"You promised." "I promised you nothing." "I'm leaving for Rome." "Please, please come with me." "I've given up." "I have no more to give." "Why, why do you treat me like this?" "No." "Go, go, go, go." "Heartless, mean." "It was at that moment that love died and hate was born." "Violet." "Hi, Watson." "Well timed." "Shake hands with Steve Dixie, the pugilist who might have a future in this profession if he didn't mix with bad company." "What is happening here?" "Abe, meddling in affairs that don't concern him." "Now I warned him and he got cocky." "No, keep talking, keep talking it's fine." "It's fine is it?" "Well, it won't be so damn fine if I have to thump you around a bit." "Stop it, Watson, stop it." "Let us hear who has sent him on this belligerent errand." "Sit down Dixie." "Talk to me." "Ah, thank you, now tell me what this is all about." "I ain't telling you nothing, Mr. Holmes, except you keep away from Harrow." "I haven't been in Harrow in months." "You know what I'm talking about." "I'm warning you, keep away." "On the matter of the killing of Perkins outside the Holburn Bar." "I had nothing to do with that." "I was training, yeah, at the bullring in Birmingham when that boy got done." "You'll tell that to the magistrate." "Mrs. Hudson!" "Look, no hard feelings, aye, Mr. Holmes?" "Mrs. Hudson, there's been a slight disturbance." "Oh, yeah, I just done what I was told." "My regards to Barney Stockdale." "Are you responsible for this mess?" "Go on down those stairs with you at once." "Oh, he's a harmless enough fellow and easily cowers as you see." "One of the Spencer John gang, assaults, intimidation and the like." "Why would they want to intimidate you?" "And who's Barney Stockdale?" "He's immediate principal." "Who's paying Barney Stockdale I wonder?" "The Three Gables Harrow Weald." "He's broken our window!" "Dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes," "I've had a succession of strange incidents occur to me in connection with my house." "And I should much value your advice." "You would find me at home any time tomorrow." "I believe that my late husband Mortimer Maberley was one of your early clients." "Yours faithfully," "Mary Maberley." "This comic interlude with Steve Dixie convinces me there must be something in it." "Let us wire her and go out there at once." "I knew your husband well, Madame, but it was some years ago." "Well, it's some years since he's been with us the dear man." "Oh, will you try some of this?" "I baked it myself." "That's Douglas Maberley." "Yes." "I knew him slightly." "He's a splendid fellow." "He plays rugby for my old club Black Heath." "I'm his grandmother." "Oh." "I was his grandmother." "He died a month ago." "Died?" "You hadn't heard?" "No, it was a sad ending." "Oh, I'm so sorry, he seemed so full of life and energy it's hard to connect." "He lived too intensely." "It was the ruin of him." "Was it an accident?" "I mean the last I heard he'd been appointed attaché to our embassy in Rome." "He died in this house, of pneumonia they say brought on by a ruptured spleen but it's not to talk of my grandson that I asked you here." "Well, we are here, please." "To give you service." "Thank you." "Well I've been in this house for over a year now leading a retired life." "Three days ago I had a call from a house agent." "The money is no object, Madame." "But there's several empty houses around here on the market!" "No, this, my client's heart is set on this one." "Will you name your price?" "I suggested 500 pounds more than I gave for it." "He said that his client..." "My client desires to buy the furniture as well." "All of it?" "Everything." "But some of it is very good." "Just state your price, Mrs. Maberley." "So I did, a good round sum and he agreed at once." "You see I've always wanted to travel around the world if I could." "It's a legacy left to me by my dear Mortimer." "No less, we never really achieved it." "The man returned the next day with everything drawn up?" "Yesterday, luckily I showed it to Mr. Sutro, my lawyer." "This is very strange!" "Are you aware that you cannot take anything out of the house not even your own personal possessions?" "Not my clothes, my jewelry?" "Anything." "When the man returned to the house you pointed this out?" "Yes." "He said I might take some personal effects but that nothing should go out of this house unchecked." "My client is very liberal but has fads, Madame, and a