Far now?
(Dogs barking)
(Indistinct speech)
(Snoring)
Come, Watson.
Come.
The game is afoot.
Into your clothes and come!
(Train whistle)
I think we have thawed sufficiently, Holmes.
Splendid.
"Abbey Grange, Marsham, Kent, 3.30am.
"My dear Mr Holmes,
"I request your assistance
"in what promises to be a most remarkable case.
"It is something quite in your line.
"Except for the lady,
"I will see that everything is kept exactly as I found it,
"but please do not lose an instant as it is difficult to leave Sir Eustace there.
- "Yours faithfully, Stanley Hopkins." - Ah. Inspector Hopkins.
He has called you in seven times.
On each occasion his summons has been entirely justified.
I fancy each of his cases has found its way into your collection.
Yes.
I must admit, Watson, you do have some power of selection...
Thank you.
...which atones for much of what I deplore about your narratives.
Your habit of looking at everything from the point of view of a story
instead of as a scientific exercise
has ruined what might have been
an instructive and even classical series of demonstrations.
- Why do you not write them yourself? - I will, my dear Watson. I will.
In my declining years.
So our present research appears to be one of murder.
Does it?
EB monogram, coat of arms...
An address which harks back to the dissolution of the monasteries.
We're moving in the high life.
- Brackenstall. - Sir Eustace Brackenstall.
You've heard of him?
He was quoted in the Chronicle as being one of the richest men in Kent.
Watson, you are a treasury of knowledge.
- And you think him dead? - (Train whistle)
I think him murdered, Watson.
Hopkins is not an emotional man.
- The writing shows a certain agitation. - It is surely urgent.
You think the body is left for our inspection?
(Holmes) I think that we shall find the Brackenstall line is now extinct.
(Birds cawing)
Very good of you to come, Mr Holmes. And you, Doctor.
Inspector.
I hope you will forgive me, Mr Holmes.
Forgive what, Hopkins?
I should not have troubled you, sir.
Since the lady has come to herself,
she has given so clear an account of the affair
that there's not much for us to do.
- You remember the Lewisham gang? - The Randalls?
Exactly, sir. The father and two sons. It's their work, not a doubt.
They did a job at Sydenham a fortnight ago.
They did. They were seen and described.
Cool of them to do another so soon and so near.
But it is they. And a hanging matter this time.
Brackenstall is dead, then?
Ah, yes, Doctor. In the dining room.
His head was knocked in with his own poker.
And the lady?
Have they been to the dining room yet?
Not yet, my lady.
I shall be glad when you can arrange matters.
Er, what is that? You have other injuries, madam.
It's nothing.
It has no connection with this hideous business.
Please sit down.
I think it would be best to inform you of something, gentlemen,
regarding Sir Eustace.
You will hear a rumour of it otherwise from idle tongues
who will distort the truth of it.
It would pain me to think of his memory tarnished in that way.
Sir Eustace drank, I'm afraid.
Not regularly and consistently.
Not in a way to hurt our marriage.
Nor did it interfere with the exercise of his public duties.
Nevertheless, the vice was a private shame to him.
He was very sensible of my dislike of it.
When he felt the obsession, he went away until the poison exhausted him.
It distressed me, of course, that it should happen,
but he was proud and sensitive enough never to allow me to witness it.
I felt deep gratitude for that,
and not a little pity.
Can you understand that, gentlemen?
I have never heard a like case talked of
with such illuminating compassion, madam.
I must, however, ask you to believe something further.
I was in some measure grateful for this vice of my husband's.
How could that be?
I have spent most of my life in South Australia,
in the wine-growing country near Adelaide.
As a very young woman, I lived alone with my father.
My mother was dead.
If I had a mother, it was my loyal Theresa.
It was a very free life.
I found it extremely difficult to adapt to the proprieties of England,
to being mistress of such a place as this.
I felt that if I showed an understanding of my husband's weakness,
he would, in turn, forgive me some of my unsuitable behaviour.
- And so it proved. - I see.
I'll tell you about last night.
Eustace retired at about half past ten. The servants had gone to their quarters.
- Which are where? - In the east wing.
My husband, Theresa and I sleep in the central block.
The servants would have heard nothing.
Had you retired by then?
I was in my room. I never retire until I have seen Madam to bed.
Thank you.
I sat up.
'In this room, in fact.'
(Clatter)
'It is my custom to walk around to see that the house is secure
'because Sir Eustace is not always to be relied upon in that respect.
'I went into the gun room,
'the kitchen,
'the butler's pantry,
'the billiard room,
'the drawing room,
'and finally the dining room, where the curtains were drawn.
