Original subtitles

- When this despicable band of thieves and murderers commit

crimes at which they forbid my interference,

they leave behind a signal. Or else

Watson or Mrs. Hudson could well die.

But you could go where I cannot.

- Can't find his wife's

jewel box.

I hear the

gems is worth a palace.

- Why kidnap Clara before you've stolen from me?

- [Clara] Please do not tell my parents.

- [Holmes] Don't tell your parents how you planned your

own kidnapping and stole your mother's jewels.

I am dealing with a vast criminal syndicate

of unbridled reach, even inside the police.

[DRAMATIC MUSIC]

- They're bringing 'er right out, sir.

- Thank you, Constable.

Congratulations on your rapid apprehension of this coachman

who kidnapped the American ambassador's daughter.

The jewels on his person did the criminal confess?

- No, sir, but he'll eventually tell us all.

Sent him off to Newgate.

- Ah.

- But we kept the girl close.

- Oh, no. No, no, no, no.

Oh, no. I'm not going anywhere

with that man. Take me back to my cell.

- [constable] Here, here, young lady.

Be grateful you have a benevolent employer.

That's willing to be personally liable for your behaviour?

You're sure she's worth the trouble, sir?

- Well, the girl has her

faults, but

domestics are very difficult to train,

and I hate the thought of having to

start all over again with someone new.

I'm sure the girl will calm down

once she returns to the kitchen.

- Usually work, sir.

- I'm going back to Baker Street

and getting my things and leaving.

- Very well. On your current heading, it'll take

approximately 131 days to reach your destination,

depending on the schedules of various trains and steamers and

the probability of good weather in the South Java Sea.

- Are you saying that I'm going in the wrong direction?

- Not wrong, merely eccentric. - If you're open to a journey, a

briefer than circumnavigating the globe,

you could step into this cab with which I came to rescue you.

- Rescue me? I wouldn't need rescuing

if you hadn't abandoned me.

- I didn't abandon you. I had to leave to

prevent the police from recognising. Come along.

- [Amelia] Maybe the coffin factory was meant to

burn. Have you ever thought about that?

And what thanks do I get for Clara?

I'm threatened, accused, arrested,

as if you and only you

can decide when a criminal is caught.

- Not through the front door.

- Oh, blow it out your bottom.

- Good heavens!

- A message for you, sir.

Not now Halligan.

- You may pack your possessions, but you may not leave. You've

been released into mine custody.

- I will not spend another

night in this

house with your insufferable smugness.

- Oh!

[dramatic music]

- Key! The key!

- Oh, never mind.

- Excuse me, Mr. Holmes.

It's an urgent message in need of a reply.

- Read it to me then. A.A. - Templeton Insurance Co, NY USA.

- Request to immediately engage your services, locating jewels

stolen from U.S. Ambassador London. Stop.

Favourable terms expenses a £500 bonus if

jewels were recovered or claimed legitimate.

Grateful for your prompt reply.

Stop. Albert Templeton, President.

- My response to Mr. A Templeton,

regret must decline. Stop.

Present engagements preclude. Stop.

Good help, hard to find. Stop.

Amelia! Amelia, if you do not open this

door at once, I will knock it down. Amelia!

Amelia, very well!

- Sir! A person of your station and reputation should not drag a

young scullery maid and throw her out on the street!

Well, I beg you, sir. Let me do it.

- Mrs. Halligan. I have this completely under control.

- Consider your honor, sir!

- And I would urge you to consider the life of your

sister, still the rightful owner of this house.

Now, to rescue Mrs. Hudson and Dr. Watson, I would instantly

trade my honour, my reputation and my good fortune.

And yours too, if it came to it. Now, saving Mrs. Hudson's life

requires me to enter this room.

So if Amelia does not immediately

open this door, I will knock it down.

[door unlocking]

However ill-used you feel, I took you

from the street when you had nowhere to go.

I employed you, I fed you, and you have repaid me for these

kindnesses by refusing to follow my instructions

in a manner that has put my closest friends beyond reach.

- Then why free me from the police then? If I destroyed a

plan that you never shared with me, I'm an ingrate.

You say we're not related, that my mother is a liar?

