Sherlock Holmes in Washington Page #2

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he followed me

right up the stairs.

Didn't I ask you to wait?

My good woman you

may ask me to wait

but not the

British Empire.

Mr. Holmes, I must talk

to you immediately.

How are you Mr. Ahren?

That will be all now

thank you Mrs. Hudson.

My good woman indeed.

Ahren?

I seem to know that name.

Don't tell me,

my dear Watson,

that you don't recognize

Mr. Ahren of

the home office.

Why yes of course.

I knew you the

moment you came in.

How are you Ahren?

Did you see what the

Navy did to the Army

at Lords yesterday?

All right Watson, go

on with your breakfast.

Mr. Holmes, I am

here on a matter

of the utmost secrecy.

I assure you Mr. Ahren

that Doctor Watson is the

very sole of discretion.

Won't you sit down?

By the by Watson

please be so

good as to keep

tapping on the table

with your knife.

Tapping on the

table with a knife?

It will break

the wavelength

if by any chance there's a

dictograph in the walls.

All really.

Cigarette?

No thank you.

You can stop now Watson.

Well Mr. Ahren

I take it you

have called on me

in connection

with the kidnapping

of John Grayson in

America last night.

Why yes.

Yes exactly.

Grayson was

carrying a document

of a very

confidential nature.

Indeed.

It's contents

were of such

great international

importance

that I am not at

liberty to reveal them

but if that document

falls into the

hands of the enemy,

I can only say

it will be

absolutely disastrous

for this government

and our allies.

For that reason

we did not wish

to transport it

to Washington in

the usual way.

So a regular

King's messenger,

Sir Henry Marchmont,

was dispatched.

Not carrying the

document of course?

That's right.

Sir Henry was

the sort of...

A decoy shall we say?

Precisely.

The document was

actually entrusted

to a reliable but

insignificant man

in our secret service.

On his arrival

in Washington

he was to make himself

known to Sir Henry

and deliver the document.

Now not even

Sir Henry knew

that this man, Pettibone,

who traveled under

the name of John Grayson,

was the real messenger.

Pettibone?

Yes.

Alfred Pettibone?

Yes.

Good man.

None better.

I've worked

with him often.

I hope you may be able

to work with him again.

But he's completely

disappeared,

he's vanished, gone

without leaving a trace.

I can see the possibility

of serious ramifications

in his disappearance.

Exactly.

So far we've

been able to keep

the knowledge of our loss

from both the American

and British public.

Holmes you must

retrieve that document

before it can be

used against us.

Of course the Washington

Police have been notified

of Grayson's

disappearance

but even they don't know

that he was carrying

the document.

Now that's about

all the detail

I'm at liberty

to give you.

Well if they've

got Grayson,

that is Pettibone, they

must got the papers.

Not necessarily Watson.

It doesn't follow

because they got man,

they got the document.

What form is

this document in?

It was typed on two

sheets of legal paper.

Two sheets?

That's too bulky

to swallow.

And dry Watson,

cheerfully dry.

Especially legal papers.

Well whatever shape

the document was in

I trust Pettibone

to get rid of it

before anyone could

lay hands on him.

The document

must be found

before it falls into the

hands of our enemies.

I'm here on behalf of His

Majesty's government

who urges you to find it.

That means going to

Washington, of course.

With all possible speed.

A bomber is waiting

for you at Creighton.

Goodbye Doctor Watson.

Goodbye Sir.

Goodbye Ahren.

Goodbye Holmes, good luck.

Thanks very much.

We're relying on you.

Well Watson

we're off to

Washington at once.

America, I say

that's exciting.

I've never seen a

game of baseball.

Let's go and start

packing at once.

First I'd like to take

a look at the home

of Alfred Pettibone.

Come along Watson.

Why Doctor Watson,

what a surprise.

And Mr. Holmes,

won't you come in?

Thank you.

I'm frightfully sorry

but you've won't

find my son in

he's gone to Washington.

Some business or other.

Poor fellow I'm afraid

that he'll never...

never get used to the

climate over there.

Would you mind if we

looked over

your son's room?

Why of course,

it's upstairs.

Thank you.

Some friends tell

me very, very muggy,

very sticky.

You'll find his room

in a dreadful

pickle Mr. Holmes.

Quite a mess he is.

And I'm not allowed

to put my nose inside,

as if I cared

anything about

his silly old collection.

This fellow, Pettibone,

seems a curious

sort of a fellow.

Sort of a collector

of collections.

Postage stamps,

military buttons,

butterfly,

oh, bugs,

snapshots,

all sorts of rubbish.

Yes, I shall write a

monograph some day

on the noxious habit

of accumulating

useless trivia.

Please be so good as

to stop pacing Watson,

you distract me.

All right, all right.

Unless I'm

greatly mistaken,

our friend Pettibone,

did not carry two

pages of legal paper

when he left this room.

I wouldn't be

too sure Holmes.

Ashes are

deceptive you know?

On the contrary

my dear Watson.

The rag used on

artificial documents

leads an ash that

is unmistakable.

Oh do stop pacing!

I'm not pacing.

I haven't moved an inch.

I'm sorry old

fellow, my error.

Must be Mrs. Pettibone,

heavy woman light

on her feet.

Doesn't follow.

Our friend seems to be

quite a camera enthusiast.

What's this?

Cook F15, that's a

very fast lens

F35,

and a (unintelligible).

Copying set up.

American match folders.

That's right, U. S. A.

Now why would Pettibone

want American match

folders in his work?

And a microscope,

most interesting.

What's this?

Watson this microscope

was last used for

examining microfilm.

I'm beginning to

see the pattern.

It stopped now.

Did you know

that the letters

of our soldiers overseas

are being

photographed on microfilm

so that one carrier pigeon

can carry the equivalent

of 18,000 letters?

Oh really?

We had a carrier

pigeon in the last war.

Back in 1915 belonging to

the Brigade Signal Corp.

Did you?

Yeah, the poor bird kept

flying round and round

in circles all day long.

Found out later on

that it was cross-eyed.

Tragic thing.

Where are you going, huh?

Oh dark room huh?

This is what I

was looking for.

This projector magnifies

tremendously

anything placed

on the slide

like this piece

of microfilm.

Understand?

Can't say I do

exactly, no.

Wait a minute.

I'll show you one

of his photographs.

Well it's that

match folder.

Why did he want to

photograph that for?

Probably to line

up his equipment

before he photographed

the document.

We got him Watson.

Oh have we?

Yes.

Come along.

All is clear as mud to me.

Just as I thought,

this document has been

reduced to microfilm

to make its

concealment possible.

Alfred Pettibone is a

most ingenious fellow.

A bulky document

is obviously

difficult to conceal

but two pages

of a state paper,

photographed

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