Older Watson Quotes in Young Sherlock Holmes (1985)

Older Watson: It was the beginning of my second week at Brompton. With each passing day, my fascination with Sherlock Holmes and his world continued to grow. On this occasion, the entire school was bursting with excitement. Dudley had challenged Holmes to a test of ingenuity, skill, and perception. Dudley had snatched the school's fencing trophy and hidden it in a secret place. He gave Holmes sixty minutes to find the trophy. Holmes accepted the challenge with confidence.

Sherlock Holmes: The game is afoot!

Older Watson: It was a cold, snowy day in early December. Lack of funds had forced my old school to close. I was being sent to a new one in the middle of term. I was accustomed to the opened, relaxed expanse of the country, and now, I was in the heart of London at the height of the Victorian Era. The streets were teeming with every activity imaginable. I was very taken by what I saw. As I stepped from my carriage, the sight of my new school filled me with fear and apprehension, yet, I was swept with a wave of curiosity. However, nothing could prepare me for the extraordinary adventure that lay ahead, or the extraordinary individual who would change my life.

Older Watson: It was a wonderful, heroic moment for Holmes. But little did he know that his amazing powers and talents would soon be put to a much greater test, a test of terrifying and deadly proportions.

Older Watson: Holmes explained that the fabric was Egyptian in origin and contained so many warp threads and weft threads, things that to this day I still don't understand. He found that the cloth was stained with paraffin, paraffin manufactured exclusively at Froggit and Froggit, located in the Wapping area of London, a dark and dangerous place, and I turned to Holmes and I told him so in no uncertain terms.

Older Watson: [epilogue] As I watched Holmes settle into his seat, a sudden feeling came over me - that I would most certainly be seeing him again. So ended my first adventure with Mister Sherlock Holmes. As I watched his carriage disappear into the distance, I realised that I had forgotten to thank him. He had taken a weak, frightened boy and made him into a courageous, strong man. My heart soared. I was filled with confidence. I was ready for whatever mystery or danger lay ahead. I was ready to take on the greatest and most exciting adventure of them all, and I knew it was bound to involve Sherlock Holmes.

Older Watson: A few days later, they buried Professor Waxflatter. I had never been to a funeral before, though unfortunately, I've been to many since. Holmes could not publicly attend the funeral. His expulsion from Brompton prevented such a thing. The death of his mentor and friend had taken its toll on Sherlock Holmes. In my entire life, I have only seen Holmes cry on two occasions. To-day was the first.

Older Watson: Holmes went on to explain that the Ramatep were a fanatical group of religious followers of Osiris, the Egyptian god of the dead. They were scorned by society because of their distortion of traditional religious beliefs and their violent and sadistic rituals. The Ramatep use a blow pipe and shoot a thorn into their chosen victim. The thorn is dipped into a solution made up of various plant and root extracts. When this solution enters the bloodstream, it causes the victim to experience very realistic, nightmare-like hallucinations.

Older Watson: We immediately sprang into action, searching every nook and cranny for the cloth. I accidentally turned on one of Waxflatter's strange machines, and not being at all mechanically-minded, I had the dickens of a time trying to turn the thing off.

Elizabeth Hardy: I found it! I found it!

Older Watson: Holmes spent the entire night and the following day studying, examining, scrutinising the section of cloth. He conducted experiment after experiment. Not once did he stop for a rest. His energy seemed boundless. Following eighteen straight hours of work, Holmes turned to Elizabeth and myself, and those four familiar words shot from his lips.

Sherlock Holmes: The game is afoot!

Older Watson: Holmes went on to explain that Rathe spent years plotting his revenge. He established himself as a respected member of British society, completely erasing his former identity. It took him a great deal of time to organise his followers, made up of the poor, the homeless, the lost souls of the London streets. And then, of course, it took time to build a wooden replica of the pyramid. Missus Dribb was the Ramatep's chief assassin, but more importantly, she was Rathe's younger sister.