- Well, you insist we are bound by blood. But first you can tell

me how we are tied together by this.

[dramatic music]

- Why is this red thread so important to you?

- Because this is the signal I told you about. The signature of

the criminal syndicate responsible for

the kidnapping of my friends, a red thread,

which they leave tied to something at the scene of every

crime they would forbid me to investigate.

- There is a red thread like this in Clara's room.

- Yes.

- And that's why you left.

- Yes. You have another. Which means you're either connected to

the red thread or else you found it somewhere. Which is it?

- It involves my mother's murder.

- How? After all, this is a crime you have insisted I should

help you solve. Well, now I am so disposed.

Speak. Tell me everything.

As I recall, you were absent during the attack, delivering

designs for a parade float to Los Angeles.

Was anything missing on your return?

- I didn't notice right away that they took several map cases

filled with mama's mechanical drawings.

Surprising because many of them were very old.

- [Holmes] Indeed. And where was the red thread?

- [Alelia] In the most terrible place.

Tied to this.

- [Holmes] Ah, the murder

weapon. Wise of you to keep it?

And then?

- [Amelia] I held on to her for a while.

I don't know how long ago.

- Of course. Of course you did. - Was her body warm to the touch?

- It was cold. Stiff.

- So, Rigamortis established but not dissipated. Her death was

four to twelve hours before your return,

so there is nothing you could have done to prevent it.

Were you able to identify the number of attacks?

- [Amelia] I counted the hooves of four horses. They disappeared

at the river. And the footprints it all went away.

- So I thought out, premeditated.

What did you do next?

- I buried her.

[sad music]

- [Holmes] What is this picture?

- [Amelia] It was her favorite photograph. Then

the time she worked on the Wild West show.

And this is the letter I read to

you where she says you're my father.

- Yes. Wild West show, the most

celebrated theatrical event of the 19th century.

There, there.

Here. Here.

Well, I'm sorry for your loss.

Your mother's murder proves the syndicate

behind the red thread is even larger than I feared.

They are able to reach across the world.

Why do they require such size and scope?

Crime or crimes are they hoping to commit?

What does your mother's death have to do with it?

It appears her murder and the kidnappings

are connected to a much greater enterprise.

- [Holmes] Let's talk about our plan for today.

Fortunately, we still have two living links to the red thread,

namely Clara Anderson and Charlie the coachman.

Now I must merely do the impossible and visit Charlie in

prison without alerting anyone to my presence.

And you must follow up with your friend, Clara.

- My friend?

Clara is a thief and a liar. She stole from her own mother.

She's letting a man rot in jail for

kidnapping her when she willingly went with him.

- But Charlie did kidnap her.

Clara planned a fake abduction unless she believed that she was

expecting to spend her honeymoon in a coffin.

I'd say her elopement misfired in a spectacular fashion.

And like us, the red thread are fully aware of her

vulnerabilities and one day will

probably extort her for their own purposes.

We cannot afford for her misdeeds to become public

knowledge to be severed from us.

- Well, I'm sure Clara thinks she got away with everything.

- Well, he must demonstrate otherwise. Be blunt.

She'll respond better to cruelty than to kindness and get to

her before the authorities can question her.

- Well, Clara has diplomatic immunity.

- From the police, not from this insurance investigator who is

likely to appear at the house this very day.

I would have done so.

- But you refused that, Job.

- Yes. Well, the mountain

inquiry into the kidnapping and

the duel theft will put me in an open conflict with the red.

Thread. And for that, I'm not yet prepared for

this detective hired by the insurance company.

- Oh, he could lead us to both the jewels and your friends. And

like me, he can go where you can't.

- Very good. Very good.

Soon you'll start to see these advantages on your own.

And since it seems to be a speciality of yours, then I'm

sure you can throw this investigator on the defensive,

which will not only be good for protecting Clara, but will

also convince the investigator to question you.

And his interrogation will

likely provide a theory of the crime.

- But why would the Andersons let me into their house?

- My horse chance was one of the horses that

took Clara back home when her father's carriage.

So fetching him should provide an

excellent pretext for the visit.

