Cold lobster and sliced tomatoes.
Could one possibly conceive of a more ideal marriage, Watson?
Romeo and Juliet were clearly mismated by comparison.
Oh, Watson, aren't you going to join me?
Oh, now, surely, Watson, you can't bear a grudge against me forever for something so trivial.
Trivial?
And what is trivial about riddling the walls with bullets?
I do not agree that I riddled the wall, as you so violently put it.
I decorated it in a way that it would be a good decoration for the wedding.
I decorated it in a most patriotic manner.
Holmes.
I have permitted and suffered many liberties in this flat.
First you make those evil-smelling gases,
then you shatter my nerves with those ridiculous disguises.
But you, even you, have never covered your activities under the banner of patriotism.
Yes, but we are of the Queen's initials.
I was only celebrating Her Majesty's birthday.
You were only celebrating Her Majesty's birthday?
Celebrating Her Majesty?
Still, that's no excuse.
Well, perhaps I was a little overzealous, but you can't very well blame a man for that.
Nevertheless...
All right, Watson, I solemnly promise never to do it again.
Oh.
Well.
And lobster and tomato for breakfast, who ever heard of that?
I must say, it looks totally good, eh?
You mean to say you're going to join me?
Yes, please.
That's strange. I didn't expect her until noon.
She must have caught the midnight train.
You'll meet her in a minute.
I wouldn't want her to feel that she was intruding.
Mr. Holmes?
Yes, Miss Millicent Channing?
Yes.
I wrote you that I'd be here at noon, but I didn't want to lose any time.
I took the midnight train.
I understand. Won't you come in?
This is my good friend and associate, Dr. Watson.
How do you do?
Please sit down, Miss Channing. You must have had a very tiring journey.
Particularly in view of the fact that you were forced to take a dog cart part of the way.
How did you know I took a dog cart?
Well, I noticed that your right sleeve is covered with mud.
Only a dog cart throws out mud in such a disagreeable way.
Mr. Holmes can also deduce your birthstone...
and the serial numbers of any notes you happen to be carrying in your purse.
Dr. Watson exaggerates, though only slightly.
I've heard a great deal of your powers, Mr. Holmes.
They say you're one of the cleverest men in London.
They're very kind.
You said in your letter that your fiancé has disappeared.
I'm afraid that something terrible has happened to him.
Why, Miss Channing?
It's all so muddled, so confused.
Several days ago, I was expecting him for dinner.
He didn't arrive.
I was worried, and I went to his lodgings.
Millicent!
They say of Moab it won't come to the mountain.
Good heavens, we had a dinner date.
At 8 o'clock.
Oh, you must forgive me.
I've been so deep in this, it completely slipped my mind.
Millicent...
How would you like to marry a full professor of English history at London University?
I'd much rather marry you, John.
I mean me.
Are you serious?
You still have three years before you can become a professor.
It can happen in a month.
Next week, perhaps.
But how?
Well, you know this research work I've been doing on 14th century English history?
Yes.
Well, I have reason to believe I've made the most amazing, the most fantastic discovery.
Tell me.
Not until I put my theory to the test.
And if I'm right, I can assure you there will be an immediate chair for me at the university.
And more than that, I'll be famous.
Oh, but John, this is unfair, keeping me in the dark like this.
I promise you it won't be for long.
Tomorrow, I go to see Sir Thomas Greystone at Aberdeen to get his cooperation.
He won't refuse because my success will bring him fame also.
John, you simply must tell me what...
Not another word tonight.
I'll tell you everything when I come back the day after tomorrow.
Remember, good things come to those who wait.
But he didn't come back.
Not the day he told me, nor the next day.
I wired him at Greystone Castle asking him to explain the delay.
I received this answer.
John Cartwright, unknown here.
Signed, Greystone.
I didn't know what to make of it, Mr. Holmes.
Finally, I decided to go up to Aberdeen and talk to Sir Thomas Greystone himself.
He must have been mistaken.
This is it, yes.
Certainly don't know what to do.
Certainly don't envy you, miss.
Why? Is something wrong?
Let's say something isn't right.
Ever since the Greystones came upon hard times, they become a strange, mysterious pair.
Hardly anyone ever comes to see them, and those that do don't waste any time there.
If I were you, miss, I'd wait until it's light before I went up.
I don't have the time to spare.
I'm sure I'll be all right.
So yourself, miss.
Get out.
I would like to see Sir Thomas Greystone, please.
My name is Miss Channing.
Would you please tell him that...
Miss Channing, is it?
The lady who sent the telegram.
Yes.
I hope you don't think me foolish coming here in this way, Sir Thomas.
Walter Greystone is my name.
Sir Thomas is my father.
If you've come to make further inquiries about your Mr. Cartwright, yes, I'd say you were foolish.
We've absolutely no knowledge of the gentleman.
But I can't understand it.
He told me he was coming here to speak to Sir Thomas.
About what?
About a discovery he made while doing some historical research.
He said it was to have brought fame to him and Sir Thomas both.
I can assure you, Miss Channing, no one of that nature has been here. No one.
But I know he took the 610 train on Tuesday. I saw him off.
The 610 train makes a dozen stops along the way. He could have got off at any one of them.
But why?
I've no idea, Miss.
I'm sorry. I'm upset. You see, he's my fiancé.
I quite understand, but there's nothing we can do.
I'm sorry to have troubled you.
One moment, Miss.
That telegram I sent you cost two shillings. I'll thank you till he embossed me.
Father! Be quiet!
I'm not a charitable institution.
Are you Sir Thomas Greystone?
I am.
You didn't say you were.
I didn't say I wasn't. Two shillings, if you please.
Thank you. Good night, Miss Channing.
Good night.
Whatever else I felt about the Greystones, I didn't believe they'd lied to me.
Why should they deny they'd seen John?
However, as I made my way through the garden, I found this timetable in the bushes.
I take it that these notes in the margin are in your fiancé's handwriting, Miss Channing.
Yes, Mr. Holmes. They lied. He was there.
And for some reason they're trying to deny it.
You'd evidently asked directions to the castle and jotted them down in the margin.
Well, it's perfectly evident the Greystones are lying, but why?
Here's somebody offering them a chance of fame, they refuse it.
There are other considerations more imperative than fame, Watson.
What other considerations, for example?
That is our problem.
You will help me, Mr. Holmes.
I'll do my best, Miss Channing.
Watson, the 14th century contained the reigns of what kings?
Uh, wait a minute. 14th century?
There were some Henrys and Richard II.
There were some Henrys and Richard II, of course.
Richard II. He was executed, wasn't he?
Yes, at Pontefract Castle, September the 21st, 1300, and, uh...
Miss Channing, I would appreciate your taking me to your fiancé's flat.
To his flat? But why not to Greystone Castle?
Well, I would rather not go there unarmed.
Why not? We've both got revolvers.
I am referring, Watson, to information that may have led to the disappearance of Miss Channing's fiancé.
Come along, Miss Channing.
Well, I can't find anything there.
Perhaps you'd have a look, Watson.
Oh, thank you, Miss Channing.
Thank you.
Aha! So this is what Cartwright found so exciting.
What is it, Holmes?
Well, he certainly deserves his professorship if he understood this.
Listen.
This pledge unto Richard, I, Richard, do make.
To return unto Richard, switch from Richard, I take.
Let Richard look on the northern stair.
Then six and seven is not fair.
Press on and through and doon for ten.
Beware thou do not linger then.
If thou art in and wish ye moot, get out.
Smite eke the lion upon the snout.
Meet and rhyme perfect.
Oh, what's it mean?
Well, it's simple enough, Watson.
Look here, Holmes.
Sometimes I think you'd say that a trip to the moon on an umbrella is simple.
Well, analyze it piece by piece.
The first part is nothing more than a receipt.
A receipt?
Certainly. This pledge unto Richard, I, Richard, do make.
To return unto Richard such things as I from Richard take.
Well, apparently Richard had entrusted his possessions to a loyal friend.
And he had received his promise that they be returned.
Yes, yes, I see that.
The rest of the inscription merely tells him how he may get his possessions back.
Hence, let Richard look upon the northern star.
