The Seven-Per-Cent Solution Page #3

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the Professor engaged a cab.

- Oddly surprising

- But unfortunate.

How can we proceed, Holmes?

I did not lose my faith entirely

in the nose of our singular friend.

I just merely refuse

to get him out until I must.

Now come on, Toby,

earn yourself a Viennese schnitzel.

Surely he can't find him.

Well, you may be entirely correct,

Watson,

but don't forget that cabs

that cater to the railway trade

invariably return to the terminal

after they've dispensed with their fare.

At least that tends to be the rule

in London.

Let us find out if the same rule

applies in the continent.

Well, Toby?

No, it's hopeless. He's lost the scent.

Very well, Watson, let's go to a hotel.

Cab!

YES, Toby?

I think he's onto something.

He's found it. He's found it!

Invaluable creature.

Sometime in the last twelve hours,

you picked up a fare here:

small man of advancing years, very pale.

Ja.

Very well, take us to his destination.

If I can remember where.

Let me refresh your memory.

Now it comes to me.

How fortunate. Watson, the luggage.

Toby, you're a genius.

We are the last thing he expects.

What a confrontation, eh?

Why do you suppose Moriarty's chosen

to visit Vienna of all places?

I have no idea, I assure you.

I say, Watson, you're very pale.

What's the matter? Are you ill?

No, no. I don't think so.

- This is where you brought him?

- Ja, to this house.

Very well.

Well, Watson?

Good boy, Toby.

Good boy.

Holmes, there's something

I think you should know.

Not now, Watson.

We mustn't disturb his concentration.

But, Holmes.

We are here to see Professor Moriarty.

- Herr Professor who?

- This is Sherlock Holmes.

Herr Holmes. Come in.

I will take your coat.

You will follow me, please.

This way.

You come.

- We appear to be expected.

- Yes.

You will wait in here, please,

and I will call Herr Doctor.

I will take der hund,

and give to him the something

to eat, ja?

Thank you, I think not.

Holmes, surely no harm

will come to Toby.

The Professor would never dare

anything so precipitated.

You think not? Perhaps not.

Very well.

But no bones, mind, you understand?

- No bones.

- No bones, ja, no bones.

Come with me, hund.

Come, come.

Well, Watson,

what do you make of it?

I don't know what to make of it.

Do you?

Good morning, Herr Holmes.

And you too, Dr. Watson.

I am happy to welcome you gentlemen

to my house.

You may remove that ludicrous beard,

and kindly refrain from employing

that ridiculous comic operetta accent.

I warn you, you best confess

or it will go bad for you,

Professor Moriarty.

My name is Sigmund Freud.

You are not Moriarty.

But Moriarty was here.

- Where is he now?

- He's in a hotel I believe.

I see.

You knew of this deception

from the first, Watson.

You are the last person

I would have suspected

capable of betraying me to my enemies.

You do your friend an injustice,

Herr Holmes.

He and your brother

paid Professor Moriarty

to journey here,

in the hope that you would follow him

to my door.

- And why did they do that?

- Because they were sure,

it was the only way

that they could induce you to see me.

And why were they so eager

for that particular event?

What reason occurs to you?

Who am I, that your friends

should wish us to meet?

Beyond the fact that you are

a brilliant Jewish physician,

who was born in Hungary and studied

for a while in Paris,

and that certain radical

theories of yours

have alienated the respectable

medical community,

so that you have severed your

connections with various hospitals

and branches of the medical fraternity.

Beyond this, I can deduce little.

You are married, with a child of 5.

You enjoy Shakespeare

and possess a sense of honor.

This is wonderful.

Commonplace.

I'm still awaiting an explanation.

But first you must tell me how

you guessed the details of my life

with such uncanny accuracy.

I never guess.

It is an appalling habit,

destructive to the logical faculty.

A private study

is an ideal place for observing

facets of a man's character.

That the study belongs to you

exclusively

is evident from the dust.

Not even the maid is permitted here,

or she would scarcely have ventured

to let matters come to this pass.

Go on.

Very well.

Now, when a man collects books

on a subject,

they're usually grouped together,

but notice, your King James Bible,

your Book of Mormon,

and Koran are separate-

across the room, in fact,

from your Hebrew Bible and Talmud,

which sit on your desk.

Now, these books have

a special importance for you,

not connected with the general study

of religion, obviously.

The nine-branch candelabra

on top of your desk

confirms my suspicions that you are

of the Jewish faith.

It is called a menorah, is it not?

- Ja.

- That you studied medicine in Paris

is to be inferred

from the great number

of medical texts in that language.

Where else would a German use

French textbooks but in France?

And, who but a brilliant German

could understand the complexities

of medicine in a foreign tongue.

That you're fond of Shakespeare

is to be deduced

from this book

which is lying face downwards.

The fact that you have not adjusted

the volumes suggests to my mind

that you no doubt intend to referring

to it again in the near future.

Not my favorite play.

The absence of dust on the cover

would confirm this hypothesis.

That you're a physician is evident

when I observe you maintain

a consulting room.

Your separation from various societies

is indicated by these blank spaces

surrounding your diploma,

clearly used at one time to display

additional certificates.

Now, what can it be that forces a man

to remove these testimonials

to his success?

Why, only that he has ceased

to affiliate himself

with these various societies,

hospitals, and so forth.

And why do this, having once

troubled to join them all?

It is possible that he became

disenchanted with one or two of them,

but not likely that his disillusionment

extended to all.

Rather, I postulate it is they who

became disenchanted with you, Doctor,

and asked you to resign from all of them.

Why? I have no idea.

But some position you have taken,

evidently a medical one,

has discredited you in their eyes.

I take the liberty of inferring a...

theory of some sort,

too radical or shocking

to gain ready acceptance

in current medical thinking.

Your wedding ring tells me

of your marriage.

Your balkanized accent

hints Hungary or Moravia.

The toy soldier on the floor here

ought, I think,

to belong to a small boy of 5.

Have I omitted anything

of importance?

My sense of honor.

Well, it is implied

by the fact that you have removed

the plaques

from the societies

to which you no longer belong.

In the privacy of your study,

only you would know the difference.

And now I think it is to you

to do some explaining.

In candor, I ask you again

why I have been brought here.

- You cannot guess?

- I never guess.

I cannot think.

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