Dressed to Kill Page #5

I make my business to

know about such things

and when the name of

Davidson was mentioned.

Well, who is this

fellow Davidson?

As long as Mr. Holmes seems

to know all about it already

I suppose there's no

harm in telling you.

Two years ago in London

there occurred a robbery

of such tremendous importance,

although the stolen

articles themselves

have no intrinsic value

whatsoever,

but the home secretary

was instrumental

in seeing that not word of it

appeared in any newspaper.

But you never told me

anything about this, Holmes.

You were away at the time.

Articles of no intrinsic value

and yet of such importance.

I don't understand.

When Davidson

was apprehended

within fifteen minutes

of committing the theft

but by that time he'd hidden

the articles in question

and they've yet

to be found.

Before going further,

Doctor Watson,

I must inform you that this matter is not

to be mentioned outside of this room.

Of course not. Do I look

like a man who'd gossip?

Let's not go into that now,

old fellow, shall we?

Davidson had been

employed for years

in a position of extreme trust

by the engravings department

of the Bank of England.

The articles he stole

were nothing less

than a complete

duplicate set of plates

- for printing five-pound notes.

- What?

- The Bank of England's own plates?

- Precisely.

And with those plates a gang of

crooks could flood England

with five-pound notes,

not forged in the usual

sense of the word

but notes undetectable from

genuine Bank of England notes

- in any way whatsoever.

- Good heavens.

Any whisper at all might have

resulted in enormous damage

in shaking public confidence

in the treasury.

We tried everything after

we arrested Davidson.

Offered him a

shorter sentence

if he'd tell us where

he'd hidden the plates.

Why we even put in

Scotland Yard men

with him as cell mates

but no results.

Obviously, Davidson is a

man of strong character

and infinite patience.

Yet suddenly he feels impelled

to smuggle out the secret

of the hiding place of the

plates to his confederates.

Why?

I don't understand,

Mr. Holmes.

Well, for example,

has the Bank of England

made any plans

to radically change the

design of the five pound note

so that, say uh,

seven years from now

notes made from the stolen

plates would be worthless?

Confidentially, Mr. Holmes,

such a move was discussed

but replacing all the five

pound notes in circulation

would be such a

herculean task

that nothing's been done

about it as yet.

I see.

Of course there is another

possible explanation.

Davidson didn't

have much time

to find a hiding place

before he was captured.

He may be afraid

that the plates will be accidentally

discovered before he's released,

hence his anxiety to

communicate their whereabouts

to his confederates

as soon as possible.

I believe you hit it,

Mr. Holmes.

I'm sure that the message is

contained in this musical box,

or rather in all

three musical boxes

since possession of all

three seems to be essential.

Our opponents have two thirds of the

puzzle, only we have one third.

Well, what are you

going to do, Holmes?

Try to deduce the message from

the one third that we have.

It's the same tune as the one

played by Emery's musical box.

And yet it's different.

Sounds the same to me.

The tune.

Somehow the tune

is the key to the mystery.

It must be the tune.

Otherwise, why use three musical

boxes to convey the message?

Why not collar boxes

or shoe boxes?

Yes?

- Oh, it's for you, Inspector.

- Oh, thank you, sir.

Inspector Hopkins speaking.

What?

Where?

Goldess Green Station

reports

they've just found

Sergeant Thompson's body.

From the tire marks

on his clothes

he was apparently

run over by a taxi.

What an unfortunate accident.

Not an accident,

my dear fellow.

I'm afraid it's murder.

What on earth is this

outlandish place?

A rendezvous for actors.

Actors?

Buskers, old boy.

You've seen them

a thousand times.

Actors who entertain

with tunes,

waiting outside theaters.

Blimey.

Mr. Holmes.

How are you, Joe?

Never better.

And yourself?

Fine, thank you.

I want you to meet a friend of

mine, Doctor Watson. Joe Cisto.

- Oh well, any friend of Mr. Holmes

is a friend of mine. - How are you, Joe?

He did me a good turn once

that I'll never forget.

Yes, I cleared Joe of a

most unpleasant charge.

- Murder no less.

- Oh really?

By proving to the

satisfaction of the police

that he was busy

at the time

blowing open

someone's safe.

- That's right, governor.

- Good gracious me.

Now Joe,

now you can help me.

Come on,

buzz off, buzz off.

Come on off it.

off it!

Can't a gentleman have some

peace and quiet around here?

And you too.

There you are, Mr. Holmes,

now we can have some peace

and quiet around here.

Thank you, Joe.

There's five pounds

in this for you.

Well, I wouldn't want to

take it on myself, sir,

but I'd get somebody to

do it for you far for that.

You don't know what

the job is yet.

For five pounds?

Murder ain't it?

What?

No Joe, not murder

just music.

I want you to identify

a song for me.

Oh, there ain't a song that's been

written that I don't know.

That's why I came to you.

Of course, the violin is

more my instrument but,

oh well, here we go.

Now listen to this Joe.

Wait a minute,

you're playing that wrong.

That should be 'E'

natural not 'E' flat.

- You know the song? - Oh yes,

it's an old Australian song called...

'The Swag Man' but you're

playing it all wrong.

That's what I'd hoped

you say.

Now listen again, Joe.

That's the same

tune all right

but you're making different mistakes

than you did the first time.

No, not mistakes, Joe.

Call them variations.

Here, play the song for me, will you,

the way it's written.

- There you are.

- Thank you, Joe.

What's it mean, Holmes?

You on to something?

Perhaps.

I don't know yet.

It's probably a

code of some sort.

Joe?

Could you write the

song down for me

the way it was

originally written?

Oh sure, Mr. Holmes

but it'll take a few minutes.

Here, Mabel.

Pale ale. Come on,

hop to it, on with it.

Well, obviously

it isn't the lyrics.

No combination

of those words

made any sense at all.

The variations in the way

Emery's musical

box played the tune

are different from the

variations of the one we have.

- You sure?

- Quite.

You see, I took the

trouble to memorize

the tune as played by

Emery's box

that night we were

with him in his flat.

Holmes, you amaze me.

Elementary,

my dear fellow,

one of the first principles

in solving crime

is never to disregard anything

no matter how trivial.

But why the three boxes?

Why not one?

Because the message

was obviously too long

to be conveyed by

any one variation.

Then there's

the third box,

the one that woman took

from the Kilgours,

that contains yet

another set of variations.

Yes, though

it's all beyond me.

Well, all we have

to do now

is to find the secret

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