A sort of map, so to speak.
Quite so.
Well, but what's all this got to do with Cartwright's disappearance?
Well, in Wilkinson's biography of Richard II,
it is mentioned that one of the king's most loyal supporters was Richard Greystone,
the original owner of Greystone Castle.
Cartwright must have had the idea that Richard had left his possessions with him.
So he went up there to prove it.
Yes.
But that still doesn't answer why John hasn't come back.
That answer, Miss Channing, may only be secured at Greystone Castle.
That's strange. There appears to be no one here.
I'll go around and let you in.
Aye, sir.
♪♪♪
Come along and keep close behind me.
This pledge unto Richard I, Richard, do make.
To return unto Richard, switch from Richard I take.
The lower half appears to have been destroyed by fire.
Then there's every chance that King Richard's possessions may not yet have been found.
No, they haven't.
Say you brought help, Miss Channing.
Where is he? What have you done with him?
He's in safekeeping, in the tower.
Since you're here, perhaps you can persuade Mr. Cartwright to tell us the secret of the Greystone inscription.
We shall do nothing of the sort.
He's got some idea of returning Richard's possessions to the Queen for a birthday present.
They're worth a fortune and are rightfully mine.
They rightfully belong to the Crown.
We won't have your rights and wrongs.
Wait as well.
If you can't persuade Mr. Cartwright to talk, then not one of you will leave this room alive.
In that case, I will not hang my fate on another man's decision.
I'll lead you to King Richard's possessions myself.
Holmes!
Why be killed over a museum piece, Watson?
Let's re-examine the pledge.
This pledge, unto Richard, I, Richard, do make, to return unto Richard, such as from Richard I take.
We can understand that much without your help. Go on.
The meaning is perfectly clear.
Whatever treasure may be hidden here belongs to the Royal Family and to nobody else.
Let Richard look on the Northern Star.
Let Richard look on the Northern Star. Well, that gives us the direction.
Does it? One can look at the North Star from any point in this hemisphere.
Your ancestor knew that. He said, let Richard look.
And he meant this Richard.
In other words, the direction may be found by facing north from this very spot.
I am now facing due north.
Then six and seven is not far.
Six and seven is not far.
What does that mean?
Merely to pace off thirteen steps.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen.
Press on and through and down for ten. Press...
Stairs.
Through and down for ten.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
Ten.
Here it is.
Pairs.
Diamonds.
Rupees.
Pairs. At last.
I've been waiting for this moment for years.
Diamonds.
Rupees.
And now if we may go.
I'm afraid I can't let you go.
But you promised.
You take us for fools, you go straight to the authorities.
I plan to enjoy this well.
I don't see how. With or without us.
Seems your ancestors arranged for intruders.
You knew this?
I suspected.
Then you must know the way out, otherwise you wouldn't have come in.
Tell me at once, man, or I'll shoot you down where you stand.
While only I have the secret to the door?
Half the jewels, half the jewels for a way out.
All of them.
Show us how to get out, and we'll let you take them all.
No.
No, they're mine.
But what?
Not a single gold piece.
You're a coward, man. You want to stay here forever?
The treasure is mine. The treasure is mine. You can't take it.
Pay no attention.
Give me the gun.
You can have the treasure.
Just the gun, please.
The last two lines of the inscription read, as I remember,
If you're in and can't get out,
strike the lion upon the snout.
Well, everything couldn't be better.
The Greystones are in prison, the Cartwrights are together again,
and you and I are feasting on cold lobster and tomatoes.
Well, I have a sense of well-being.
Haven't you the slightest twinge of conscience, Watson?
I'm not a man of conscience.
Well, I noticed the gold piece on your watch chain.
You filched it from the treasure room.
Filched it?
Certainly not. I made an application for it from the Ministry.
Oh, did you? Well, that was very enterprising of you, Watson.
Why don't you do the same thing, Holmes?
After all, don't you want a souvenir?
I have one.
Not bad.
I'll take it.
Not bad.
But Holmes!
A personal letter of thanks from Her Majesty!
Why, Holmes, congratulations!
Well done!
Thank you, Watson.
THE END
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