The Seven-Per-Cent Solution Page #7

---

Will you bring the dog here

as fast as you can?

I am on the case,

and you have placed me there.

Now you must follow my instructions.

And have the goodness

to fetch Dr. Watson's revolver.

I don't think you ought to

have spoken to him like that.

No sign of a struggle.

Curious.

Hold on. What's this?

A lily.

Perhaps she had it in her hair.

Hardly with a stem this long,

I think.

Watson!

Look at this!

Ingenious creature.

She's left us a trail. Come on!

What about Dr. Freud?

Shouldn't we wait for him?

To hang, Dr. Freud!

Come on!

You see?

I was right!

Look there!

There's another, Watson.

IZI Once, yes, once is a lark IZI

lZITwice, though, loses the spark El

IZI Once, yes, once is delicious IZI

[Z But twice would be vicious IZI

IE Or just repetitious [Z

IE Someone's bound to be scarred [Z

IZI Yes, I know that is hard IE

[Z But no matter the vice IZI

IZI I never do anything twice IZI

IZI Je me souviens the abbot IZI

[Z Who worshipped at my feet [Z

lZI Who dressed me in a

wimple and in veils IZI

IZI He made a proposition IZI

IZI Which I found rather sweet IZI

[Z And handed me a hammer

and some nails IZI

IZI In time we lay contented IZI

IZI But he began again IZI

IZI By fingering the beads

around our waists IZI

IZI I whispered to him then IZI

lZI We'll have to say "amen" IZI

IZI For I had developed

more Catholic tastes IZI

IZI Once, yes, once can be nice IZI

IZI Love requires some spice IZI

[Z If you've something in view IE

IZI Something to do, totally new IZI

IZI I'll be there in a trice IZI

IZI But I never do anything twice IZI

Something with red hair,

I think.

- What do you feel, old man?

- Red hair.

Oh, I definitely fancy

red hair tonight.

Not quite your color, madame.

All right.

Mademoiselle, ale.

What you see is what is available.

Wait a minute.

Good evening, gentlemen.

Would you like to have a look?

- Really, madame.

- You too.

Watson.

- Watson.

- It's nice, isn't it?

Voile, gentlemen.

Here is Chloe.

She has red hair.

Something a little more fiery,

don't you think, Watson?

No, I don't see anything in here.

- What's in there?

- You can't go in there.

Come on, Watson.

Watson, the queen wouldn't like it.

Through there!

Dr. Freud.

I see.

It's all right, Herman.

Really, gentlemen,

for this sort of amusement,

you need not come

to my establishment.

How did you get here before us?

By trying to think where

they would hide Freulein Devereux if,

as you posited, they would no longer use

the original hiding place.

Knowing something

of Freulein Devereux's past,

it occurred to me that the safest place

to hide a demimonde

might be among

a bevy of demimondes.

You are beginning

to think like me.

We followed a trail of lilies.

I take it, however, that we have not

found Freulein Devereux.

Not Freulein Devereux.

Doctor, please get up

from the bed very slowly

and move to one side.

Try not to disturb anything.

Watson, lock the door.

She's one of the sisters of mercy

at the hospital.

Precisely. She was probably abducted

along with Fraulein Devereux

to prevent her describing the men

who took her away.

Well done, my dear Doctor.

But it was only one man,

not men.

I found no trace of a struggle.

The ladies accompanied him willingly.

Why?

Eliminate the impossible,

my dear Doctor,

and whatever remains,

however improbable,

must be the truth.

- The Baron?

- Bravo! Excellent.

Really, Doctor, I must congratulate you.

Yes, the Baron.

The only person so intimately connected

with Miss Deveraux's present

that he might know

something of her past.

He planned to use this stuff

to keep her tractable.

But why?

Why abduct his own mistress?

We have not yet concluded

our examination.

Throat slit, left to right.

It's a ritual slay.

Common in Muslim rites

and practices.

Sharp, curved blade.

The body is still warm.

Rigor not yet set in.

Muslims? You mean religious differences

at the bottom of all this?

I can't believe it.

Murdering nuns in brothels...

Watson, don't move your foot!

What have we here?

Turkish.

"Latakia."

Many people

smoke Turkish cigarettes.

Yes, but only Turks smoke this brand.

The cigarette paper is indigenous

to the Ottoman Empire.

Our Turkish tobacco

is shipped raw

and processed in Europe

and in England.

It must be...

a strand of carpet.

Also Turkish.

I think I know what has become

of our Miss Deveraux.

It's only a theory, mind,

but I venture to suggest it fits the facts.

Doctor, have you ever heard

of the Amin Pasha?

Of course. But what can he have

to do with all of this?

Everything,

or I am much mistaken.

It is my theory that he was

a ardent admirer of our Miss Deveraux.

As I recall, red hair exercises

a peculiar fascination for the Pasha.

Circassian women

frequently do for Muslims.

No doubt he met her at Monte Carlo,

in the company of the Baron.

Holmes,

the lady is still in danger.

You mustn't succumb.

Don't worry, Watson.

I won't.

Even

- Watson.

- Herr Baron.

The revolver.

You will empty your pockets.

Give all the cocaine you brought

to Dr. Watson. Watson!

Now, I will make

a series of statements,

and you will agree or disagree,

depending on their accuracy.

Is that understood?

Say Yes!

Yes!

- The Baron-

- I see everything.

The whole thing turns

on two psychological points:

the Baron's compulsive gambling

and the Amin Pasha's fascination

for red headed women.

Bravo, Doctor.

Your powers of observation and inference

would make you a great detective.

The Baron is a compulsive gambler.

- Yes

- He lost a fortune this season

- at Monte Carlo.

- Yes.

The Amin Pasha bought up

all his outstanding notes

in order to control him completely.

Really, Doctor, you positively scintillate.

What next?

He offered to tear up the notes

in exchange for Freulein Devereux.

Whom he wish to add to his seraglio.

- His harem.

- Yes.

The Baron agreed

and hired you to abduct his mistress.

Yes.

Knowing of her former

narcotic addiction,

you were instructed to revive it

in order to render her pliant

and dependent.

Yes.

So much for

the psychological point of view.

It's the next series of steps

that confuses me.

Well, if you will permit me,

perhaps I can explain them to you.

Shut up!

All that is necessary is to combine

your methods and my own.

I am all attention.

The Baron's plan is clear.

In another day or so, he could have

turned a perfectly docile woman

over to his creditor.

But she foiled his plans

by escaping.

It was then a race to see

which of them could recover her first.

The Baron was desperate.

Without her, he was lost.

He managed to trace her

to the hospital somehow

and was on the point

of spiriting away this morning.

It was his black carriage

that we passed on our way in.

But something stopped him.

See, I think he recognized you,

Doctor,

from your tennis match.

He ascertained, after we left,

that we had been to see Miss Deveraux.

It was now essential to get us

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes