Young Sherlock Holmes_ Death Cloud - Andrew Lane [39]
Amyus Crowe arrived after lunch, and spent several hours outside, on the veranda, testing Sherlock’s thinking processes with mind games and puzzles. One in particular stuck in Sherlock’s mind.
‘Let’s imagine there’s three fellows who decide to split the cost of a hotel room,’ Crowe said. ‘The room costs thirty shillings a night includin’ dinner an’ breakfast – obviously a prestigious place. So the fellows pay the manager ten shillings each. OK so far?’
Sherlock nodded.
‘Good. Next mornin’ the manager realizes he’s made a grievous error. There’s a special rate on the room cos of buildin’ work in the hotel. So he sends a bellhop – bellboy, I think you call ’em – to the fellows’ room with five shillings to give back. The fellows are so pleased they decide to keep a shilling each an’ tip the bellboy two shillings. So, each of the men ended up payin’ nine shillings instead of ten, an’ the bellboy made two shillings. Right?’
Sherlock nodded again, but his mind was rushing to keep up. ‘Hang on – if each man ended up paying only nine shillings, that’s twenty-seven shillings in total. Add that to the two shillings the bellboy got, and you get twenty-nine shillings. There’s a shilling missing.’
‘That’s right,’ Crowe said. ‘You tell me where it went.’
Sherlock spent the next twenty minutes working it out, first in his mind and then on paper. Eventually he admitted defeat. ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘The manager gave back five shillings, so he didn’t keep it; the bellboy got two shillings, so he didn’t get it, and the men each got one shilling back, so they didn’t get it.’
‘The problem’s in the description,’ Crowe explained. ‘Yep, three times nine shillings does equal twenty-seven shillings, but the tip is already included in that. It makes no sense to add the tip to that to make twenty-nine shillings. If you restructure the problem, you realize that the men paid twenty-five shillings for the room and two shillings for the tip, then got a shilling back each, making thirty shillings. And the upshot is . . . ?’
Sherlock nodded. ‘Don’t let someone else phrase the problem for you, because they might be misleading you. Take the facts they provide, then rephrase the problem in a logical way that enables you to solve it.’
Amyus Crowe left before dinner, and Sherlock returned to his room to think about what he had learned. He came back down for dinner and ate in silence, while his uncle read and his aunt talked to herself. Mrs Eglantine eyed him suspiciously from the side of the room, but he didn’t meet her gaze. The only conversation was when his uncle looked up from the book he was reading and said to the housekeeper: ‘Mrs Eglantine, what stocks of food do we have within the Manor House gardens?’
‘For vegetables, we grow enough for our needs,’ she said, her mouth pinched. ‘For fowl and for eggs, likewise. As far as meat and fish are concerned, we can probably manage for a few weeks before we run out, if it is carefully husbanded.’
Uncle Sherrinford nodded. ‘I think we must assume the worst. Prepare to smoke or otherwise preserve as much of the meat as possible. Lay in stocks of essentials. If the plague gets hold of Farnham then we may be isolated for some time. I know that Amyus Crowe is counselling caution, but we should take precautions.’ He turned to Sherlock. ‘Which reminds me – Mr Crowe tells me you haven’t spent much time on your Latin and Greek.’
‘I know,’ Sherlock said. ‘Mr Crowe and I have been concentrating on . . . Mathematics.’
‘Mr Crowe’s time is valuable,’ Uncle Sherrinford went on in a calm, measured manner. ‘And your brother has gone to some expense to secure his services. You may wish to reflect on that.’
‘I will, Uncle.’
‘Mr Crowe will return tomorrow afternoon. Perhaps you might do some translation for me.’
Remembering Matty’s estimate that they wouldn’t be back until dinner time, Sherlock winced. He couldn’t tell his uncle that he was going to Guildford, however. He might be forbidden to go. Glancing up, he found that Mrs Eglantine was glaring at him with her small,