And just this morning, Mrs. Anderson sent me a card thanking

you for helping to find their daughter.

So she would seem very well disposed.

- All right, then. I'll bring Chance back. I'll manage Clara.

And I'll challenge the insurance investigator.

- Thank you.

- If you agree that from now on, we're

working on the case of the red thread together,

and we won't stop before finding out who murdered my mother and

bringing the killer to justice.

Agreed?

- Agreed.

[dramatic music]

- Now, I remember the last woman who served as my maid was found

floating in the River Thames for no

better reason than as a warning to me.

So exercise great caution. Not, just for my sake, yours.

You must learn to cultivate humility.

- Are you sure that's possible.

- To start necessity. You can only investigate the thread

while seeming to pursue some other purpose.

You must learn to hunt while looking like prey.

- I can take care of myself.

- No doubt. But do not confront anyone

or even acknowledge their presence.

Do nothing to promote suspicion or attract unwanted attention.

-I'm visiting the ambassador's house. Reclaim your horse.

- Nicely.

And I am calling on an imprisoned man of no interest to

our enemies in the hopeless misdirection.

We'll trick them into believing my journey to Newgate Prison

has nothing to do with Charlie the Coachman.

- Do you really think he knows where Mrs.

Hudson and Dr. Watson have been taken?

- Maybe not. But he certainly knows his accomplices.

Newgate Prison!

[mysterious music]

[dramatic music]

- Sherlock Holmes, C Prisoner 45262, Professor James Moriarty

[door slams]

[dramatic music]

[sound of gate]

- [Dankworth] The Professor don't get many visitors!

And he rarely agrees to meet anyone.

- He'll see me, Mr. Dankworth, I promise you.

Lead up.

- Mr. Sherlock Holmes,

requesting a visit which the governor allows.

Mr. 45262, face the wall.

Put your hands above your head.

[sound of lock]

- [Cassie] Didn't expect to see you again.

Oh, I know her all right.

She can stay.

Ought to be ashamed of yourself

pretending to be things you ain't.

- Sorry, I didn't want to lie.

Mr. Holmes made me do it.

- What you here for today?

- It's a collect, Mr. Holmes' horse chance.

And while I'm here, I thought I might see Clara.

- Clara ain't come out of her room since she got back.

But, I'll go ask her mother.

What should I do with you in the meantime?

- [Dankworth] Please stay here, sir.

While I assure myself of your safety.

Now you listen to me, you horrible little man.

You will be in your best behavior

for this gentleman as he's visiting you.

Any malarky out of here and you're for The Hole.

You got it, Professor?

Shall I chain him for you, Sir.

- No.

- I'll be right outside should you need me.

- Mr. Sherlock Holmes, whom I never thought to see again

in the waking world, what could a poor prisoner like me

do for the greatest detective on earth?

- Laying in on a bit thick, aren't we, Moriarty?

- You are unused to the deprivations of the condemned.

Better if I had not escaped the Reichenbach Falls.

Please have a seat.

- Thank you.

I'll stand.

Care for some lunch.

I find toasting prison bread over an open flame

burns off most of the mold.

- Appetising as that sounds, I decline,

though I do note in passing neither your skin

nor your weight reflect the ravages of a prison diet.

Perhaps you ward off those perils with roast beef

and claret as one might infer from this gravy stain

on your calf and this red directly beneath your chin.

Not so incidentally, I note that though there is no cell

next to yours on the western wall,

the hallway outside your door goes on for another 20 feet

in that direction.

This ink on your fingertips from perusing the newspapers,

none of which I see in evidence,

not even on this metal hook by the toilet

where most of your fellow prisoners find

their daily news best employed.

Perhaps the maid has been

around to clean already.

What an ingenious mechanism, may I?

Oh, don't worry, James.

I'm not here to expose corruption

in her Majesty's prisons.

I'm here on a much more important errand

and one that affects us both, and I should like to discuss it

with you without your assistant eavesdropping in the hall.

- I'm practically deaf from all after you.

- Be quiet, you imbecile.

- [Dankworth] Yes, sir.

- Pardon me if I demand proof

this private conversation is necessary.