way of doing things." "I'm afraid it must be everything or nothing for my client." "Then it must be nothing." "Here it is." "Haines Johnson, auctioneer, valuer, no address." "I doubt we shall find him in the directory, honest men don't conceal their place of business." "(heavy breathing)" "Just a little wheezy for eavesdropping." "I just came in to find out if the visitors were staying for lunch, Madame." "Don't force me to use this." "Mrs. Maberley, did you mention to anyone that you were going to consult me?" "I did not, Mr. Holmes." "Who posted the letter?" "Susan did." "Susan?" "Ah, to whom did you send your message?" "I sent no message." "Tell me?" "Susan, I remember now," "I saw you speaking to someone over the hedge." "That was my own business, Madame." "Barney Stockdale." "Fine chance that would be." "I didn't even know the man." "It is worth 10 pounds to you if you tell me who is at the back of this." "Someone who could lay down 1,000 pounds for every 10 you've got in the world." "I see a rich man who smiled, a rich woman." "Tell me the name and earn the money." "I'll see you in hell first." "I'll send for my box tomorrow, Madame." "This gang means business." "But what can they possibly want?" "Mrs. Maberley, you say you've been in this house for a year?" "Nearly two." "So for nearly two years no one has taken any particular interest in the house and yet suddenly within three or four days urgent demands are made for it and its contents." "Something new must've been brought into the house." "No, I haven't bought anything new for a year." "This Susan, how long has she been with you?" "Almost three weeks." "Since your grandson's death?" "A week after." "Ah." "She presented herself and I took her in I suppose without proper reference." "You know, this cake is delicious." "Please, now will you tell us about the circumstances of your grandson's return to Italy?" "My gallant boy." "You may remember him as debonair and splendid, Dr. Watson." "You didn't see the morose and brooding creature he became." "His heart was broken." "In a single month" "I watched him turn into a worn out cynical man." "A woman?" "He wouldn't speak of it." "He was afraid of upsetting his grandma he said." "And so you never learnt her name?" "It might be advisable for someone to stay with you tonight." "Watson?" "Yes, of course." "No, I really couldn't ask such a thing." "No, no, no, we're leaving." "Thank you, Mrs. Maberley," "I shall be back before dark, don't concern yourself." "It might be useful to find this what's she called, Violet." "He may have confided something to her that he didn't tell his grandmother in his last hours." "Holmes?" "Good afternoon Mr. Dixie." "The old lady and the house are both under my protection and don't you forget it." "Make sure they're gone." "Bring your revolver tonight." "D, Douglas Maberley, splendid, debonair, too morose, cynical, strong words." "Oh, no, who is this lady with no eyes?" "Our course lies there." "There must be something she doesn't know she has." "And probably wouldn't tell us even if she did know." "This is a case for Langdale Pike." "That reptile." "Nonsense, don't talk rubbish." "He's a gossip, but he might identify this rich woman." "Sad, he was brilliant at university, and you know, I've always felt that under that veneer that he was totally isolated." "Like me." "You see that?" "That young girl there, under the tree, with the occasional hat, what do you make of her?" "She's looking for her dog." "What?" "No, no, surely." "A saluki, with a turquoise collar perhaps." "She's a stranger in the park so is the dog." "There it is now." "How did you know that?" "Her boots are country boots but not so robust, as to suggest a rough terrain." "Wiltshire," "Gloucestershire perhaps." "Yes, yes, yes, but, don't you find her attractive?" "All right." "Why saluki?" "Owners are meant to look like their dogs, they say, wouldn't you say, saluki?" "Remarkable." "She is in point of fact," "Lady Geraldine Windridge," "The Close Marlborough, Wiltshire." "And now, my dear Holmes, what is it you really want from me?" "The late Douglas Maberley." "Poor boy, and what a waste." "He was involved with a lady a well placed rich lady." "Known to you?" "Have you something to trade, tittle for tattle?" "Langdale, I'm in a hurry." "Hmm, thank you." "Her name is Isadora Klein." "Ah, yes, widow of the German sugar king, quite a celebrated beauty." "The celebrated