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Play,
The Mystery of the Three Students
Can Sherlock Holmes, the world’s best detective, catch a cheater before the big exam?
By Elise Broach | Based on the story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle | Art by Carolyn Risdale
From the March/April 2026 Issue
Learning Objective: Students will read a play about the famous detective Sherlock Holmes.
Narrators 1, 2, 3 (N1, N2, N3)
Mrs. Soames, the French teacher at St. Luke’s School
Mr. Bannister, the custodian at St. Luke’s
Sherlock Holmes, a famous detective
Dr. John Watson, Holmes’s partner
Divya, Millie, and Ben, students at St. Luke’s
Scene 1
St. Luke’s School
N1: Mrs. Soames and Mr. Bannister are walking down the hall.
Mrs. Soames: Next week is the big French exam!
Mr. Bannister: I hope the students are ready.
Soames: The student who gets the highest score will win a lot of money to help pay for their education!
N2: Suddenly, Mrs. Soames gasps.
Soames: My office door is open! Someone must have broken in!
Bannister (gasping): No! I must have left the key in the lock after I cleaned. I’m so sorry!
N3: The two walk toward Soames’s desk.
N1: There are exam papers all over it!
Soames: Someone’s been looking at the exam. And what’s this?
N2: She points to splotches of blue ink.
Soames: Why would there be ink here? Unless someone broke into my office and . . . copied the exam!
Bannister: The ink is fresh, so it must have just happened.
N3: Bannister looks around and turns pale. He rushes toward Soames’s meeting room and falls onto a chair by the door.
Soames: Are you OK?
Bannister: I feel weak. What a shock—a St. Luke’s student cheating!
Soames: We must find the culprit. We’ll need the help of the world’s best detective.
Scene 2
Sherlock Holmes’s apartment, that afternoon
N1: Mrs. Soames knocks on the door.
Sherlock Holmes: How can I help?
N2: She tells him what she saw that morning.
Soames: It is unthinkable that a cheater should win
the prize money!
Holmes: You can’t change the exam?
Soames: No! It’s given at schools all across England.
Holmes: Then I’ll need to investigate your office. I’ll meet you at St. Luke’s tomorrow with my partner, Dr. Watson.
Scene 3
Outside Mrs. Soames’s office, the next day
N3: Holmes and Watson begin their investigation.
Dr. John Watson: Hmm. Did anyone know the exam was in your office?
Soames: Only Mr. Bannister.
Holmes: And do you trust him?
Soames: Of course! Mr. Bannister has been at St. Luke’s since it was founded!
N1: Holmes looks through a small window at the top of the office door.
Watson: What can you see, Holmes? We aren’t tall enough to see through the window.
Holmes: The papers are scattered, as if someone left in a hurry.
N2: Holmes, Watson, and Soames enter the office, where Bannister is waiting.
Holmes: Do any students pass this office to get to their rooms?
Bannister: Only the students who live on the floors above: Divya, Millie, and Ben.
Watson: Aha! We’ve got our three suspects.
Holmes: Are you suspicious of any of these students?
Soames: Not Ben. He’s the grandson of the school’s founder. He’s a star athlete and a great student.
Bannister (smiling): We all love Ben!
Soames: And Divya is a hardworking new student at St. Luke’s.
Watson: That leaves?
Soames: Millie. She’s more focused on playing with her friends than on schoolwork. And she struggles with French.
Watson: Our top suspect!
Holmes (pulling out a magnifying glass): Time to investigate.
N3: Holmes carefully looks around.
Holmes: It looks like there’s a fresh scratch on the desk. And what’s this?
Watson: There’s a trail of dirt. It’s leading to . . . the meeting room.
N1: Holmes yanks open the meeting room door. More dirt covers the floor.
Holmes: Watson and I must question the students.
Scene 4
St. Luke’s, a short while later
N2: Holmes and Watson go upstairs.
N3: Holmes knocks on the first door. A small student answers, clutching a book.
Holmes: Mr. Bannister offered us a tour of the building. Might we see your room?
Divya (frowning): I’m studying.
Watson: We won’t take long.
N1: Holmes and Watson investigate the bedroom.
N2: They thank her and leave.
Holmes: No sign of dirt!
N3: They knock on the next door. It has a “Keep Out” sign on it.
Millie (annoyed): What?
Holmes: Could we come in? We’re visitors touring the school!
Millie (rolling her eyes): Make it quick.
N1: Holmes and Watson investigate and leave.
Watson: That room was spotless!
N2: Finally, they knock on Ben’s door.
N3: A tall boy answers.
Holmes: We’re touring St. Luke’s. Could we see your room?
Ben (smiling): Sure!
N1: Holmes scans the bedroom. He notices a soccer jersey and a pair of muddy cleats.
Watson: Soccer, eh?
Ben: I’m the team goalie.
Holmes: I hear your grandfather founded St. Luke’s.
Ben (proudly): Yep!
Holmes: And Mr. Bannister is a friend of the family?
Ben: Oh, he’s the best.
Holmes: Thank you, we won’t trouble you any further.
Scene 5
Mrs. Soames’s office, the next day
N2: Holmes, Watson, Soames, and Bannister gather.
Holmes: I’ve cracked the case.
Watson, Soames, and Bannister (shocked): You did? How?
Holmes: Who’s the tallest of the three students living here?
Soames: Ben.
Holmes: Whoever copied that exam knew it was in your office. They had to be tall enough to see through the window at the top of the door.
Soames (nodding): Like you did earlier.
Holmes: That eliminates Divya as a suspect. She’s short.
Watson: Brilliant!
Holmes: As for Millie, we checked her room for dirt. It was as clean as a whistle.
Bannister: But it can’t possibly be Ben!
Holmes: Remember the scratch on the desk?
Bannister: Of course.
Holmes: It’s from a metal soccer cleat. Ben dragged his cleats across the desk as he rushed to hide.
Watson: That does explain the trail of dirt.
Holmes: Let’s get Ben. In the meantime, Mr. Bannister, care to change your story?
Bannister: Excuse me?
Holmes: After the break-in, why did you go all the way to the corner when you felt faint? There was a chair next to the desk.
Bannister: I, uh, wasn’t thinking!
Holmes: I believe you were thinking. There was something on that chair you wanted to hide, wasn’t there?
Soames: But what?
N3: Just then, Watson returns with Ben.
Holmes: Time for the truth, lad. After soccer practice, you saw the exam through the window, didn’t you?
N1: Ben nods sadly.
Holmes: The key was in the office door, so you let yourself in to copy the exam.
Ben (looking down): When I heard someone coming, I grabbed my cleats and ran to hide in the meeting room. But I realized later I had dropped one of my goalie gloves.
Watson: On a chair outside the meeting room!
Holmes: And, Mr. Bannister, you saw the glove, didn’t you?
N2: Bannister looks at the floor.
Watson: That’s why you ran and sat down on that chair!
Ben: He was protecting my family!
Soames: You will both be reported to the head of the school about this.
Ben and Bannister (sadly): I’m so sorry.
Soames: Thank you, Mr. Holmes.
Watson: Case solved! Incredible as always, Sherlock Holmes.
Holmes: It was elementary, my dear Watson.
Think and Write
Write an article for the St. Luke’s School newspaper. Tell readers what the mystery was and what clues Sherlock Holmes used to solve it.
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