[dramatic music]

I had wondered the recent absence of your name in the

press and the disappearance of Watson's

fawning puffery in the strand.

The rumor that he had finally come to his senses

and abandoned you was always highly suspect.

- And knowing that you still run your empire

from behind bars, I find the decrease in those crimes

most commonly associated with your known accomplices

equally remarkable.

- Touching how we keep up with each other from afar.

Very well.

Under the circumstances, I shall consent to spend time

in your odious company.

- May I?

[sound of heavy door opening]

Incredible.

- Dankworth!

- Yes, your professorship, sir.

- One more for lunch.

[mysterious music]

[pages turning]

- [Margjorie] I'm so glad you stopped by.

Your efforts to find our daughter were very brave.

Cara will be down in a moment to thank you in person.

But my husband and I are very anxious

to express our gratitude.

So we thought since you will accept no reward,

perhaps you would consider the offer to join our household.

- Excuse me?

- In the capacity of Clare's personal chaperone,

given recent events, I would feel more secure

if Clara had someone with whom to go to dress shops

and to the theater and other

social engagements.

- Would Clara enjoy this sort of company?

- She has no friends in London,

and you've proven to be loyal and discreet.

And it would mean quite a step up

in your social standing, Amelia.

Just think of all the great events

to which you would be adjacent.

Oh, look, there she is now.

Clara, darling, look who's come for a visit.

- How very kind you are, Amelia,

and with everything else you have to do,

but I'm afraid I'm not yet quite myself.

Perhaps if you're able to return next week?

- Don't be silly, Clara, sit.

I'll see about more tea while you thank Amelia.

I shouldn't be gone longer than it takes the kettle to boil.

- Please don't say you've come to tell my parents everything.

- Why shouldn't I?

You stole your own mother's jewels.

You aren't kidnapped, but willingly left with Charlie,

who is now in prison and liable to hang.

- No, Charlie cannot hang unless I testify against him.

And my father has invoked diplomatic immunity

to keep me out of court.

- Diplomatic immunity won't protect you

from the insurance company.

- The what?

Your father has filed a claim against the missing jewels,

a private investigator is on the way,

is perhaps already here to find out how they were stolen.

- But what am I to do?

- Go ahead and lie.

Why not add a fraud of 50,000 pounds

to your list of crimes?

- Dear God, what have I done?

My father will be sent home in disgrace

and no one will ever marry me.

- Stop crying.

Your mother will be back any moment

and you can't look hysterical.

Course you'll be able to marry.

- No, you don't understand.

You are a person of

no importance

and can wed whom you choose.

I am not so fortunate.

And if my secret should be discovered.

- [Moriarty] What a desperate predicament.

As you are obviously aware,

many of the small businesses in which I have maintained

- gambling fraud opium

- have been absorbed

by the red thread in some of my trusted lieutenants

along with them.

And you are unable to move against this presumptuous

criminal syndicate whilst Watson and the landlady

remain in their power.

I wonder.

- You wonder what?

- Attempting to control your behavior through hostages

is dangerous and clumsy.

If the thread are truly worried about your conduct.

- Then why not just kill me?

I see confinement has not dimmed your intellect

which is, as ever, entirely wasted.

- Leaving you alive is a grave error.

They will regret it as much as I.

- But you agree with my premise

that to destroy the red thread would be to the advantage

of as both?

- Oh yes.

I very much concur.

Now, if I'm not mistaken,

you're about to make a request, are you not?

- I am.

Yes, ostensibly I have come to Newgate Prison

to visit you.

In reality, however, I should like to interview

an agent of the red thread incarcerated here

for kidnapping the American ambassador's daughter.

- How it must gall you to beg for my assistance.

- Not at all.

- As you pointed out, our interests momentarily align

and it is well known that you are in effect,

if not in name, the Prince Regent of this prison.

- Oh, come, come.

You exaggerate.

- [Dankworth] More tea for prison.

- Ah, perhaps half a cup.

Supposing I agree, how would

you get to and from

this idiot cell?

- Mr. Dankworth could escort me there

and bring me back.

- And to avoid being recognized in transit.

- I would temporarily change clothes.

With you.