beauty." "She's engaged to be married to the youthful Duke of Lomond." "What else did Pike tell you, anything about her and Maberley?" "Nothing." "I wonder Holmes, do you think it could be about some compromising letters she wants retrieved," "I mean particularly in view of her forthcoming marriage." "You mean love letters?" "No, no, it's deeper than that." "Listen, I demand that you spend a sleepless night at the Three Gables with that revolver at hand." "How will you be spending the evening?" "Pursuing the matter from another angle, examining the principal." "So, what is it you have to tell me, Miguel?" "That stupid woman Susan has left the Maberley house." "Left?" "Was forced to leave she claims by Mr. Sherlock Holmes." "He's refused our request to avoid Harrow." "Sherlock Holmes?" "Then you did not request him hard enough." "Well, so Mr. Sherlock Holmes is on the case." "He paid a visit to the old lady but left empty handed." "Have no fear." "We're losing time, Miguel, we must act tonight, arrange it." "This Mr. Sherlock Holmes intrigues me." "Is he clever?" "He has a reputation." "For solving crimes, yes, but for women?" "You still owe me a favor dear boy, remember?" "I shan't destroy the paper until you've returned the compliment, remember tittle for tattle?" "Look at you, I mean what's all this?" "Oh, of course, we are above the bourgeois epitan costume, the revels have begun." "Life is mystery enough without your pale conundrums." "Oh, so many people, so little purpose." "That's God's conundrum." "If only we mortals could answer that." "Then your life would have no meaning." "Ah." "True, cruel, cruel but so true." "I've always said that if our late mutual friend," "Charles Augustus Milverton was the bad angel." "I am the good angel." "I supress much, much more than I expose, what sort of world would it be if I didn't?" "Which one is she?" "Over there my dear fellow, you could hardly mistake her, with young Lomond." "La belle dame sans merci." "Douglas Maberley." "And others." "All those, all those and then those." "Douglas was one of the most striking young men in London." "He gave all, and expected all." "It was she who ended it." "Brutally." "Married to the penniless diplomat of little breeding was not in the widow's plans." "Don't your read my column?" "And yet he seems, even in death to have some hold over her, what is it?" "Do what you like with the information I gave you but have no truck with her." "Look, the sight of her set my hairs on end." "She's deadly." "And now she has her great Duke aligned within her grasp." "Look at them." "She's old enough to be his... ah, the anguished mother." "I helped her husband once." "What is your interest in her now?" "Douglas is history, he's dust, dust." "Aren't we all, aren't we all." "Even you." "Not me dear boy, not me." "I withstand the blasts of time." "Can't you see?" "Good evening." "(whistling)" "I was on my way to India, governess to a family when I met my dear Mortimer." "He was going the other way." "This is the hat he was wearing, over 60 years ago." "But you never got to India?" "No, I turned back and went with him." "Oh, the fuss." "You see he was a penniless salesman at the time, gripe water, you know, the things in baby's tummies." "But in his heart and soul was adventure." "The places we planned to visit all over the world," "We never left Harrow." "Is that, is this Mortimer with Douglas?" "Oh, good heavens, have I kept that, how wonderful." "They doted on each other." "They were alike in so many ways, two peas in a pod." "And what happened to his mother and father?" "Oh my son and his wife were killed in a climbing accident in Snowdonia when Douglas was only two years old." "We brought him up as our own you see." "This case in Harrow?" "It concerns your future daughter-in-law and a late acquaintance of hers." "The facts do her no credit." "Something from her past?" "I knew it." "Tell me at once!" "I need a little time." "The wedding, which I deplore, is almost upon us." "My golden boy." "He's besotted with this woman." "If you know something against her, pray God let the scandal break now." "Oh, no, no, no," "I think a scandal can be avoided." "Is there anything you wish me to do?" "Granting me this interview was all that I needed." "Mrs. Klein will not have been pleased to see me here." "Mrs. Klein." "Harry would be turning in his grave." "Leave all to me, please." "Ahhhhh!" "Mrs. Maberley!" "Leave me." "Go