Sherlock Holmes Never Dies- Collection Four

by Copland, Craig Stephen

  Meeting of the Rhodes Scholarship Selection Committee for Oxford University.

  Upper Camera Reading Room, Radcliffe Camera, Bodleian Library.

  2 July, 1906. 4:00 pm.

  MINUTES

  In attendance: Dean Hilton Soames (Chairman), Rev. Richard Rifkin (Vice-Chairman), Dr. Victor Wiltshire, Dr. Fred Alves, Rev. Edwin Taggart, Rev. Hector Fitton, Dr. Benjamin Rutter, The Very Rev. Alexander Madden, Miss Jane Stuart (Recording Secretary).

  The Chairman called the meeting to order at 4:05 pm. and called for a motion to approve the Agenda.

  MOTION: That the Agenda be approved. Moved by Rev. Rifkin; Seconded by Dr. Wiltshire.

  Dr. Rutter requested confirmation that members could lay a motion on the table to amend the Agenda if they wished to do so. The Chairman confirmed that this was acceptable.

  Seven votes in favour. No votes against. Motion passed.

  The Chairman called on the Very Reverend Madden to give the invocation.

  The Chairman thanked Rev. Madden and offered a humorous anecdote which he claimed followed directly from the content of Rev. Madden’s prayer.

  MOTION: That the Chairman be censured for treating the Committee in an unacceptably frivolous manner.

  Moved by Dr. Rutter; Seconded by Dr. Wiltshire. Four votes in favor. Three votes against. Passed.

  MOTION: That the Chairman be commended for his excellent sense of humor.

  Moved by Rev. Taggart; Seconded by Dr. Rutter. Three votes in favor. Four votes against. Motion defeated.

  REPORT OF THE CHAIRMAN: Dean Soames informed the Committee regarding the theft of the Finalist Files, and the withdrawal by Mr. Christopher Evans of his candidacy for the Scholarship.

  MOTION: That Dean Soames be censured for his egregiously irresponsible actions in failing to protect the confidential documents of the Committee.

  Moved by Dr. Rutter; Seconded by Dr. Wiltshire. Four votes in favor. Three votes against. Passed.

  MOTION: That Dean Soames and his Secretary, Mr. Rodney Bannister, be commended for the courage and bravery they demonstrated, with risk to their own persons, in resisting the theft of the Committee’s files.

  Moved by Rev. Taggart; Seconded by Dr. Rutter. Three votes in favor. Four votes against. Motion defeated.

  POINT OF ORDER: Called by Dr. Rutter. That the Agenda be suspended so that more pressing matters might be considered.

  MOTION: To suspend the Agenda.

  Moved by Dr. Rutter; Seconded by Dr. Wiltshire. Four votes in favor. Three votes against. Passed.

  MOTION: That Dean Soames be removed as Chairman of the Committee for cause.

  Moved by Dr. Rutter; Seconded by Dr. Wiltshire. Four votes in favor. Three votes against. Passed.

  POINT OF ORDER: Called by The Very Rev. Alexander Madden. That the Minutes note that three members of the Committee claimed that the above motion was in direct violation of the Terms of the Committee.

  INTERRUPTION: The meeting was interrupted by Mr. Rodney Bannister, Secretary to Dean Soames, informing the committee of the reported death of Finalist Candidate Mr. Fritz Richter.

  MOTION: That a Sub-Committee made up of Dr. Rutter and Dr. Wiltshire be struck to propose finalist names to replace Christopher Evans and Fritz Richter. The Sub-Committee to report at a special meeting of the Committee to be held on 4 July, 1906 at 10:00 am in the same location.

  Moved by Dr. Rutter; Seconded by Dr. Wiltshire. Four votes in favor. Three votes against. Passed.

  MOTION TO ADJOURN: Moved by Dr. Rutter; Seconded by Dr. Wiltshire. Four votes in favor. Three votes against. Passed.

  Holmes and I looked at each other after reading the minutes.

  “There appears to be,” said Holmes, “some mischief afoot here. Miss Stuart, you have faithfully recorded the actions of the Committee, and I am assuming that you are risking your future employment at the University by showing this confidential document to me. Please state your case in bringing this to me.”