- Well, well, I've always wondered what it's like

inside that stuffed shirt of yours.

Ah, but what about your horrifying face,

which many a prisoner here has good reason to remember?

- Well, the coachman is newly arrived from America

and will not recognize me and as Mr. Dankworth

needs me around.

I shall wear this hood over my head

as do the most dangerous prisoners?

For I am dangerous, Moriarty very dangerous,

lest you forget.

- I have cause the recollect every moment of my life.

You're not worried.

This coachman will consider you a spy,

planted by the police.

- No, I have more information on him than the police

and some of it gathered from a source they cannot question.

- Oh, and whom would that be?

- [Ambassador Anderson] Clara?

Clara!

Dear Lord, there you are.

I'm sorry to interrupt, but I have a visitor

who needs to talk to us.

- Clara's still recovering.

Could this visitor not come back another time?

- I'm afraid not.

Our daughter has been returned, but the jewels haven't

and our insurance claim against them must be pursued

with urgency.

I am sorry, young lady, to end your visit prematurely.

- But won't the investigator want to speak to me too?

If he's going to be questioning Clara,

I was there for some of it.

- Amelia's quite right.

She helped rescue our daughter.

- Oh, very well.

Wait here.

[prison door opens]

- [Dankworth] Better watch your steps, sir.

[mysterious music]

Here we are.

- What's this?

I wouldn't remain in there a moment longer than necessary.

- Ah, Charlie, you have a gentleman visit, huh?

No funny business, now.

- Yeah, fine.

Charlie Holroyd at your service.

I'm not talking to anyone.

- You better have a lot to say.

Come to demand explanations for your betrayal.

- Demand.

I'll blacken your eye and then see what you demand, old-timer.

I owe you nothing.

- Are you sure about that?

Perhaps you should reconsider.

Even in here?

- Everywhere else you might hope to go.

You can escape from the law, but never from us.

And if you value your life, you will tell me at once

why you've deviated so far from our plan.

- If you know the plan, why don't you tell me what it was.

- Would you wish me to detail your mistakes?

You were to get the stupid girl to fall in love with you,

an easy enough task for a man of your appearance

and disposition.

Indeed, you were chosen for this assignment

as much for your looks and your skill with horses.

Once you had romanced Miss Anderson in America,

you were to convince her you wished to elope,

steal her mother's jewels for a proper income.

In reality, however, she was to be held hostage

in exchange for her father's cooperation

in a scheme I may not reveal.

- Well, I know, anyway.

Weems and Magott mentioned keys

they wanted the ambassador to hand over,

but what they're meant to unlock, I have no idea.

- Then there is the matter of the jewels.

- Weems and Magott told me to give the jewels to them.

And in Weems and Maggot also,

order you to try and sell the jewels

to one Mr. Clarence Halfpenny,

did they order you to take the girl with you back to America?

Did they order you to burn the hostages

and themselves alive in the coffin factory

whilst you escaped?

- Burned alive?

No, no, Weems and Maggot, they took the gems

and the other hostages and rode away with them.

- Neither Weems, nor Maggot, nor the jewels,

nor the doctor and the housekeeper

ever arrived at the rendezvous point.

- They're not in Richmond?

- And are missing still.

When you tried to sail back to America with Clara

where you thought to set up a pretty household

with the stolen jewels.

- No, I don't have the jewels.

Weems and Maggot have them, okay?

Wait, no, no.

We left the coffin factory

because there was a call on the telephone from the police.

You were tipped off by your man on the inside,

I swear, ask him.

- And were you a part of that telephone call?

Or did you only hear one side of the conversation?

Did you consider it was staged for your benefit?

They would give up the jewels.

Dankworth!

[prison door opens]

- Wait.

Wait, no, no, I did try to run away with Clara, sure.

But I fell in love with her.

But I never burned anyone.

You have to believe me, I've told you everything.

[dramatic music]

- [Ambassador Anderson] - This way, please.

Mr. Birdwhistle.

My wife, daughter, and her friend, Amelia.

- Birtwistle, sir.

A T not a D.

And no H, which would be silent in any case.

- My apologies, sir.

My American ears sometimes fail me.

Have you completed your inquiries?