'It's difficult to say much of what happened next.
- 'I took a step towards the curtain... ' - (Gasps)
I found myself face to face with an intruder.
A big man, quite elderly.
For a moment, we just stared at each other.
Then two other men came in behind him and he came for me.
'I must have been unconscious for some minutes.'
(Dogs barking)
It was then that my unfortunate husband entered the room.
They dealt with him as you shall see.
I believe I fainted again. I am not sure.
The exact events are difficult...
I drifted in and out of consciousness, you understand.
I do know that they cleared the room of its silver
and must have drawn themselves some port, which I saw them drink.
The man who struck me was elderly, with a beard.
The others younger, smooth-faced.
Yes.
They checked that I was securely bound and left, taking the silver with them.
How was the alarm raised?
Madam had not come upstairs.
She'd said she'd follow me shortly.
At midnight I went down in case she had fallen asleep over a book.
A thing I hate to do.
And there I found her, poor lamb, just as she says,
and him on the floor, his blood and brains all over the room.
Enough to drive a woman out of her wits.
And her gagged and bound and her very dress spotted with him.
She never wanted courage, did Miss Mary Fraser of Adelaide,
and Lady Brackenstall of Abbey Grange hasn't learned new ways.
You've questioned her long enough, gentlemen.
When did the lady and her maid leave Australia?
18 months ago. Her father sent her to get experience of Europe.
- That is, to find a husband. - It must have seemed a brilliant match.
(Hopkins) It's a mess, sir.
Constable.
- A mess indeed. - We've touched nothing, sir.
- What do you make of it, Doctor? - Should I?
Please proceed, my dear fellow.
It's a blow of savage ferocity.
- (Holmes) A single blow? - I believe so.
It is a straightforward enough wound.
You see, it begins thus, below the ear,
and then crosses both spheres of the parietal bone at such an angle...
that this side is smashed as far as the coronal suture.
I have never seen anything like it.
A powerful man, this elder Randall?
Half his trade is violence, sir.
He has certainly left his trademark.
What beats me is how Randall could do so mad a thing,
knowing that the lady could describe them
and we would recognise the description.
The criminal mind has its quirks of conscience and scruples.
In that respect it is as individual and curious as any other.
A noted miser may be secretly charitable.
So this violent Randall may draw the line at the murder of an unconscious woman.
Or he may well believe that she did not see him.
How is that, sir? She testifies that they stared at each other.
Yes, but it was she who held the light.
What Randall may have seen was mostly flickering candle flame...
the face behind it a distorted mask.
He may have been unimaginative enough
to have thought that she saw no more than he did.
Then he knocked her unconscious, thus solving his problem.
Watson, may I impose upon you to search the Turkey rug?
- What for, Holmes? - Candle wax, Watson. Candle wax.
Now, this bell presents a mystery, does it not, Inspector?
When it was pulled, the bell in the kitchen must have rung loudly.
No one would hear a bell in the kitchen.
- How did the burglar know that? - Exactly, Mr Holmes! Exactly!
The very question I put myself.
Either he has known the house or he may have dealings with a servant.
One of my men is going over the record of service at the Grange with the butler.
Inspector, you have thought of everything!
- Thank you, Mr Holmes. - Holmes.
There.
A scattering of wax and a very light scorching.
Invisible but leaving its characteristic scent.
The lady would have fallen here.
Randall would have snatched up the candelabra immediately.
I suppose that is where they took their refreshment?
To steady their nerves, yes. Port wine, sir.
Did Lady Brackenstall say the butler's corkscrew was used?
No. She was senseless at the moment the bottle was opened.
Quite so. This was opened with a pocket screw, probably contained in a knife.
From the top of the cork you will observe
that the screw was driven in three times before the cork was extracted.
This long screw would have transfixed it and drawn it with a single pull.
When you catch this fellow, you may well find
he has a multiplex knife in his possession.
Excellent, Mr Holmes.
These three glasses do puzzle me, I must confess.
Did Lady Brackenstall say that she actually saw the three men drinking?
Oh, yes. She was clear about that, sir.
Well, then, there's an end of it. What more is to be said?
Perhaps when a man has special powers and knowledge like Sherlock Holmes,
he may seek a complex explanation when a simpler one is at hand.
(Watson) 'You will let us know when Randall is arrested? '
(Train whistles)
Poor Holmes. You must feel like an abstruse and learned specialist
called in for a case of measles.
Annoying.
Hm!
(Holmes) We must return.
