Freddie Jones credited as playing...
Chester Cragwitch
- Cragwitch: [hallucinating, Cragwitch attacks Holmes and tries to strangle him] EHTAR! You filthy murderer! You wanted to kill all of us! Well, you won't kill me!
- Sherlock Holmes: Watson! Speak to him!
- John Watson: What? Oh! Your... your name is Craddy Critchwit! I mean, your name is Ch-...! Your name is...! What's his name?
- Sherlock Holmes: [choking] Cragwitch!
- Cragwitch: [firing a shot at Holmes and Watson] Go away, Rame Tep! Bloody murderers, go away! You won't get me!
- Sherlock Holmes: Sir! Mister Cragwitch! We were friends of Mister Waxflatter!
- Cragwitch: I know you! You're the youngster who followed me at the cemetery! Go away! I'm a dangerous man to be around!
- Sherlock Holmes: I need your help! I want to know why the Rame Tep killed five men!
- Cragwitch: [reluctant pause] Go in!
- Sherlock Holmes: You can get up now, Watson. The war's over.
- Cragwitch: We were to become business partners, all six of us. Borrowed money from our fathers to build a hotel. It would be the most luxurious hotel ever conceived. And where better to build... than Egypt? Labour and materials were inexpensive, and only a few years earlier, the British Army had driven out the French. It seemed a land of extreme opportunity.
- Sherlock Holmes: What happened?
- Cragwitch: We engaged an architect, and the work began... but what started out as a business venture soon became a major archaeological find. We discovered an underground pyramid. The ancient tombs of five Egyptian princesses. We removed all the relics and treasures, preparing to send them to England, but -
- [Cragwitch is struck by a thorn]
- Cragwitch: Ooh! Bloody insect. The place needs good cleaning. There was an uproar. All the villagers in the area were convinced we'd desecrated sacred ground. Our lives were in danger. The British sent the troops in. Several people were killed.
- [Stares into the fireplace]
- Cragwitch: The entire village was burned to the ground. Burned... fire...
- [Begins hallucinating]
- Cragwitch: Yes, I mustn't forget. I must pass on this information. It's time someone else knew EVERYTHING!
- Sherlock Holmes: The Egyptian village, has it been burned to the ground?
- Cragwitch: Yes...
- [sees candle flames, slams his hand angrily against his desk]
- Cragwitch: Yes! YES! Luckily we got out of Egypt with our lives. When we returned to England, we went our separate ways, all of us, however, keeping in constant touch with Waxflatter through regular correspondence. When the murders began, I met quite frequently with my dear friend.
- Sherlock Holmes: What does all this have to do with the Rame Tep?
- Cragwitch: [Hands Holmes a letter] Almost a year after the incident, each one of us received this letter. It was sent by a young boy, a young boy of Anglo-Egyptian descent. You'll notice that the letterhead is adorned by the symbol of the Rame Tep, two golden serpents. The boy who wrote the letter and his sister were staying in England with their grandfather when they learned of the destruction of the Egyptian village, the village which was their home. Both their parents were killed in the attack. The boy vowed when he grew to manhood that the Rame Tep would take their revenge and replace the bodies of the five Egyptian princesses.
- Sherlock Holmes: And the boy was called Ehtar.
- John Watson: Ehtar... those were Waxflatter's final words!
- Sherlock Holmes: Very good, Watson.