- Only those which were least important.

Police have already determined the jewels were missing

and that the arrested kidnapper did not have them.

But I'm curious.

I'm very curious as to why your wife's valuables

were not in a secure English bank

instead of a box that could have been broken

into by a child.

- As to why we had the jewels.

They were stolen the very night we arrived from America.

- Then there's the little matter of the delay

in reporting the theft after Clara went missing.

- Our daughter was abducted before we'd even unpacked.

And at first we gave no thought to the gems.

I instigated a search for them myself,

hoping they were still present

and could be found before further disturbing my wife.

- Well, I'm sure your discomfort was sevenfold

when you learned the coachman had found his way

into your wife's bedroom at night.

Or was that not so unusual?

- I beg your pardon, sir.

- What the devil do you mean?

- Forgive me, please.

There was no attempt to offend.

I'm unfamiliar with how.

Wealthy Americans conduct relations with their servants.

- It could hardly be called a relationship.

Charlie worked for us in America

and came here some weeks before us,

and he was in and out of the house and stables

during that entire time.

- What trust you put in him?

I'm sorry to have to say,

but in retrospect it appears careless.

But wait.

If the coachman was here some weeks before,

how could he have known the jewels were in your bedroom?

- How the coachman knew anything is something to ask him.

Do you want the Andersons to guess what he was thinking?

But aren't you more interested in the facts?

- All my interest in the facts is all consuming,

and I will know them before I'm done.

Now, young Miss Anderson,

I must hear all your recollections

you've so far withheld from the police.

It's just the kidnapping and theft

was so brilliantly conceived and daringly executed.

I hope you might shed some light

on how those crimes were carried out.

- [Moriarty] Did you fool him good and proper?

Is the red thread unraveled?

- Frayed a little.

We'll see.

- Well, you can tell me.

A problem shared is a problem halved, as they say.

- Best we each work our own side of the street

on that point, you will have to trust me.

- Oddly, I don't think of us

as trusting people.

For example, did you really believe

I would allow you to walk into my cell, ask for help,

and then give me nothing in return?

- I've already said I would pursue our mutual interest.

And to that end, please return my clothes.

I must leave at once.

- Oh, Sherlock.

I am at my leisure.

I could, without difficulty,

hold you here until nightfall, possibly beyond,

unless you wish to leave this place dressed as a prisoner

with everyone knowing the true purpose of your visit.

- You did that.

I would stop at nothing to destroy you.

- Oh, but by that it would be too late

for Watson and Mrs. Hudson.

No.

You should not be leaving here

before agreeing to my terms.

- [Birtwistle] This will not do.

This will not do at all.

No sleeping draught could have wiped out

the memory of your whole ordeal.

- I forbid you.

I'm using that insinuating tone with my daughter.

- Do not mistake me for one of your pet Pinkertons,

nor some London Bobby cowering before diplomatic immunity.

I will have the truth,

or you will be paid nothing for your claim.

- Father, please let me answer him.

As I told you, sir, I went to sleep in my room

and I woke inside the coffin

with no memory of how I got there.

I was kept inside the coffin except for...

Those activities, the body has no choice but to perform.

And on these occasions, I was blindfolded.

And every second of my confinement,

I was in terror for my life and my honor.

- Where was the

coachman during this?

- Could I possibly know?

- When did he take you from the coffin factory?

How was it?

You were on the brink of boarding a ship,

holding his hand.

- Holding his hand.

- Amelia, please don't.

- I was there.

I saw her get pulled from a dark box

into the blinding light of day.

How could you expect her to resist a dangerous criminal

who was dragging her to the gates of the London dock?

Would you like to examine her knees?

Is that what you came here to do?

- Course not, I was only,

- I see a ring on your finger.

Tell me, Mr. Birtwistle.

Did you court your wife by drugging her?

Did you yank her to the altar in a coffin?

Is that how you do things in the Birtwistle household?

- That's quite enough, young lady.

That's quite enough.

Now I apologize for the indelicate nature of my

questions but do understand.

When there's tens of thousands of pounds at stake,

I must be thorough.

- And thoroughness demands cruelty?

- Not at all.

