The Seven-Per-Cent Solution Page #4

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Then it is you and not I who is

being less than candid, Herr Holmes.

For you are suffering from

an abominable addiction.

And you choose to wrong

your brother

and your friend, who have combined

to help you throw off its yoke.

You disappoint me, sir.

Can you be the man I've come

to admire not merely for his brain

but for his passion for justice?

In your heart of hearts, surely

you must acknowledge your illness.

And your hypocrisy in condemning

your staunch friends.

I have been guilty of these things...

I make no excuse.

But as for help, you must put it

from your minds, all of you...

I have summoned all my will

to the task, and it's no use.

My feet are on the inexorable path

to destruction.

A man may sometimes retrace

his steps.

Not from the fiendish coils

of drug addiction. No man can do it.

I have.

I've taken cocaine,

and I'm free from its power.

It is now my intention to help others.

If you will allow me, I will help you.

You cannot do this.

I can.

It will take time,

and it will not be pleasant.

For the duration, I've arranged for

both of you to stay here as guests.

Would that be agreeable to you?

It's no use, even now I'm overcome

by this hideous compulsion.

I can reduce this compulsion

for a while.

Do you know anything

of the practice of hypnotism?

You propose to make me bark

like a dog and crawl about the oor?

Through hypnosis, I will banish

your craving when it exerts itself.

In this way, we shall artificially

reduce your addiction

until the chemistry of your body

does it naturally.

Now, I want you to keep your eyes

fastened upon this as it swings.

I want you to think of nothing else.

Nothing else.

Quickly, we must search

his possessions.

Doctor, I think I have it.

Don't be certain.

This is not an ordinary patient.

- It's water.

- Can it be?

Then, where?

Too heavy, too heavy.

Oh, Doctor.

When and where did Herr Holmes

begin using cocaine?

And do you have any idea why?

For as long as I've known him,

he's used it.

I believe he begun by taking it

between cases to relieve the ennui.

- A seven percent solution.

- To relieve the ennui, the boredom?

How did you become interested

in the drug?

It's a sideline of mine, not directly

connected with my researches.

A friend of mine died last year

as the result of its horrible properties.

I was partly responsible.

I wrote a paper on it afterwards.

The piece I chanced upon

in The Lancet.

Ja.

You are mainly involved

in research, then?

I was trained as a neuropathologist,

with a background

in localized diagnosis,

but there is no formal designation

for what I am now.

I began by mapping

the nervous system,

but I became interested

in charting the mind itself.

I'm interested in an area of the brain

I call the unconscious.

The unconscious?

You are an alienist.

I'm interested in hysterical cases,

and I use hypnosis

to dig into their unconscious mind

where I believe

the hysterical symptoms originate.

For example...

Herr Holmes' dependency on cocaine

strikes me as a symptom.

Not a hysterical one, I grant you,

but nonetheless a symptom.

An effect, rather than a cause.

What makes you say that?

Well, it's elementary my clear fellow.

Knowing something, as I do,

about drugs and drug addiction,

I do not believe that a man succumbs

to their negative appeal

out of mere boredom.

A snake!

A snake!

For pity's sake! Do you see it, Watson?

- What's that noise?

- Don't worry, dear.

Doctor, may I present my wife?

A pleasure, madam.

- Freda.

- Yes, madam.

Watson! Do you see it?

You see it, Watson?

It's a swamp adder.

The deadliest snake in India.

It's there! Get away!

There's a snake here.

There's a snake in the grass.

I'm so sorry.

- I'm so sorry.

- Yes...

You had a dream?

A dream...

Yes...

Strange...

I don't often remember them.

But this one you do?

Yes.

- And it was about a snake?

- Yes.

A snake... that's right.

I dreamt about a case I once

had attempted to solve.

A rather diabolic plot,

to murder a young lady.

You did?

Watson and I...

stood vigilant by her bedside.

The snake came down a bell rope

by her bed,

through a false vent in the ceiling.

Every night, the murderer would...

let it come down...

until, one night...

she most inevitably succumbed to it.

You and Dr. Watson,

you... scorched the snake?

Yes.

But in my dream,

a very curious thing...

The viper...

turned into Professor Moriarty.

It's odd, don't you think?

Strange, yes.

Professor Moriarty?

Do you place much stock in dreams,

Doctor?

I don't know what dreams tell.

Lately I have been toying

with the idea that...

You see it?

Do you see it?

Watson! Watson!

- Watson, let me go!

- Holmes!

The snake!

You don't understand!

You insufferable cripple!

Sherlock Holmes' attempt to escape

the coils of the cocaine,

in which he was so deeply enmeshed,

was perhaps the most harrowing

and heroic effort

I have ever witnessed.

In both my professional

and personal experience,

in both military and civilian life,

I can recall nothing...

to equal the sheer agony of it.

How long will he have to suffer?

It all depends to what extent he has

saturated his system with the drug.

- Could it be very dangerous, this process?

- Yes.

- How dangerous?

- He can die.

No, no, no!

Herr Holmes, please, go back to bed!

Go back to bed.

Please, you need rest.

Good morning.

A little breakfast, Herr Holmes?

Your fever is broken, and your pulse

is normal today, Herr Holmes.

How do you feel?

Not well.

Yes, you do.

You are much improved.

In fact, today we are going to

force some food into you.

Do you remember Professor Moriarty?

My evil genius.

Yes. What of him?

I know what you want me

to say, Doctor.

Very well, I shall oblige you.

The only time...

Professor Moriarty truly occupied

the role of my nemesis...

was when it took him...

three weeks to make clear to me

the mysteries of elementary calculus.

I'm not so much interested

in hearing you say it,

as in your understanding it to be true.

I understand it.

Good.

Watson, is that you?

Come closer.

I don't remember very much of the...

past few hours.

Or was it days?

But I seem to recall...

shouting at you...

terrible things.

Did I do that, or did I just imagine it?

You just imagined it, my dear fellow.

Because... if I did do that...

I want you to know...

that I did not mean it.

You hear me?

I did not mean it.

Holmes...

Come, Doctor,

I think he is going to sleep.

He'll be all right, won't he?

Perhaps.

He will need hypnosis

periodically, still.

What troubles you?

We are not being successful?

Perhaps.

There is an old maxim that warns

of the cure being worse

than the disease.

Come Doctor, we owe ourselves

an hour or two of fresh air.

In order to effect what

I would describe as a total cure,

it is necessary to trace the origin

of his compulsion.

The reason for his use of cocaine.

If we cannot exorcise the reason,

then he will continue susceptible.

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