The Adventure of the Priory School, Part 1

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[SPEAKER_00]: Now it's time to relax.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let your body fall into a comfortable position in your bed and drift gently into a state of total relaxation with tonight's story.
[SPEAKER_00]: The adventure of the priory school, Part 1.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have had some dramatic entrances and exits upon our small stage at Baker Street, but I cannot recollect anything more sudden and startling than the first appearance of thorny Croft Huckstable, MA, PhD, etc.
[SPEAKER_00]: His card, which seemed too small to carry the weight of his academic distinctions, preceded him by a few seconds.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then he entered himself, so large, so pompous, and so dignified that he was the very embodiment of self-possession and solidity.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet his first action, when the door had closed behind him, was to stagger against the table, when he slipped down upon the floor, and there was that majestic figure prostrate and insensible upon our bearskin-hathraq.
[SPEAKER_00]: We had sprung to our feet and for a few moments we stared in silent amazement at this ponderous piece of wreckage, which told of some sudden and fatal storm far out on the ocean of life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then homes hurried with a cushion for his head, and I with Brandy for his lips.
[SPEAKER_00]: The heavy white face was seamed with lines of trouble.
[SPEAKER_00]: The hanging pouches under the closed eyes were led in color.
[SPEAKER_00]: The loose mouth drooped dullerously at the corners.
[SPEAKER_00]: The rolling chins were unshaven.
[SPEAKER_00]: Collar in shirt bore the grime of a long journey and the hair bristled unkempt from the well-shaped head.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a sorely stricken man who lay before us.
[SPEAKER_00]: What is it, Watson?
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolute exhaustion, possibly mere hunger and fatigue, said I, with my finger on the 3rd e-pulse, where the stream of life trickled thin and small.
[SPEAKER_00]: Return ticket from Mackelton in the north of England said homes drawing it from the watch pocket.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is not 12 o'clock yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: He has certainly been an early starter.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Puckadilids have begun to quiver.
[SPEAKER_00]: and now a pair of vacant grey eyes looked up at us.
[SPEAKER_00]: An instant later the man had scrambled onto his feet, his face crimson with shame.
[SPEAKER_00]: Forgive this weakness, Mr. Holmes, I have been a little overwrought.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I might have a glass of milk and a biscuit, I have no doubt that I should be better.
[SPEAKER_00]: I came personally, Mr. Holmes, in order to ensure that you would return with me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I feared that no telegram would convince you of the absolute urgency of the case.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you are quite restored, I am quite well again.
[SPEAKER_00]: I cannot imagine how I came to be so weak.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wish you Mr. Holmes to come to Mackelton with me by the next train.
[SPEAKER_00]: But my colleague, Dr. Watson, could tell you that we are very busy at present.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am retained in this case of the Ferris documents and the Abba Gave any murder is coming up for trial.
[SPEAKER_00]: Only a very important issue could call me from London at present.
[SPEAKER_00]: Important.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our visitor threw up his hands.
[SPEAKER_00]: Have you heard nothing of the abduction of the only son of the Duke of Holderness?
[SPEAKER_00]: the late cabinet minister.
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_00]: We had tried to keep it out of the papers, but there was some rumour in the globe last night.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought it might have reached your ears.
[SPEAKER_00]: Homes shot out his long thin arm and picked out volume H in his encyclopedia of reference.
[SPEAKER_00]: Holdenessor, sixth Duke, KG, PC, half the alphabet.
[SPEAKER_00]: Baron Beveli, Earl of Castan, Deerme, what a list.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lord Lieutenant of Halemshire since 1900.
[SPEAKER_00]: married Edith, daughter of Sir Charles Appledore 1888, heir and only child Lord Soltire, owns about 250,000 acres, minerals in Lancashire and Wales, Address, Carlton House Terrace, Holderness Hall, Halamshire, Caston Castle, Banger Wales, Lord of the Admiralty 1872, Chief Secretary of State Forb,
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, well, this man is certainly one of the greatest subjects of the crown.
[SPEAKER_00]: The greatest and perhaps the wealthiest I am aware Mr. Holmes that you take a very high line in professional matters and that you are prepared to work for the work sake.
[SPEAKER_00]: I may tell you, however, that his grace has already intimated that a check for £5,000
[SPEAKER_00]: and another thousand to him who can name the man or men who have taken him.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is a princely offer, said Holmes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Watson, I think that we shall accompany Dr. Huxtable back to the north of England.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now, Dr. Huxtable, when you have consumed that milk, you will kindly tell me what has happened when it happened how it happened and finally, what Dr. Thorneycroft Huxtable of the priory school near Mackelton has to do with the matter, and why he comes three days after an event.