Three glasses.
Watson, we have been dazzled out of observation by that lady's beauty.
Beauty may be truth, but she does not necessarily speak it.
There was port in each glass, but there was only crusting in one glass.
The last glass filled is the one most likely to contain the crusting.
If poured from the bottom of the bottle.
But the bottle was half-full and it had been agitated.
The crusting was present throughout the port.
What do you suppose?
That only two glasses were used
and the dregs were poured into a third
so as to give the false impression that three people were there.
I understand.
If I'm right, Watson,
then in an instant this case rises from the commonplace
to the exceedingly remarkable.
That will be the Kentish train.
- What will? - That will.
How on earth did you hear it?
I heard nothing, Watson. I observed.
(Train whistle)
A salutary thought after such a misspent morning.
Lady Brackenstall and her maid must have a very good reason
for shielding the real criminal.
Well, Watson, we shall have to construct our case for ourselves without them.
The Abbey Grange, as fast as you can.
(Holmes) Watson!
(Birds calling)
It appears Inspector Hopkins has gone to report to headquarters.
Splendid. We can take possession.
How many frustrated episodes for the labouring men here
could one reconstruct from this mechanical cemetery? (Sniffs)
What's this?
Watson.
Not entirely mechanical, it seems.
"Fudge."
(Watson) "Requiescat in pace."
One imagines it's a pet's gravestone.
It has been smashed, mended and smashed again with deliberate force.
The story it tells is of the immediate past.
Watson!
The remnants of a dog's collar.
Fudge.
Hey! Has any servant been dismissed from the house in the last month?
No, sir.
Then it's as I thought.
Fudge.
Lady Brackenstall's pet dog, let us imagine, dies.
It may not be too fanciful to suggest that the poor creature was literally killed.
- Killed? For what reason? - Reason hardly entered into it.
It was done in a fit of insane rage by a drunken, sadistic ruffian.
- One of the murderers? - No, Watson.
The lady's husband. The last of the Brackenstalls.
- Brackenstall? - Consider it.
Only a member of the household could vandalise a gravestone and stay here.
Why should Brackenstall entertain such an obsession
about a pet animal that he will forbid any remembrance of it?
You saw the marks on the lady's arm?
I was surprised they did not interest you more.
They were stab wounds, made by a long needle or a hat pin.
This lady has been living in fear of her physical safety, Watson.
Take care, Holmes.
Watson, we have got our case.
How nearly have I made the blunder of a lifetime!
But now the chain is almost complete.
- You have got your men? - Man, Watson. Man.
Only one, but a remarkable person.
Strong as a lion, active as a squirrel,
dexterous with his fingers and, finally, remarkably quick-witted.
Ah, Lady Brackenstall.
I do not wish to cause you unnecessary trouble.
My one desire is to make things easier for you.
I am convinced that you are a much tried woman.
If you will trust me and treat me as a friend,
you may find that I will justify that trust.
- What do you want me to do? - To tell the truth.
- Mr Holmes! - No, please, Lady Brackenstall.
It is of no use.
You may have heard of any little reputation I possess.
I stake it all on the fact that your story is a complete fabrication.
You impudent fellow! Are you trying to say that my mistress has told a lie?
- Have you nothing to tell me? - I have told you everything.
Think just once more, Lady Brackenstall.
Wouldn't it be better to be frank?
I have told you all I know.
I am sorry.
The bell rope gave us a clue which should have left us in no doubt.
If you pulled down a bell rope, Watson, where would you expect it to break?
Surely at the top, where it is attached to the wire, not three inches from the top.
- (Watson) The rope was frayed. - The rope binding the lady was frayed.
He did that with his knife.
But the other end was not.
If you had stood on the mantelpiece,
you'd have seen that it was cut through.
Stop! Please, driver.
(Birds calling)
Watson.
That log has not moved since early this morning.
(Watson) Well, perhaps it's snagged on something.
Hmm.
Or anchored.
See that Inspector Hopkins gets this on his return, will you?
Chislehurst Station.
Where to now, Holmes?
The shipping office of the Southern Cross Line.
Yes, of course.
The Southern Cross Line is the principal passenger carrier
between Adelaide and London.
Ah. I see.
In May of that year, only one of ours reached a home port.
Our flagship, the Rock Of Gibraltar.
I'll have the passenger list sent up.
(Hopkins) How on earth did Mr Holmes know that?
Ah, here we are. Miss Mary Fraser of Adelaide.
First class. Accompanied by her maid.
Where is the Rock Of Gibraltar now?