  “I bring it to you, Mr. Holmes, because I have nowhere else to turn. Dean Soames is a genuine Christian gentleman. He is without guile and entirely honorable in everything he has done in all aspects of his life and position at the University. His sympathy and tenderness are readily extended to all who are in need. He is the most entirely unselfish man I have ever had the privilege of knowing and working for. He has not a single flaw in his character. He does not even smoke.

  “What has been done to him,” she continued, “is unconscionable.”

  “Please miss,” interrupted Holmes. “Dean Soames’s character is not in question. Tell me why four members of the Committee conspired against him.”

  “The heated discussion,” said Miss Stuart, “that took place informally before the meeting and could not be included in the Minutes concerned the option available to Dean Soames to appoint a woman as a finalist. Four of the members are vehemently opposed. Three members, and the dean, refused to have the option ruled out-of-order and demanded that the Dean retain the freedom at his sole discretion to appoint a woman if he wished to do so. So the four of them revolted and seized control of the Committee. What happened was vile and unjust.”

  “But was it illegal?” asked Holmes.

  Miss Stuart said nothing for several seconds. “No sir, it was not illegal, and I know that you investigate criminal matters and not violations of common decency, but I am appealing to you, Mr. Holmes, as a man of honor. It is all I can do.”

  I thought that Holmes would graciously dismiss the lady, but he surprised me.

  “Leave this with me, Miss Stuart. I will do what I can but I can make no promises, and it will have to wait until more urgently pressing matters are disposed of.”

  “That is all I can hope for,” said Miss Stuart. She rose, bid us good-day and departed.

  “This case grows steadily more complicated,” said Holmes when we were alone.

  “Surely, you don’t believe that the meeting and the death of Fritz Richter are connected.”

  “Surely, my dear friend, I do but at the moment, I do not yet know how. But come, we have to prepare for a visit with Messrs Jackson and Bannister.”

  “At the same time.”

  “Of course.”

  “How are you going to arrange that?”

  “Elementary. And bring your service revolver.”

  Chapter Eight

  Macbeth as Town Planner

  Cecil Rhodes attended Oriel College, Oxford

  AN HOUR LATER WE WERE WALKING NORTH to the Summertown neighborhood along a less direct route up Charbury Road and through the grounds of some schools instead of taking the direct route up the Banbury Road.

  “Is there some reason,” I asked Holmes, “why we are not riding our cock horse to Banbury Cross?”

  “Because Mr. Bannister is likely to be doing exactly that and I do not wish him to know that we are also on our way to Mr. Jackson’s house.”

  “How in the world did that happen? Why is he going there?”

  “Because Daniel Jackson sent him an urgent note demanding that he do so.”

  “He did? Jackson sent a note like that this morning?”

  “Oh, good heavens, Watson. Of course, he did not. What matters is that Mr. Bannister received such a note.”

  I should have known.

  Upon reaching the street where Mr. Jackson lived we hid ourselves behind a hedge on the far side of the street.

  “Rodney Bannister,” said Holmes, “was requested to be here at noon. He is always punctual. Ah, there he comes now.”

  I could see the tall, lean figure of Mr. Bannister walking smartly up the street. He had no cane and was not limping. He ascended up the steps, two at a time, to the front door, opened it and went inside without knocking.

  “Quickly,” said Holmes. “Follow me, but be silent.”

  The two of us scampered across the street and without making a sound opened the door and let ourselves into the house.

  Holmes whispered, “He has gone directly back to the li
brary. There is small closet off the front hall where the maid puts her broom. It’s in there.”

  “What is?”

  “Sssshh.”

  Holmes opened the closet and within a few seconds took out a sledge hammer and a jimmy.

  “Follow me,” he said, again.

  As we tiptoed down the hallway, I could hear Rodney Bannister and Daniel Jackson shouting at each other.

  “I am here because you bloody well told me to come here.”

  “I did nothing of the sort.”

  “Look. Here’s your note. Nobody else in the world calls me Uncle Roddy. It must be from you. What sort of game are you playing Danny? Who else could possibly have sent it?”

  “I suppose I might have,” said Holmes as he strode into the room.

  “How dare you!” screamed Daniel Jackson. “Get out of my house this instant or I will call the police.”

  “Will you now?” said Holmes in a mockingly cheerful note as he deposited the hammer and bar on Jackson’s desk with a resounding bang and thump.

