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The Three Students Summary | Class 12 | Sir Arthur Conan Doyle | Major English by Suraj Bhatt
The Three Students by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
ABOUT THE STORY
The Three Students by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
This short story "The Three Students" is a story of suspense and surprise that has been written by the British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It first appeared in print in the June 1904 issue of The Strand magazine. It was published again in 1905 as part of the anthology "The Return of Sherlock Holmes."
MAIN PLOT
The Three Students by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The story dates back to 1895. Sherlock Holmes wanted to do some research on early English law. Holmes and his friend Dr. Watson temporarily moved to an unknown university town to conduct that research. One evening, Hilton Soames, a Greek lecturer at the University College of St. Luke, met Holmes and Watson at their residence. Soames seemed to be in big trouble. He told Holmes that a big crime had been committed at his college. To prevent a scandal, Soames wanted Holmes to find the culprit without any involvement of the police.
The next day a test would be held to decide which student would receive the Fortescue scholarship. The scholarship was of a very huge amount. In the test, scholarship candidates had to translate a long section of passage from the Greek language that they hadn't seen before. The one who had already seen the lesson would be benefitted greatly from the exam. For this reason, the test's contents were kept strictly confidential. Soames was responsible for marking the Greek translation test. Before printing the test copies, the printer was required to send evidence to Soames so that he could examine them for any errors. Three pages of evidence, in the form of a roll of paper, arrived at Soames's study at 3 p.m. An Indian student named Daulat Ras, who was about to take the exam, came to study at Soames after the evidence papers came. However, it was unlikely that he identified the roll of paper as the text of the unseen translation test.
After unravelling and reading the evidence, Soames left at 4:30 p.m. Returning an hour later, he found the key to his study door. He discovered that the key was not his but his servant Bannister. Upon entering his study, Soames noticed that someone was there in his study in his absence and looked at the evidence. He found all three test sheets in different places. The third sheet was still on his desk, but the first sheet was on the floor and the second was near the window. On the table by the window, Soames found sharpened pencil's dust and a broken pencil's tip. Soames' new writing desk had a three-inch-long cut on the top of the red leather. A small piece of black clay and sawdust was also on the writing-table. Not only did Bannister deny that he had anything to do with the intrusion, but he also appeared to be deeply distracted. While standing at the study door, Bannister looked sick. Soames made him sit down on a chair and gave him brandy. When Soames went to see Holmes, he left Bannister in his study chair.
Holmes and Watson went to St. Luke's College. Soames lived and worked on the ground floor of a medieval building. Three students also lived in the same building. The ground floor window looked at Soames' study. Holmes inspected the window and stood on his tiptoe to look through it. Soames thought that Holmes is wasting time because the intruder apparently entered through the door, not through the window. Upon entering Soames's study, Holmes found Bannister nowhere. The detective asked Soames about the location of Bannister. Soames replied that he was sitting in a chair by the window.
Sherlock Holmes learnt that the intruder took the papers, one by one, to the table near the window. From there, he would be able to see Soames coming back to the main entrance of the building. Earlier it used to take about fifteen minutes for an intruder to copy the paper. After copying the first paper, he threw it on the floor. While he was copying the second paper, Soames turned back. The intruder did not see Soames coming through the window as he entered the building through the entrance next to it. He had to go quickly, he did not have time to remove the signs of his intrusion.
Holmes examined the tip of a sharpened pencil and the tip of a broken pencil. He noticed that they were carrying soft lead pencils. From the letters in shavings, he sees that the pencil belongs to a very popular brand, Johann Faber, but it is unusually large. He said that the pencil would now be only an inch and a half long and had been sharpened with a very black knife. Holmes also checked for cuts and pieces of black clay on the writing desk.
Soames was not in the bedroom next to his when he learned that there had been the intruder in his study. Holmes also checked the room. No one was hiding in his bedroom, but another piece of black clay and sawdust was visible on the floor of the room. It was clear that the intruder fled to the bedroom after Soames' return. Holmes thought that the intruder can't escape through the bedroom window, which meant he was there while Soames watching his study and talking to Bannister.
Believing that the intruder was most likely one of the three students who live in the same building as Soames, Holmes asks Soames about them. The students are Gilchrist, Daulat Ras and Miles McLaren. All three students are candidates for the Fortescue Scholarship and are due to take the exam the next day. Gilchrist is a good student and athlete. He plays on the university's rugby and cricket teams and is very good at the long jump and hurdles. He is the son of Sir Jabez Gilchrist, who lost a lot of money through gambling and left his family poor. The Indian student Daulat Ras is quiet and hard working. He is generally a good student, although he is not very good at Greek. Miles McLaren is a good student when he chooses to be. He is badly behaved, however, and was almost expelled from the university once. He has not been studying hard recently and is unlikely to do well in the exam.