At noon today, she was steaming west through the Arabian Gulf, Mr Holmes.
Heading for Suez, I hope.
Is it your policy to transfer officers much between ship and ship?
No, not at all. It is our policy not to.
Ah! I have you, Mr Holmes.
You are asking the whereabouts of a member of the Rock's crew
who has been seen very recently, but not on the ship.
Mr Viviani, your perspicacity astonishes me.
It is only through study of the doctor's masterly exposition of your work
that I now have any small capacity to reason.
Really? You amaze me.
Watson, are you taking notes?
Also you will be pleased to hear that I know exactly who the officer is.
(Crockery clanking)
Ah, excellent, Mrs Burbage.
Excellent.
Yes, gentlemen, the only officer from that voyage of the Rock
who is not aboard her now is Jack Croker.
A magnificent chap. Am I not correct, Mrs Burbage?
(Laughs) Croker has that effect.
Delightful fellow. Handsome as a prince. The crew worship him.
We've promoted him captain of our new vessel, the Bass Rock...
(Holmes) No tea for me, please.
...which is just fitting out.
He's the youngest captain we have, but he'll be the best.
Not an officer in the fleet to touch him.
He is... hot-headed and excitable,
but loyal, honest and kind-hearted.
Sometimes in life you meet people who are what you might call large-souled,
who are a privilege to know.
Croker is one of those.
Once or twice in my career,
I feel I have done more real harm by my discovery of the criminal
than ever he had done by his crime.
(Bell dinging)
But I have learned caution now,
and I'd rather play tricks with the law of England
than with my own conscience.
Captain Croker. Sit down.
I got your telegram and I've come at the hour you said.
I heard you had been down to the office.
There's no getting away from you, is there?
Speak up, man! You can't stand there and play cat and mouse with me.
- What do you know? - Give him a cigar, Watson.
Please, sit down.
Bite on that, Captain Croker,
and try not to let your nerves run away with you.
I should not sit here smoking with you if I thought you were a common criminal.
(Door opens and closes)
Tell me, what did you use to secure the silver to the floating log?
I guess it was fishing gut from the gun room.
But I was not present at its recovery.
Am I right?
- What do you want? - Justice.
- For whom? - We are not partisan.
We just want to see justice done, that is all.
Very well.
- Was it fishing gut? - No. Tarred twine.
It is a throwback to my days before the mast as a youngster.
Even now, I always carry a silver coin, a length of twine and...
And a multiplex knife.
How the devil do you know that?
Who are you?
Now, give me a true account of all that happened at Abbey Grange last night.
Be frank with me and we may do some good.
Play tricks with me and I'll crush you.
I'll chance it. But one thing I'll say first.
I regret nothing, I fear nothing and I'd do it again if I had to and be proud of it.
Damn the man! But that's my side of things, only my side.
When I think of Mary, sweet Mary Fraser...
When I think of getting her into this business, that turns my soul to water.
(Romantic waltz)
I met her when I was first officer on my last ship.
Air! Oh, I need air, Mr Croker.
I've never danced so much in my life.
You dance as if you were born to it.
Neither born nor bred, I assure you, Mr Croker.
Led to it, I think, by a better dancer than I am.
(Croker) 'She treated me as fairly as ever a woman treated a man.
'We were never engaged. I've no complaint.
'But it was all love on my side,
'and all good comradeship and friendship on hers.
'When we parted, she was a free woman,
'but I could never again be a free man.'
(Seagulls cawing, waves crashing)
'Next time I came back from the sea, I read of her marriage.'
It seemed to be the sort of thing she was made for.
I didn't grieve. I felt it to be right.
So I never thought to see her again.
Last voyage I was promoted and the new boat was not yet launched,
so I had to wait for a couple of months with my people in Kent.
I knew now where she was, but stayed away.
But then I met Theresa Wright one day.
She told me all about her - about the marriage,
about the man's drunken cruelty, about everything.
Do you know this noble baronet burnt her pet dog
and threatened as much to her?
I tell you, gentlemen, it nearly drove me mad.
I did meet Mary,
and I met her again.
At last... she would meet me no more.
I was then given notice that I had to leave on my voyage within a week.
(Gasps)
You're mad.
How could you come here?
I'm to go away, Mary.
I've been given a ship.
To go and not to say farewell...
I thought I might never see you again.
You are going away?
I do not relish it.
You will make a fine captain.
You must not let anything spoil such an opportunity.
I fear for you.
You can do nothing.
Aye, that it is which hurts most, I think.
I believe I should have gone mad these past few weeks if...
"lf..." Mary?