[SPEAKER_00]: The state of your chin gives the date to ask for my humble services.
[SPEAKER_00]: our visitor had consumed his milk and biscuits.
[SPEAKER_00]: The light had come back to his eyes and the colour to his cheeks, as he set himself with great vigor and lucidity to explain the situation.
[SPEAKER_00]: I must inform you gentlemen that the priory is a preparatory school of which I am the founder and principal.
[SPEAKER_00]: Huxtables side lights on Horace may possibly recall my name to your memories.
[SPEAKER_00]: The priory is without exception the best and most select preparatory school in England.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lord Levastoke, the Earl of Blackwater, so Cathcart Somes, they all have entrusted their sons to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I felt that my school had reached its zenith when weeks ago the Duke of Holdenus sent Mr. James Wilder his secretary, with information that young Lord Soltire, ten years old, his only son and heir, was about to be committed to my charge.
[SPEAKER_00]: little did I think that this would be the prelude to the most crushing misfortune of my life.
[SPEAKER_00]: On May 1st the boy arrived, that being the beginning of the summer term.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was a charming youth, and he soon fell into our ways.
[SPEAKER_00]: I may tell you, I trust that I am not in discreet, but half-confidence is our absurd in such a case, that he was not entirely happy at home.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is an open secret that the Duke's married life had not been a peaceful one, and the matter had ended in a separation by mutual consent.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Duchess taking up her residence in the south of France.
[SPEAKER_00]: This had occurred very shortly before, and the boys' sympathies are known to have been strongly with his mother.
[SPEAKER_00]: He moored after her departure from Holdenus Hall, and it was for this reason that the Duke
[SPEAKER_00]: In a fortnight the boy was quite at home with us, and was apparently absolutely happy.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was last seen on the night of May 13th, that is the night of last Monday.
[SPEAKER_00]: His room was on the second floor and was approached through another larger room in which two boys were sleeping.
[SPEAKER_00]: These boys saw and heard nothing so that it is certain that young saltyer did not pass out that way.
[SPEAKER_00]: His window was open, and there is a stout ivy plant leading to the ground.
[SPEAKER_00]: We could trace no footmarks below, but it is sure that this is the only possible exit.
[SPEAKER_00]: His absence was discovered at 7 o'clock on Tuesday morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: His bed had been slept in.
[SPEAKER_00]: He had dressed himself fully before going off.
[SPEAKER_00]: In his usual school suit of black, eaten jacket and dark grey trousers, there were no signs that anyone had entered the room and it is quite certain that anything in the nature of cries or a struggle would have been heard, since Conter the elder boy in the inner room is a very light sleeper.
[SPEAKER_00]: When Lord Soltier's disappearance was discovered, I had once called a role of the holostablishment,
[SPEAKER_00]: It was then that we ascertained that Lord Sultire had not been alone in his flight.
[SPEAKER_00]: Heidigur, the German master, was missing.
[SPEAKER_00]: His room was on the second floor at the father end of the building, facing the same way as Lord Sultire's.
[SPEAKER_00]: His bed had also been slept in, but he had apparently gone away partly dressed since his shirt and socks were lying on the floor.
[SPEAKER_00]: He had undoubtedly let himself down by the ivy, for we could see the marks of his feet where he had landed on the lawn.
[SPEAKER_00]: His bicycle was kept in a small shed beside this lawn, and it also was gone.
[SPEAKER_00]: He had been with me for two years and came with the best references, but he was a silent morose man, not very popular either with masters or boys.
[SPEAKER_00]: No trace could be found of the fugitives, and now on Thursday morning we are as ignorant as we were on Tuesday.
[SPEAKER_00]: Inquiry was, of course, made at once at Holderness Hall.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is only a few miles away.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we imagine that in some sudden attack of home sickness, he had gone back to his father, but nothing had been heard of him.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Duke is greatly agitated, and as to me, you have seen yourselves the state of nervous prostration to which the suspense and the responsibility have reduced me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mr. Holmes, if ever you put forward your full powers, I implore you to do so now for never in your life could you have a case which is more worthy of them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sherlock Holmes had listened with the utmost intentness to the statement of the unhappy schoolmaster.
[SPEAKER_00]: his drawn brows and the deep furrow between them showed that he needed no exhortation to concentrate all his attention upon a problem which, apart from the tremendous interest involved, must appeal so directly to his love of the complex and the unusual.
[SPEAKER_00]: He now drew out his notebook and jotted down one or two memorandre.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have been very remiss in not coming to me sooner.
