The Missing Manuscript is a picture-search mystery for grades 6 to 10. Students play Sherlock Holmes on the morning of 21 November 1889. During dinner the night before, someone took a medieval book called the Chronicle of Kings from a locked library at Marston Hall, and the guests are still in the house. A student who keeps moving can finish in about an hour.
Open The-Missing-Manuscript.html in Chrome or Edge, because the pictures are already inside that file. Progress stays in the browser on that computer, so a student can stop and come back on the same machine. When another student uses that computer, start the case over from the menu before the next person begins. Keep this guide off student screens, because the key is below.
Students click objects in each picture, and only what they find goes into the case file. They choose a topic for each person, and Holmes asks the question. When two of their clues prove something together, the Connections page opens and shows one clue with three possible partners. A wrong pick costs points. At the library clock, they put the evening in order. Once everything is found, Watson gathers the household in the guest parlour, and the student proves each of Mr. Quayle's statements wrong with a clue they already have. The accusation has three parts, and the ending can be printed as a case report.
The case has a word list of 37 words from the period, such as footman, parlour, and reference. Students click an underlined word to read what it means.
The menu has a To do list, a hint from Watson, larger text, and read-aloud. Watson's hints point at the next open task. A wrong pick on the Connections page costs 5 points, a wrong clue in the cross-examination costs 10 points, and a wrong answer in the accusation costs 15 points. The score starts at 100. Once a student has searched every room and questioned everyone, Watson says what is left to do and takes them there, so nobody is left wondering what comes next.
| Part | What the student does | Minutes |
|---|---|---|
| 221B Baker Street | Reads Lord Hargreave's letter and looks around the sitting room. | 5 |
| The hall and the library | Hears who was in the house, finds the globe, the torn page, the mud, the clock, and the latched windows, and chooses the vase that hides the spare key. | 15 |
| The interviews | Talks with Mrs. Keene, Miss Hargreave, Thomas Padgett, and Mr. Quayle, and searches the rooms they are in. | 20 |
| The clock and the case file | Puts the evening in order and connects the torn page with the ink in the parlour. | 10 |
| The cross-examination and the report | Proves Mr. Quayle's four statements wrong, names him, shows the plan, says where the book is, and prints the case report. | 10 |
The spare key is in the blue vase on the hall table. Lord Hargreave names that color when he explains how someone could enter a locked library. The white vase and the brown vase are empty.
The torn page and the blue ink in the guest parlour mean Mr. Quayle wrote the plan. Mrs. Keene's sighting and Miss Hargreave's account of the terrace mean he left the terrace. Thomas Padgett's account and the globe mean the book went out in a carriage. Each connection opens once the student holds both clues, and a message takes them to it.
Two statements come from showing a clue. Showing the torn page to Lord Hargreave gets his account of Mr. Quayle's three offers, and showing the muddy boots to Mrs. Keene gets her account of when the boots were cleaned. The Show option glows gold only while one of these is waiting, and it offers just the card that person reacts to.
| What he says | Clue that proves it wrong |
|---|---|
| He never left the table. | Miss Hargreave's account of the terrace, or the connection that he left the terrace. |
| He stayed on the terrace after she went in. | Mrs. Keene's sighting at the east wing, that same connection, the muddy boots, or what Mrs. Keene says about the boots. |
| He asked once or twice and then let the book alone. | The torn page, the connection that he wrote it, or Lord Hargreave's account of the three offers. |
| He took nothing out and never went near the carriages. | Thomas Padgett's account of the carriage, or the connection that the book left in a carriage. |
Mr. Humphrey Quayle took the book, and the clue that proves he planned it is the torn page, or the connection that he wrote that page. On the morning of the search, the Chronicle of Kings is wrapped in cloth under the seat of his carriage on the east drive.
A score of 85 or higher ends with "A clean morning's work." A score from 50 to 84 ends with "The book is back in the globe." A lower score ends with "Solved in the end." The printed report asks the student to explain how Miss Hargreave, Mrs. Keene, the library clock, and Thomas Padgett each change Mr. Quayle's claim that he stayed at the table, and to say where the manuscript was that morning. If a student disagrees with an answer in this key, ask the student to show the evidence, and then check it against the key together.
| Person | What the case uses them for |
|---|---|
| Lord Hargreave | He wrote the morning letter. He sat at the head of the table all evening. The torn page is written to him about offers he refused. |
| Miss Clara Hargreave | She grew up in the house and knows the globe opens. She went to the terrace at about 8:45, and Mr. Quayle followed at about nine. She came back in after a few minutes. |
| Mrs. Keene | She has been housekeeper for twenty years and was in the kitchen. At 8:45 she saw Miss Hargreave heading for the terrace. At 9:15 she saw a tall gentleman in a dark coat by the east wing wall. |
| Thomas Padgett | He was footman for seven years and left in the autumn. He waited at the garden gate from 8:00 to 9:30 and stayed outside. At 9:30 he saw a figure put something into a guest carriage. |
| Mr. Humphrey Quayle | He is the guest and a collector, and he took the book. |