If it had not been for the thought of you,
my... friend.
Aye, "friend" will do, Mary.
It is a measure of my love for you - it's so strong it will live on crumbs.
- "Friend" will do. - No, Jack. Don't make me say it.
It won't make us any happier.
You know what I feel.
Do I?
You know you do.
Then I shall go a happier man than when I came.
God bless you, sweet Mary Fraser.
That's enough for me.
You must not stay, Jack.
Take this for my sake.
At last I have you, madam. At your trade.
Here is the key to your damn modesty.
You have a profession, madam!
A damn whore!
A gutter queen! A filthy jade!
Yes, sir. Come, sir. Stand you there, sir!
Over the body of your bloody harlot!
She's all right.
Jack... Oh, Jack.
Thank you, no, Captain.
Oh...
- Oh, what happened? - I killed him.
- Are you certain? - I know. I felt it.
Oh! Oh, dear God!
What are we going to do?
(Sobs)
Listen to your old Theresa.
You are marked with a blow that could have killed you.
That shall be your salvation.
Theresa was as cool as ice, and it was her plot as much as mine.
We must make it appear that burglars had done the thing.
Theresa repeated our story to her mistress
whilst I swarmed up and cut the rope of the bell.
I lashed her in her chair, frayed the end of the rope to make it look natural.
The silver, you know about.
I do. And the third glass of port to tie in with the Randalls.
Yes. We dropped the candlestick where Mary fell, for the wax would splash.
I never thought the police could have seen through our dodge.
When I knew that that fiend was dead and she was free,
I reckoned I'd done the best work of my life, and still do, even if I swing for it.
That is the truth.
The whole truth, sir.
(Theresa) Dear God!
(Holmes) Yes. Yes, you have told me the truth.
If the maid had been less abstemious and accepted your glass of port,
your ingenuity might have fooled me as you have certainly fooled the police.
What put you onto me?
How on earth did you find me?
No one could have got up to that bell rope but an acrobat or a sailor.
Only a sailor could have made the knots which fastened the cord to the chair.
The lady was shielding someone.
To do so under such circumstances meant that she must love that person.
(Carriage approaches outside, bell rings)
It was not too wild a leap of the imagination
to connect her with an officer of the ship which brought her to this country.
Croker...
(Holmes chuckles)
- You are expecting a visitor. - (Door opens)
I am?
My dearest, this gentleman knows everything.
There's no hiding from him.
I know. His telegram brought me here.
What do you intend, Mr Holmes?
Well, Captain Croker, this is a very serious matter.
Yet I feel sure that on the basis of the story you have told here tonight,
a British court of law will understand that you acted in defence of your own life.
That, however, is for a jury to decide.
Meanwhile, I have so much sympathy for you
that if you choose to disappear within the next 24 hours,
I promise no one will hinder you.
- Then it'll all come out. - Certainly it will come out.
What sort of proposal's that?
Mary will be left to face the music. Held as accomplice, maybe.
No, sir, it will not do.
Jack, you must go.
I shall not.
Calm yourself, Captain. I was only testing you.
Watson, this fellow rings true every time.
It is a great responsibility that I take upon myself,
but we will do it in due form of law.
Croker, you are the prisoner. Watson, you are a British jury.
And I never met any man more eminently fitted to represent one.
Now, gentleman, you have heard the evidence.
Do you find the prisoner guilty or not guilty?
- Not guilty. - Vox populi, vox Dei.
You are acquitted, Captain Croker.
- No. No, sir, it will not do. - Captain?
What if the police arrest some other poor devil?
Then I will use all my powers to persuade them of their mistake.
If they light on you, that is another matter. However, I think it unlikely.
Come back to this lady in a year's time
and may her future and yours justify us in the judgement we have pronounced.
Oh, thank you!
Madam, I am intrigued.
You gave such a compelling account of a man's sad addiction to drink,
yet it was not, as we now know, a portrait of your husband.
But it was such a clear description. I wondered...
My father.
My poor father, Doctor.
He sent me away to England because of it.
His self-management was why I did not fear the vice in my husband,
because I knew of it before we were married.
- How foolish I was. - (Watson) Thank you, madam.
I felt sure that your story was true to reality.
Good luck to you.
It's almost as though you disapproved of the happiness we have fostered today.
Oh, no, I approve of that, of course I do.
I am uneasy that you took upon yourself the duties of advocate and judge.
You are too bound by forms, Watson.
- Forms are society, Holmes. - Hm.
- Manners maketh man, Holmes. - Ha!
It's just as well you are unique.