after them." "They've got it, go." "Oh, please hurry, oh." "Oh, hurry, please." "Steve Dixie." "Mr. Holmes," "Mr. Holmes, wake up." "It's bad news I'm afraid." "Wake up, Mr. Holmes." "Mr. Holmes?" "It's bad news, Mr. Holmes." "What?" "It's the doctor." "He's been brutally attacked in Harrow." "No, no, he's alive." "He wired or rather the lawyer did to say I was to find you if you weren't in and you're to get there as soon as possible and I'd got him a nice piece of mackerel for his tea." "Dora, where's Dr. Watson?" "He's upstairs, sir." "How is he?" "I don't know, sir, he had a good breakfast." "Your mistress?" "She's resting, sir." "She wasn't badly hurt but she's had a nasty shock." "We all have." "Good Lord, what have you got into?" "What happened?" "Madame says she wants to see you as soon as you arrive, Mr. Holmes, sir." "Holmes, she's in a very frail condition." "Physician, heal thyself." "Mr. Holmes, how good of you." "How are you feeling?" "Well, I'm alive thanks to your brave friend Dr. Watson." "Did he get it back from them?" "Get what?" "Oh, of course you wouldn't know." "I don't..." "Mr. Holmes I owe you an apology." "I prayed it would have no bearing but it does." "Oh, it's so stupid of me!" "It's the reason for everything." "Douglas was writing a book." "He said it would explain it all." "He started it in Rome and later when they brought him back here, he sat for hours in that drafty little summer house, writing sometimes in the most dreadful weather." "And later when he could no longer leave his room, he still struggled with it." "Two copies, one he gave to Violet and told her to deliver it to someone." "I don't know who." "He had sworn her to secrecy, and she kept her promise." "The other copy, he urged me, almost with his dying breath to send it to his publisher." "I should've done so but on the night of his funeral, and missing him so much" "I read it through." "I knew at once what it was, his life." "That woman," "I didn't even know her name." "The scandal it would cause and I shut it out of my mind, locked it away, and then last night when Dr. Watson reminded me." "And they were waiting for you?" "Yes, and they snatched it from me as I was taking it up to him." "All but this." "I tore it from the brute." "(long scream)" "Where is it?" "Where is it?" "Miguel." "Miguel." "The page, where is the last page?" "He has it, I know he has it." "One page, Carina, not even Sherlock Holmes can do anything with..." "Burn it, Don't talk, burn it." "Face bled, his stomach burned from the savage blows but it was nothing to the bleeding of his heart when he saw that lovely face, a face, which he had been prepared to sacrifice his life for." "She smiled, yes by heavens, she smiled like the heartless fiend she was." "It was at that moment that love died, and hate was born." "If it is not for your embrace my lady, then it shall be for your undoing and my complete revenge." "My complete revenge," "The he becomes my." "Yes, the writer imagines himself the hero." "Two copies, one to Mrs. Klein." "And this for publication." "All London would recognize, the wolf from the lamb." "Sweet revenge." "Read me that first sentence again." "Face bled, his stomach burned from the savage blow." "The cause of death." "Pneumonia from a ruptured spleen the old woman said." "Good heavens, ruptured from a kick, that's murder." "We could never prove it." "I'm leaving for Cricklewood." "Steve," "Grover's Square five months ago?" "That wasn't me, Mr. Holmes." "You can't put that on me." "It doesn't matter whose boot killed Douglas Maberley, you're all guilty." "Ha, Susan," "Susan, guarding the coop while your husband is in prison?" "What's the new member Mrs. Barney Stockdale?" "Oh, yes." "Take care, Holmes." "You get out of here!" "That woman will put you behind bars for what you did last night." "And her employer," "Mrs. Klein of Grosvenor Square will see you all hanged for murder unless you do what I tell you, when I tell you." "Remember, Perkins of Hobin." "Watson." "Let me look at you." "What do you see?" "I see, the woman I adore." "I'm ready now." "No sit here, she's not Moriarty, she's a woman." "That hand needs redressing." "Just remember, Holmes, the female can be more deadly than the male." "Valuer and auctioneer, my foot." "Ah, madame." "You again, Holmes." "If you have something to say to my bride, speak out before I kick you out." "No, I have been expecting Mr. Holmes, leave