Believing that the intruder was one of three students living in Soames' same building, Holmes asked Soames about all the three students. The students were Gilchrist, Daulat Ras and Miles McLaren. All three students were candidates for the Fortescue Scholarship and were scheduled to take the exam the next day. Gilchrist was a good student and player. He played on university rugby and cricket teams and was very good at long jumps and hurdles. He was the son of Sir Jabez Gilchrist, who lost a lot of money by gambling and left his family poor. Indian student Daulat Ras was calm and hardworking. He was generally a good student, although he was not very good at Greek. Miles McLaren was a good student when he wanted to be. However, he was mistreated and was once almost expelled from the university. He had not been studying hard lately and was unlikely to do well in the exams.
Bannister was summoned for questioning. He told Holmes that this was not the first time he had unintentionally left a key in Soames's door. He said that he came to get tea for Soames and left the room seeing that there was no lecturer. With a tray of tea in his hand, he left the key behind. Holmes asked Bannister why, although he was standing at the door feeling sick, he chose to sit in a chair near the window rather than in a chair. Bannister could not give a satisfactory answer. Bannister said that after Soames left, he spent only a short time in the study. When asked if he suspected an intruder, Bannister replied that he did not suspect anyone.
After a while, Holmes and Watson saw the three students inside with the lights on in their rooms. Daulat Ras could be seen walking around his room. Pretending to be a visitor to a college interested in medieval architecture, Holmes took Watson and Soames into each student's room. Gilchrist, described by Watson as a "tall, shiny-haired, thin young man," was very welcoming to visitors. Holmes pretended to be very interested in something in Gilchrist's room and began to sketch. He broke his pencil and asked the student to give him another pencil. He then borrowed a knife to sharpen his pencil. Holmes went to the same routine in Daulat Ras's room. Indian student seemed less welcoming to the visitors and was clearly happy when they left. None of the students provided him with a pencil or a knife to match the pencil used by the intruder. Miles McLaren refused to open his door to visitors and shouted and swore until they left the place. Holmes asked Soames about McLaren's height. Soames replied that he was taller than Daulat Ras but shorter than Gilchrist.
Holmes told Soames that the exam should be taken as scheduled earlier the next day. He said he would come to see Soames the next morning. He took with him the shavings of a pencil, the tip of a broken pencil, and pieces of black clay and sawdust.
When they left college, Holmes and Watson saw Daulat Ras still pacing around in his room. Holmes said that this is not a very unusual behaviour and people often do it when they are trying to learn something by heart. Holmes also said McLaren's response was "absolutely normal" for anyone taking the critical test the next day. However, Holmes was unable to identify Bannister's involvement in the case.
On their way home, Holmes and Watson visited four major stationery stores in the city. None of the stores had a pencil matching the intruder used in stock.
At eight o'clock the next morning, Holmes woke up Watson. Holmes announced that he had got up at six o'clock and had solved the mystery. He found Watson with three more pieces of black clay and brown, as found in Soames' study and his bedroom. At St. Luke's College, Holmes told Soames that the exam will go ahead as planned and will not be taken by intruders. Holmes, Watson and Soames sat down so that they were like a panel of judges. Bannister was called. He looked very scared, but he insisted there was nothing more to say about the intrusion. He was told to stay in the room and Gilchrist was called inside. Gilchrist looked at Bannister. Bannister tried to reassure him by saying "I didn't say a word", which exposed Gilchrist's guilt.
Holmes revealed that he did not inspect the window of Soames' study because he thought an intruder had climbed out. Instead, he thought it might be tall enough to watch. Soames hag said earlier that Gilchrist was good at the long jump. The college's long jump pit was filled with black clay and sawdust. The day before, Gilchrist, wearing spike athletic shoes, was doing a long jump. When he returned to college that afternoon, with his shoes in his hands, he looked out the window at the Soames' office. He saw some papers on the desk which could be evidence of a Greek translation test. Seeing the key of the door, he entered the room. He put his spiky shoes on the desk and his gloves on the chair by the window. When he heard Soames' return, Gilchrist immediately took his shoes, his spike cut the red leather on the desk and went to hide in Soames's bedroom. He left his glove behind.
Before becoming Soames' servant, Bannister was the butler of Gilchrist's father, Sir Jabez. He kept the young Gilchrist feeling very safe. He immediately recognized Gilchrist's gloves. He sat down in a chair by the window to hide his gloves and sat in the chair until Somes left the room. After Soames departure, Gilchrist hid the gloves and left. Bannister later went to see Gilchrist and persuaded him not to cheat on the test.
Gilchrist revealed that he had already written a letter to Soames acknowledging what he had done. He left the university and went to Rhodesia to join the police. Holmes wished Gilchrist a happy new life in Africa.
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