“Thank heaven that you have come!  I feared that you had given it up in despair.  What am I to do?  Shall the examination proceed?”

“Yes, let it proceed, by all means.”

“But this rascal?”

“He shall not compete.”

“You know him?”

“I think so.  If this matter is not to become public, we must give ourselves certain powers and resolve ourselves into a small private court-martial.  You there, if you please, Soames!  Watson you here!  I’ll take the armchair in the middle.  I think that we are now sufficiently imposing to strike terror into a guilty breast.  Kindly ring the bell!”

Bannister entered, and shrank back in evident surprise and fear at our judicial appearance.

“You will kindly close the door,” said Holmes.  “Now, Bannister, will you please tell us the truth about yesterday’s incident?”

The man turned white to the roots of his hair.

“I have told you everything, sir.”

“Nothing to add?”

“Nothing at all, sir.”

“Well, then, I must make some suggestions to you.  When you sat down on that chair yesterday, did you do so in order to conceal some object which would have shown who had been in the room?”

Bannister’s face was ghastly.

“No, sir, certainly not.”

“It is only a suggestion,” said Holmes, suavely.  “I frankly admit that I am unable to prove it.  But it seems probable enough, since the moment that Mr. Soames’s back was turned, you released the man who was hiding in that bedroom.”

Bannister licked his dry lips.

“There was no man, sir.”

“Ah, that’s a pity, Bannister.  Up to now you may have spoken the truth, but now I know that you have lied.”

The man’s face set in sullen defiance.

“There was no man, sir.”

“Come, come, Bannister!”

“No, sir, there was no one.”

“In that case, you can give us no further information.  Would you please remain in the room?  Stand over there near the bedroom door.  Now, Soames, I am going to ask you to have the great kindness to go up to the room of young Gilchrist, and to ask him to step down into yours.”

An instant later the tutor returned, bringing with him the student.  He was a fine figure of a man, tall, lithe, and agile, with a springy step and a pleasant, open face.  His troubled blue eyes glanced at each of us, and finally rested with an expression of blank dismay upon Bannister in the farther corner.

“Just close the door,” said Holmes.  “Now, Mr. Gilchrist, we are all quite alone here, and no one need ever know one word of what passes between us.  We can be perfectly frank with each other.  We want to know, Mr. Gilchrist, how you, an honourable man, ever came to commit such an action as that of yesterday?”

The unfortunate young man staggered back, and cast a look full of horror and reproach at Bannister.