[SPEAKER_00]: said he, severely, you start me on my investigation with a very serious handicap.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is inconceivable, for example, that this IV and this lawn would have yielded nothing to an expert observer.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am not to blame Mr. Holmes.
[SPEAKER_00]: His grace was extremely desirous to avoid all public scandal.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was afraid of his family unhappiness being dragged before the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: He has a deep horror of anything of the kind.
[SPEAKER_00]: But there has been some official investigation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, sir, and it has proved most disappointing.
[SPEAKER_00]: an apparent clue was at once obtained since a boy and a young man were reported to have been seen leaving a neighbouring station by an early train.
[SPEAKER_00]: Only last night we had news that the couple had been hunted down in Liverpool and they proved to have no connection whatever with the matter in hand.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then it was that in my despair and disappointment, after a sleepless night, I came straight to you by the early train.
[SPEAKER_00]: I suppose the local investigation was relaxed while this false clue was being followed up.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was entirely dropped.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that three days have been wasted.
[SPEAKER_00]: The affair has been most deplorably handled.
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel it and admit it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I shall be very happy to look into it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Have you been able to trace any connection between the missing boy and this German master?
[SPEAKER_00]: None at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: Was he in the master's class?
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
[SPEAKER_00]: He never exchanged a word with him so far as I know.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is certainly very singular.
[SPEAKER_00]: Had the boy a bicycle,
[SPEAKER_00]: No, was any other bicycle missing?
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is that certain?
[SPEAKER_00]: Quite.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, now you do not mean to seriously suggest that this German road off upon a bicycle in the dead of the night, bearing the boy in his arms.
[SPEAKER_00]: certainly not.
[SPEAKER_00]: The what is the theory in your mind?
[SPEAKER_00]: The bicycle may have been a blind, it may have been hidden somewhere, and the pair gone off on foot.
[SPEAKER_00]: Quite so, but it seems rather an absurd blind, doesn't not, where there are other bicycles in this shed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Would he not have hidden a couple had he desired to give the idea that they had gone off upon them?
[SPEAKER_00]: I suppose he would.
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course he would.
[SPEAKER_00]: The blind theory won't do.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the incident is an admirable starting point for an investigation.
[SPEAKER_00]: After all, a bicycle is not an easy thing to conceal or to destroy.
[SPEAKER_00]: One other question.
[SPEAKER_00]: Did anyone call to see the boy on the day before he disappeared?
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
[SPEAKER_00]: Did he get any letters?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, one letter.
[SPEAKER_00]: From whom?
[SPEAKER_00]: From his father.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you open the boys' letters?
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
[SPEAKER_00]: How do you know it was from the father?
[SPEAKER_00]: The coat of arms was on the envelope and it was addressed in the Duke's peculiar stiff hand.
[SPEAKER_00]: Besides, the Duke remembers having written.
[SPEAKER_00]: When had he a letter before that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Not for several days.
[SPEAKER_00]: had he ever won from France?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, never.
[SPEAKER_00]: You'll see the point of my questions, of course.
[SPEAKER_00]: Either the boy was carried off by force or he went of his own free will.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the latter case, you would expect that some prompting from outside would be needed to make so young a lad do such a thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: If he has had no visitors that prompting must have come in letters, hence I try to find out who were his correspondence.
[SPEAKER_00]: I fear I cannot help you much.
[SPEAKER_00]: His only correspondence, so far as I know, was his own father.
[SPEAKER_00]: Who wrote to him on the very day of his disappearance.
[SPEAKER_00]: His grace is never very friendly with anyone.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is completely immersed in large public questions and is rather inaccessible to all ordinary emotions.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he was always kind to the boy in his own way.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the sympathies of the latter were with the mother.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Did he say so?
[SPEAKER_00]: no.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Duke then.
[SPEAKER_00]: Good heavens, no.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then how could you know?
[SPEAKER_00]: I have had some confidential talks with Mr. James Wilder, his grace's secretary.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was he who gave
[SPEAKER_00]: I see.
[SPEAKER_00]: By the way, that last letter of the dukes, was it found in the boy's room after he was gone?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, he had taken it with him.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think Mr. Holmes, it is time that we were leaving for Houston.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will order a four wheeler.
[SPEAKER_00]: In a quarter of an hour, we shall be at your service.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you are telegraphing home, Mr. Huxtable.
[SPEAKER_00]: it would be well to allow the people in your neighborhood to imagine that the inquiry is still going on in Liverpool, or wherever else that red herring led your pack.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the meantime, I will do a little quiet work at your own doors, and perhaps the scent is not so cold, but that two old hounds like Watson and myself may get a sniff of it.
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you very much.
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you.
[UNKNOWN]: You
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you very much.
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you.
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you.