us." "I have no intention of leaving you with this..." "Go, James." "Go." "I'm only surprised it took you so long." "I am surprised that you thought bullies could frighten me." "No man would take up my profession if danger did not attract him." "You're a gentleman," "I will treat you as my friend." "I cannot promise to reciprocate." "No doubt it was foolish to threaten such a brave man as yourself." "No, what was really foolish for an intelligent woman like you is to place yourself in the power of a band of rascals who could blackmail, or give you away." "No, no, I'm not so simple." "None of them have the least idea who their employer is." "Not Barney Stockdale and his wife?" "They are good hounds, who run silent." "And are prepared to go to prison for you?" "They take what comes, that's what they're paid for." "And Mr. Haines- Johnson oh surely that is not his name, what is he paid for?" "Miguel, he's like a brother to me." "As for the others they work and I do not appear in the matter." "Unless I bring you into it." "But you're a gentleman, Mr. Holmes, you respect a woman's secret." "Huh, is murder a woman's secret?" "Murder?" "My face bled, my stomach burned, from the savage blows but it was nothing to the bleeding of my heart, page 245." "And there's a witness, Mrs. Klein, the prizefighter Steve Dixie who will testify against you." "And all this, you told my future mother-in-law?" "What, I told the Dowager is of no importance since she cannot prevent your marriage to her son." "No, she cannot." "And you believe that you can." "Oh, yes." "Why should you wish to?" "Is it because I'm a foreigner?" "Are you an English snob, Mr. Holmes?" "Let me tell you, my people have been leaders in Pernambuco for generations." "Madam, you are the bastard child of a gypsy in Andalusia." "Hijo de puta!" "Who told you?" "It is my trade." "Now you must give me the manuscript." "No, no, no." "Do you wish for ashes in a paper bag?" "You are hard to me, look at it with my eyes." "A life's ambition about to be ruined." "The original sin was yours." "Yes, I know Douglas." "Yes, I did love him truly." "Yes, yes, I did for a while, in my fashion." "But he wanted marriage, nothing less would serve him." "It did not fit with my plans." "And so you hired ruffians to beat him until he was nearly dead under your own window, is that the act of a lady?" "Yes, it is true Barney and the boys drove him away perhaps a little too roughly." "What did he do then, he wrote a book." "A vicious personal attack." "Is that the act of a gentleman?" "You knew his publisher had not received it?" "Yes." "So it had to be in the house of his grandmother." "As long as that book existed there was no safety for me." "I wanted to do this thing honestly." "I offered any price she cared to ask but she wouldn't take it." "Are we to be blamed for protecting ourselves?" "One thing intrigues me, why a woman as lovely as you who wields such power over men needs the protection of anyone?" "Nature doesn't give a damn for any of us." "I love James, and I want him." "He represents, all I've ever desired and my one chance of a kind of security, which I call happiness and you would take it away from me." "Why?" "Why?" "Why?" "Because you are a destroyer of men." "Oh yes." "You destroyed Douglas Maberley and very nearly my friend John Watson with the ruthless disregard for anything but your own selfish interest." "Why have I failed with you?" "I require only this that I read of the breaking of your engagement to the Duke of Lomond by Thursday morning." "And if I refuse?" "Scotland Yard, a full investigation with witnesses." "I'm at your mercy," "Haz de me lopeor" "Do your worst." "Oh, how much does it cost to go around the world in first class style?" "Let me see, yes, you will send a check for 5,000 pounds to Mrs. Maberley you owe her a little change of that." "Goodbye, Mrs. Klein." "I have no doubt I shall see you again one day, on the arm of a king." "And therefore the celebrated beauty Mrs. Klein has departed for Spain." "Her people have been leaders in Pernambuco for generations." "Well, it's a dignified report" "I wonder what others would have made of it." "You let her off the hook, Holmes." "Compounding a felony, you mean?" "Murder." "It would have been impossible to prove." "Mrs. Klein has learned, that you can't play with edged tools forever without cutting those, aging hands of hers." "Time is not on her side." "Shall we?"