The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

---

Gentlemen of the jury, have

you decided on your verdict?

We have.

The prisoner will rise.

Do you find the prisoner guilty

or not guilty of willful murder?

According to the evidence,

we have no choice

but to find the prisoner

not guilty.

So do we all find

and may god forgive us.

Prisoner, at the bar

you have heard the verdict.

Under the law,

no other verdict is possible.

Yet, it is undoubtedly

a gross miscarriage of justice.

It is deplorable, Professor

Moriarty, that a man of your

intellectual attainments

should be standing in the

prisoner's box charged with

a crime of murder.

And in setting you free, I cannot

in my conscience exonerate you.

Let the prisoner be discharged.

[Pounding on door]

Let me in, let me in.

My Lord.

My lord,

I have important new evidence.

You come too late, Mr. Holmes.

The prisoner has been discharged.

But my lord, you can't let

Moriarty go free. He killed Loray.

I can prove it.

I can destroy his alibi.

That alibi has been

established by three hundred

fellows of the Royal Society.

Your lordship,

my client has been acquitted.

He cannot be tried twice

for the same charge.

Oh, there you are, Holmes.

I'm afraid you have

a bad opinion of me.

On the contrary, I hold you

in the highest esteem

but only as a maid.

It's gratifying to know that

one's talents are appreciated

by such a distinguished

connoisseur.

- May I give you a lift?

Cabs are scarce in this rain.

- Thank you.

- 221 Bakers Street.

- Very good, sir.

- After you, my dear Holmes.

- By no means,

I prefer that you precede me

at all times.

Such a creature of habit,

you are.

You have a magnificent brain,

Moriarty. I admire it.

I admire it so much I'd like to

present it pickled in alcohol

to the London Medical Society.

That would make an

interesting exhibit.

Holmes, you've only now barely

missed sending me to the gallows.

You're the one man in England

clever enough to defeat me.

The situation

has become impossible.

Have you any suggestions?

I'm gonna break you, Holmes.

I'm going to bring out

right under your nose

the most incredible crime

of the century

and you'll never suspect it

until it's too late.

That will be the end of you,

Mr. Sherlock Holmes.

And when I've beaten and ruined

you then I can retire in peace.

I'd like to retire,

crime no longer amuses me.

I'd like to devote my remaining

years to abstract science.

Well, here we are

at my lodgings.

I'm so sorry

I can't ask you in.

Good night,

Professor Moriarty.

Good night.

??

I was just coming in

when you rang, sir.

- Oh, there you are, Dawes.

- Mr. Bassick is here, sir.

I'll see him at once.

Come to me

as soon as he's gone, Dawes.

There's something

I want to say to you.

Yes, sir.

Well, Bassick.

Don't that bloke never stop.

That music gives me the creeps.

Does it, Bassick?

I rather like it.

I want you to post that letter

at the box at Portland Square

just a few minutes

before twelve.

Then drive directly to your

lodgings by way of Oxford Circus.

Wait there till I send for you.

That's all.

First, I want to know

what I'm getting into.

You have your orders.

That's enough.

I have a right to know the

layout in case there's trouble.

I'll take care of that.

That's what you promised Higgins

in that Hammersmith job.

Oh, poor Higgins.

They found nothing

but his boots.

One boot.

You know, Bassick,

Higgins was a valuable man

and a clever cracksman.

But he had your unfortunate habit

of asking too many questions

and now all that's left of him

is one boot.

Don't take me wrong, Professor.

I'll do what you tell me right enough.

I'm sure you will, Bassick,

and just to prove how I trust you

I'm going to tell you my plan.

Although, you haven't the imagination

to appreciate its subtlety.

My whole success depends upon

a peculiarity of Holmes brain,

its perpetual restlessness.

Its constant struggle

to escape boredom.

Holmes again?

Always Holmes until the end.

He's like a spoiled boy

who picks watches to pieces

but loses interest in one toy

as soon as he's given another.

So, I'm presenting the ingenious but

fickle Mr. Holmes with two toys,

in the order in which

I mean him to have them.

The first, that letter.

If I know Mr. Holmes that will

interest him very little,

after this comes to fascinate

and tantalize his imagination.

Blimey, what it mean?

That is what I'm depending upon

to absorb Mr. Holmes' interest

while I'm engaged elsewhere.

I'll give him a toy

to delight his heart

so full of bizarre

complications that he'll forget

all about the first toy,

that letter.

What's in the letter,

Professor?

The germ of a crime, Bassick.

A truly great crime.

A crime that will

stir the empire,

that children will read about

in their history books

and you're going to be

part of it, Bassick.

Off with you now.

You wanted to see me, sir?

I'm away for a few weeks,

Dawes,

and I come back to find

my emfurium magenta,

my incomparable emfurium magenta

withered, ruined.

I can't understand it, sir.

I take good care of all the plants.

- Did you water them?

- Every day, sir,

just as you told me, sir.

Then how did it happen

that I find a spider's web

spun across the spout

of a watering can?

- That can happen overnight, sir.

- Overnight, uh.

Then you didn't water

them today.

There has been so much to do,

sir, preparing for your coming

Rate this script:4.8 / 8 votes