  “Ah, and let me guess, where would an efficient student keep a file that he was needing for current use. In the center drawer of his desk?”

  Holmes circled around to the far side of the desk and opened a drawer and pulled out a file.

  “Ha, well look at this. A file that matches the one stolen from Dean Soames’s office. Ah, but not an exact match. A letter addressed to a Mr. Fritz Richter, written perhaps in your hand, has been added.”

  Holmes walked back from the desk, laid the file on the front of it, and sat down.

  “I do believe that it is time that Uncle Roddy and the son of his brother in Australia have a small chat with us. Don’t you agree, gentlemen?”

  “You’re playing a dangerous game, Mr. Holmes,” snarled Bannister.

  “And why do you say that, Mr. Bannister?. Because you could beat me six ways from Sunday? I have no doubt you could, but that is why Dr. Watson has a gun drawn and ready to use it.”

  Bannister was glaring, but Daniel Jackson had turned white to the roots of his hair. He was visibly trembling as Holmes turned to him.

  “Daniel, why, in heaven’s name would you do such a stupid thing as break and enter and commit theft? You have a stellar life ahead of you even without the Rhode’s.” Daniel, fighting back tears, appeared ready to respond when Bannister interrupted.

  “You got that wrong, Holmes” shouted Bannister. “Daniel could not possibly have committed that theft. He was at the pub when it took place. There are photos in the paper to prove that.”

  Holmes sighed and rolled his eyes, looking at Bannister.

  “Oh, please, Mr. Bannister. You feigned a desperate need for my services thinking that I would fall for your false evidence and place the blame on someone else. Your story was a hopeless pack of lies from the very beginning. You told me that you could not see the thief because it was too dark. At eight o’clock in the evening, one week past the solstice, it is still broad daylight. You could not make up your mind as to which of your legs had been injured, switching your cane from right hand to left and back again. Your lean, tough body and your face and hands betrayed a time in your life when you engaged in many hard fights with your fists, and yet you try to tell me that another man easily tossed you aside and down the stairs. The door that was broken down could have been opened with the shoulder or boot of any man of average size, let alone the giant of a fellow you claimed to have encountered. Whoever broke it open had to bring a sledge hammer along, knowing that he did not have sufficient mass to do the job without one. You are a man of disciplined military habits who for years has gone with his friend to the same pub every Friday afternoon, yet you suddenly forget to bring your purse with you. No, Rodney Bannister, you did not return to Dean Soames’s office to retrieve your purse, you returned to steal the file because you had learned that its contents could harm your nephew, only to discover him doing the same thing for the same reason. When you arrived at the office, it was he you encountered. You concocted your story of having come there around eight o’clock to give Daniel an alibi since at that time he was photographed sitting in the Lamb and Flag. Need I go on, Mr. Bannister? Suffice it to say, you were not to be believed.”

  Holmes now turned to the young, delicate and sickly pale medical student. “As to you, Daniel Jackson, your arrogant claim that only Australians from the likes of Alice Springs spoke with the distinct accent of that nation was patent nonsense. There is not an Australian from the Prime Minister on down who is not fervently even belligerently proud of his accent and does nothing to disguise it. You did not attempt to disguise your low opinion of Fritz. You are athletic and lithe and were able to squirm your way through a transom. Your feet are smaller than a man’s of average height, and you left your footprints behind. Taking a running leap from a dangerous height and having the skill to land and somersault is a skill taught perhaps to marines but also to those who ride in a steeplechase. You have let your hair grow longer than is the custom in part to cover the small deformity of your ear. At first, I assumed that your uncle had acquired his matching deformity from fighting during his youth. When he disclosed that his brother had moved to Australia in the recent past, and I observed your shared familial ear, it was obvious that the two of you were linked to each other by blood. Your facial features are very unlike his and I conclude that you inherited yours from your mother, but the enlarged helix that partially covers the scaffoid fossa—medical terms with which you are fully familiar—is a hereditary feature.”

  Holmes stopped speaking and looked at Daniel Jackson intently. “Now,” he said in a softer tone, “permit me to return to my original question. Why did you do something so foolish?”

