The Adventure of the Priory School
Jun. 3rd, 2018 07:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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sherlock60This week we are reading The Adventure of the Priory School. Apologies again for just a quick summary.
-We open with Holmes and Watson deep in several cases -- the reopening of one and the conclusion of another, both of equal importance. They are interrupted by a head master who is weak from anxiety; one of his pupils is missing as well as a teacher and a bicycle, though no one is sure why the bicycle.
-The pupil in question has a troubled home life -- parents separated and though the boy lives with his father, the boy prefers his mother. He was only at the school for a few weeks before he left. As for the teacher, he is in general disliked. And though the boy left fully dressed, the teacher hastily dressed. Further, the boy had received a letter from his father the day he left, but it cannot be found.
-At the school, an interview with the father yields little results, though Holmes' questions are rather pointed. Nevertheless, Holmes is dismissed with a warning to focus on France, where the mother resides.
-Holmes draws up a map after a day of investigations -- the road the school lies on had a constable at one end who didn't see anyone and an inn on the other where visitors were up all night waiting for a doctor and they, too, didn't see anyone. To the south were fields cut up that would've made a bicycle possible, but as it is too obvious, Holmes dismisses it. The north is the most likely option and when the police find a band of Romani with the boy's cap in the north section, Holmes begins his search in earnest.
-In the north field, despite cow tracks, they find evidence of a bicycle and in short time find the teacher, dead from a blunt blow to the head. The conclusion is that though the boy left on his own, when the teacher saw the boy leaving, he took off with the intent to bring the boy back. The blow to the teacher's head shows evidence that the boy had met up with someone.
-The follow the tracks until they come to another inn with a man who has a bad history with the duke -- the boy's father -- and further that there are horses shoed in an unusual manner. Though initially Holmes and Watson walk away from the inn, they return when they see the secretary riding on a bicycle -- the same they followed in the field -- toward the inn. When they return, Holmes has a look inside one of the upper rooms.
-The next day, Holmes brings the conclusion to the duke -- that it is the duke himself who kidnapped the boy.
-It turns out that the duke's secretary is his illegetimate heir; he conceived of the plot to kidnap the boy under the guide of his mother's name and thereby for the duke to break the laws concerning inheritance so that the secretary could inherit. He employed the use of the inn owner who had a history with the duke and it was he who killed the teacher. The inn keeper was arrested that morning. As for the rest, Holmes decides to not inform the police. We are left to make our own assumptions about the secretary, the duke, and the child and how they fare after this.
Thoughts?
-We open with Holmes and Watson deep in several cases -- the reopening of one and the conclusion of another, both of equal importance. They are interrupted by a head master who is weak from anxiety; one of his pupils is missing as well as a teacher and a bicycle, though no one is sure why the bicycle.
-The pupil in question has a troubled home life -- parents separated and though the boy lives with his father, the boy prefers his mother. He was only at the school for a few weeks before he left. As for the teacher, he is in general disliked. And though the boy left fully dressed, the teacher hastily dressed. Further, the boy had received a letter from his father the day he left, but it cannot be found.
-At the school, an interview with the father yields little results, though Holmes' questions are rather pointed. Nevertheless, Holmes is dismissed with a warning to focus on France, where the mother resides.
-Holmes draws up a map after a day of investigations -- the road the school lies on had a constable at one end who didn't see anyone and an inn on the other where visitors were up all night waiting for a doctor and they, too, didn't see anyone. To the south were fields cut up that would've made a bicycle possible, but as it is too obvious, Holmes dismisses it. The north is the most likely option and when the police find a band of Romani with the boy's cap in the north section, Holmes begins his search in earnest.
-In the north field, despite cow tracks, they find evidence of a bicycle and in short time find the teacher, dead from a blunt blow to the head. The conclusion is that though the boy left on his own, when the teacher saw the boy leaving, he took off with the intent to bring the boy back. The blow to the teacher's head shows evidence that the boy had met up with someone.
-The follow the tracks until they come to another inn with a man who has a bad history with the duke -- the boy's father -- and further that there are horses shoed in an unusual manner. Though initially Holmes and Watson walk away from the inn, they return when they see the secretary riding on a bicycle -- the same they followed in the field -- toward the inn. When they return, Holmes has a look inside one of the upper rooms.
-The next day, Holmes brings the conclusion to the duke -- that it is the duke himself who kidnapped the boy.
-It turns out that the duke's secretary is his illegetimate heir; he conceived of the plot to kidnap the boy under the guide of his mother's name and thereby for the duke to break the laws concerning inheritance so that the secretary could inherit. He employed the use of the inn owner who had a history with the duke and it was he who killed the teacher. The inn keeper was arrested that morning. As for the rest, Holmes decides to not inform the police. We are left to make our own assumptions about the secretary, the duke, and the child and how they fare after this.
Thoughts?
