all the time I
was talking to Bannister in this room, we had the man prisoner if we had
only known it?"

"So I read it."

"Surely there is another alternative, Mr. Holmes. I don't know whether
you observed my bedroom window?"

"Lattice-paned, lead framework, three separate windows, one swinging on
hinge, and large enough to admit a man."

"Exactly. And it looks out on an angle of the courtyard so as to be
partly invisible. The man might have effected his entrance there, left
traces as he passed through the bedroom, and finally, finding the door
open, have escaped that way."

Holmes shook his head impatiently.

"Let us be practical," said he. "I understand you to say that there are
three students who use this stair, and are in the habit of passing your
door?"

"Yes, there are."

"And they are all in for this examination?"

"Yes."

"Have you any reason to suspect any one of them more than the others?"

Soames hesitated.

"It is a very delicate question," said he. "One hardly likes to throw
suspicion where there are no proofs."

"Let us hear the suspicions. I will look after the proofs."

"I will tell you, then, in a few words the character of the three men
who inhabit these rooms. The lower of the three is Gilchrist, a fine
scholar and athlete, plays in the Rugby team and the cricket team for
the college, and got his Blue for the hurdles and the long jump. He is
a fine, manly fellow. His father was the notorious Sir Jabez Gilchrist,
who ruined himself on the turf. My scholar has been left very poor, but
he is hard-working and industrious. He will do well.

"The second floor is inhabited by Daulat Ras, the Indian. He is a quiet,
inscrutable fellow; as most of those Indians are. He is well up in his
work, though his Greek is his weak subject. He is steady and methodical.

"The top floor belongs to Miles McLaren. He is a brilliant fellow when
he chooses to work--one of the brightest intellects of the university;
but he is wayward, dissipated, and unprincipled. He was nearly expelled
over a card scandal in his first year. He has been idling all this term,
and he must look forward with dread t