  The young man had tears streaming down the soft features of his face as he replied. “I trusted Fritz and he betrayed me. He used confidences that I had confessed to him and disclosed them to the Committee. That information would not only have led the Committee to disqualify me, but if it became public knowledge, which Fritz threatened to do, would destroy my life.”

  “Indeed? What did he say about you?”

  “He said that I was…I was… a sodomite.”

  “Well, are you?”

  “NO! How dare you, Mr. Holmes. I have never engaged in that sinful practice, and I swear, in the name of all that is holy, that I never shall!”

  “Then where, young man, did Fritz’s accusations come from? What did you confess to him?”

  Now the lad began to weep, but then I saw his small fists clench and pound on his knees. He took a deep breath, composed himself and looked squarely back at Holmes.

  “Sir, there are countless thousands of men throughout this country, throughout the world, and indeed throughout history whose physical attraction is more to our own sex than to females. I am among those who are so inclined but who have for reasons of our faith and common sense elected to remain celibate and to refrain from all forms of intense sexual activity. But Fritz could see that I found handsome, athletic young men to be attractive and he took advantage of those feelings. He pretended to care about me; he went so far as to say he had fallen in love with me; he even kissed me; and, in the heat of the moment, I admitted my longings. That was all he needed. He abandoned me, and let it be known that he would use what I had admitted to him to disqualify me from the Rhodes. He taunted me with his actions, just as he did Kit Evans. He turned out to be the wickedest, most vile man to ever have come into my life.”

  “I have no doubt,” said Holmes, “that what you say is accurate. But do you believe he deserved to be murdered for being that way?”

  “Murdered?” gasped Daniel Jackson. “Fritz wasn’t murdered. He drowned.”

  Holmes now turned to Rodney Bannister. “Would you, Mr. Bannister, now be willing to tell your nephew the extent you went to, to protect him from the wiles of Fritz Richter.”

  “Uncle Roddy. What did you do?”

  “I did nothing at all. Fritz Richter must have been drunk and fallen in the Thames
. That is what the police have determined.”

  “Yes, Mr. Bannister,” said Holmes, “that is what they are saying. But it was you, having learned from your nephew of Fritz’s treachery, who turned the tables on him. You, who could drink a gallon of whiskey and still punch the lights out of three men at a time, bought him drinks until he was three sheets of the wind. In his drunken state, he bragged about the way he had seduced the affections of Daniel and the confidence of Kit. He bragged about sending the documentation to the Committee, and you knew immediately which file it had been put in. It was you who helped him stagger out of the Lamb and Flag and led him back to his room, but instead of taking him to his door you turned the other way on his block and took him across the Grandpont footbridge. It is unlikely that you pushed him into the River Thames, that would be outright murder. More likely is that he fell in the water of his own accord whilst you watched him drown and be swept away by the current?”

  “You,” replied Bannister, with a smirk on his face, “have nothing but conjecture. Is there a witness to say they saw me with Fritz beyond Thames Street? No. Or if there were, is there one who saw me on the bridge with him? No. Is there anyone who can say they watched as I let him drown? Is does not matter, does it, Mr. Holmes? For even if there were, there is no law in England that says one drunken man must rescue another one. You do know the law, do you not, Mr. Holmes?”

  I knew that law as well. On the Continent several countries had passed laws making it a crime to fail, in a situation of ‘easy rescue,’ not to come to the aid of one whose life was in peril. But under British Common law, there was no such requirement absent a direct responsibility of the one party—a teacher, parent, husband, or one in a similar relationship of care—for the other. Not to do so was reprehensible, unethical and universally regarded as despicable, but it was not against the law.

  “You may be correct,” said Holmes, “upon that point. I shall leave that to Scotland Yard, the Press, and the public to determine your guilt. It will be their decision, Mr. Bannister, whether or not you will be condemned by the opprobrium of decent citizens, if not by the law. As to you, Mr. and soon-to-be Doctor Daniel Jackson, I will remove the offending content from this file and return it to the Committee. There are only two other people who have read it; Dean Soames and Miss Stuart. I suspect that they will not make it known to the other members. As to what to do with you; you have fallen low. Let us see, in the future, how high you can rise. I will invoke the wise judgment of the One in front of whom we will all some day stand and be judged for our lives: let he who is without sin among you cast the first stone…Neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more.”