Amelia, is it?

And you were present at the rescue.

Perhaps I could speak to you in private.

- Well, of course you can.

That's why we insisted on her being present.

- Allow me to show you out.

- Good day.

[dramatic music]

- You are a most unexpected sort of person.

American, a maid, rescuer,

stable lad, and attorney.

But you provided sound representation

for Clara Anderson.

- I only said what you already know,

which is the jewels have been stolen and can't be found.

And there's so many places to look,

such as the coffin factory, where at one point

there were at least three hostages being held,

and yet here you are covering old ground.

- Don't be impertinent. Besides which, I know the factory

to be owned by Lord Witherseal.

And I assure you, Withersea is in possession

of a considerable fortune which he has no need

to increase through kidnapping or thievery.

And,

He will eventually comply with my request

for a list of his partners and employee.

- Eventually?

Why don't you have that list already?

Is it because you can't bully Lord Withersea

the way you just bullied a young, helpless girl?

- I am a bully when need drives me.

I do have other arts.

I could teach you my methods,

provided you don't already know everything.

Show promise as an investigator,

and would likely take others off guard as you have me.

- I'll think about it.

For now, this is where we part ways.

- If you help me find the jewels,

it could be worth a bonus of, whoa,

shall we say 100 pounds?

- A fifth of what you were offered.

How generous.

Good day, Mr. Birtwistle.

[chuckle]

- And she calls me a bully.

- [Moriarty] Losing a child is difficult,

especially when you've no one but yourself to blame.

After my wife died, I was so concentrated on my work

that I neglected my young son at an enormous cost.

- I remember the story.

His name was Daniel.

- Oh, Dan, as we called him.

Just before his 10th birthday,

when I was away on the continent,

Dan was arrested on some trifling matter.

- Connected to the theft of a clergyman's gold timepiece,

as I recall.

- Gold plated.

I like to think he meant it as a gift for me.

In any case, during my absence,

he was shipped off to Australia under the Home Children Act.

- But surely your corruptive influence was great even then.

- His pardon was quick, yes,

but in the time it took to reach him, he had disappeared.

Off to Melbourne, some said.

None of my employees could find him.

That was many years ago.

Lately, however, there have been reports

of a young Australian lad, newly arrived in London,

who looks very much like a grown-up version of my Dan.

- Your story is almost endlessly Dickensian.

Will I find my clothes, do you think,

somewhere at the end of this plot?

- Well, I will return your suit,

give my support in attacking the thread,

maintain my silence about your

kidnapped friends,

if you agree to find my son and bring him here for a visit.

- Well, cannot your own organisation track him down?

Has your small army of familiars utterly failed you?

- I cannot let my colleagues know

that my own son dare ignore me.

I doubt if you can understand

what it's like to have a child.

- I'm not without imagination.

- I am very concerned that in their attempt to absorb my

empire the thread do no harm to my Dan.

- Very well, very well,

but I can accept no fee for this undertaking.

- I do not intend to offer you one.

- Well, it is usual when hiring a consulting detective.

- You're not being hired, you're being extorted.

- No, I'm doing you a favour

and one much less onerous than I'd anticipated.

- What is it, Dankworth?

- I'm sorry your professorship.

It's a bit unusual, it concerns us all.

[quiet dramatic music]

- I'm sorry, Holmes, your presence here

has become inconvenient.

I regret you must rush away.

- Oh, we are well past the point I could have rushed anywhere.

Indeed, you have detained me

almost past the point of human endurance.

- That is what this place was designed to do.

Dankworth, please be certain

Mr. Holmes

has taken out in such a way

that the contents of this note become clear to him.

[footsteps]

- This way, sir.

- What's the problem, Mr. - Dankworth,

that's not the way I came in.

- No, that's the way you must leave.

- [prison guard] Come on, Tom. Get yourself up.

I'm asking you to get down.

[uninteligable]

- [prison guard] - He's dead, Governor.

Killed himself and saved us the trouble.

[dramatic music]

[voices in park]

[horse stepping]

[mysterious music]

[sound of struggle]

- Let me up or I'll blow your head off.

[gun cocking]

Lady's choice

[dramatic music]