Sherlock Holmes in New York Page #7

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I should like to return to the lift.

Mr McGraw,

this, er, hatchway, does it provide

access to the overhead drum and cable?

Yes, yes.

Watson, give me a leg up will you?

- Oh, Inspector? There you are Holmes.

Thank you, Watson.

- There we are.

Thank you.

Well, gentlemen, I think

I've seen all I need to see.

I have one final enquiry

to make elsewhere,

after which I believe I should be able

to make all the pieces fit together,

and come up with the solution.

And the gold?

The gold, of course, will be forthcoming

with the solution to the problem.

In time for the transfer of the

bullion tomorrow morning?

It is my fondest wish.

Where are we off to now?

To pay a call on

Thomas Balance and Company,

the firm that designed the underground.

I wish to ascertain

the depth of the excavation

at the point at which it passes

under the Bowerie National Bank.

Er, cab!

And I shall be most astonished,

Watson, if we're not told

the figure is precisely

one-hundred-and-fifty feet.

We wish to go to

Thomas Balance and Company.

You'll find it at 45th Street

and 6th Avenue, I believe.

Precisely one-hundred-and-fifty feet,

Mr Holmes.

Thank you.

Bless me soul!

Well, what have ya found out?

- Everything.

Everything?

You mean, you know where the gold is?

Why, I knew that

the moment we descended in the lift.

I merely wanted to

double-check my certainty.

Well, where is it?

We were standing on it.

- We were sta...? Holmes!

Well, don't you see

what the wily devil has done?

No, I don't. And I'm sure

I'd be delighted if you told me.

Oh, very well, Watson, consider this:

360,000 blocks of gold,

each weighing fifty pounds apiece.

Now, give Moriarty a hundred,

say two hundred men,

each of them able to carry able

to carry a fifty-pound block of gold.

Very well. What then?

Er, thank you, my man.

Each one of those two hundred men

would have to carry

1,800 blocks of gold from the vaults.

Now, to carry a single

fifty-pound block of gold,

from the vaults, through the tunnel

to some conveyance

waiting in the underground excavation,

and return for a second block

could not be reasonably accomplished

in less than ten minutes.

That is 180,000 minutes, or three hundred

hours to complete the task.

That is over twelve days, Watson.

And yet the gold was still

there seven days ago.

Mr McGraw's instincts

were quite correct.

The task appears impossible despite

the evidence of those empty vaults.

But Holmes, they were empty.

Thank you.

Those vaults were.

'Those vaults'?

What on earth are ya suggestin'?

When I asked how far down the lift went

I was told one-hundred-and-fifty feet.

Meaning the vault was one-hundred-

and-fifty feet below the bank.

But, the depth of the underground

excavation at that point

was also one-hundred-and-fifty feet.

Now, when I examined

the overhead cable

while the lift was presumably

at the bottom of the shaft,

there still remained ten feet

wrapped around the drum.

Mr McGraw told me the rate of descent

was two hundred feet per minute,

which means it should've taken forty-five

seconds to reach the bottom of the shaft.

It only took forty-two.

Oh, and I'm sure you noticed

that the tunnel from the vaults to the

underground excavation slanted downwards.

Oh, did it?

Watson, there is only one

inescapable conclusion:

The vaults we examined

were not the vaults containing the gold,

but an exact replica built directly

above the actual vaults.

It will be discovered,

I am confident,

that when the floor

of the lift is removed,

iron bars will have been

inserted into the shaft

to stop the lift descending the

remaining ten feet into the actual vault,

where all the gold still safely resides.

But, Holmes, the vault door,

the combination lock,

the cages themselves, everything.

Duplicated down to the smallest detail.

A member of McGraw's staff must have

thrown in his luck with Moriarty

and provided him with all

the necessary information.

But that must have taken them months.

Yes, and with hundreds of men employed

upon the construction of the underground,

who would notice

a handful of Moriarty's cohorts

tunnelling for purposes of their own?

But, Holmes, you were certain of all this

when we were still with Inspector Lafferty.

But you said nothin'.

Why?

Watson, I...

I still fear for the boy's life.

But he's safe at home.

Only so long as Moriarty

still believes him prisoner.

Tomorrow's newspapers hold the key.

If the theft is reported, then Moriarty

will know that I have obeyed his orders

and it will be safe to release Scott.

But, on the other hand,

if the financial pages carry news

of the transaction of the gold.

Then he will know that I have tricked him.

He will hasten to seize Scott

from Mademoiselle Romaine,

and when he finds

that I have forestalled him

his rage will be so towering

that he will not rest until he has taken

his revenge upon me through Scott.

I must know where Moriarty is.

Until he is in the

custody of the police

I cannot safely reveal

the location of the gold

No other course of action

is permissible.

But how on earth

can you expect to manage that?

It took you half a year to ferret out

the man's lodgings in lime-house.

Watson, I'm not too proud to learn.

Why not use his method

in ferreting me out.

Holmes, where're you going?

Back to that most

admirable establishment.

Eve's Costume Company.

Oh, dressin' up again, I take it.

I wonder what he's going as this time.

Huh!

Cab!

Cab.

Follow that cab.

Charles Nickers, I presume.

Put your hands in the air.

My name is Sherlock Holmes,

I dare say you've heard of me.

Cor, blimey!

Yes, I've often wondered why he hasn't

chosen to do just that on many an occasion.

Now, unless you wish

to go the way of your brother Bill,

you'll tell me

who is in that building.

The professor.

- And how many others?

Speak sharply man,

or you'll swing for it.

Holmes!

Constable, here is my card.

Take this man in charge and get word

to Inspector Lafferty at once

that the building behind me is to be

surrounded and its occupants arrested.

Tell him I will provide him

with full details directly.

Thank you. Keep the change.

I suggest you take these words

to heart, my man.

There you are, Heller.

Get that to Inspector Lafferty

as quickly as possible.

Yes, sir.

Within the half hour, Professor Moriarty

and his entire American organisation

will be in custody.

Irene, your fears are at an end.

Scott...

Well, young man, you have had

more than an adventure, much more.

You've aided in the capture of

the world's most notorious criminal

and you have been instrumental in

preventing a devastating world war.

Well, I wish I'd known all that, sir.

I wouldn't have slept through

so much of it.

Well said!

He's a bright boy.

Goodbye, Scott.

- Goodbye, Mr Holmes.

I must be off.

Must you leave now?

I am anxious to hear of

Inspector Lafferty's success.

And I must get this ridiculous outfit

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