It was in September 2010 that I read in Wikipedia about the early mutoscope film "Sherlock Holmes Baffled". This twenty-something second-long silent is reputed to be the oldest cinematic portrayal of the legendary human sleuth, and the article itself was a featured one at the time, so I'm amazed no one who noticed it seems to have thought of a counterpart for the mouse sleuth Basil (and I chastise myself for not thinking of it sooner, so don't worry ;). Anyway, because it's based on a short, short, super-short film, this is going to be a drabble; it's also got no dialogue because "SHB" didn't either. In 4, 3, 2, -
Basil of Baker Street makes over to his chemistry table to work on an experiment. He picks up a flask to fill with a solvent, when Fidget appears out of nowhere and swipes it from him, before disappearing. Jaw hanging, Basil blinks, then shakes himself and looks around, trying to find the thief. Behind his back, Fidget materializes out of thin air again, and snatches a stack of notes the detective had near the corner of the table. Basil turns in time to catch this, but Fidget disappears again. Enraged, Basil runs to where Fidget was, looking around for any clue as to how the bat is pulling this trick off. As he does so, Fidget returns and grabs three more bottles containing powders and liquids from the other end of the table. Glaring at him, Basil runs over, arms extended to retrieve his belongings, but the bat cackles nonchalantly and, a fiendish leer on his face, dramatically sweeps his wing up to the side, dives it down and around himself (ala The Phantom of the Opera), and vanishes once more.
Thoroughly perplexed, Basil shakes his head and goes over to his red chair to sit down. The look on his face can only be described by one word: Baffled.
The end.
AN: What I love best about drabbles is when the author's forward and/or afterward take up about as much or more space than the actual story. XD Well, if you want to see the inspiration for this short, I'm sure there's plenty of videos of it on Youtube, where I first saw it, or other similar sites. Hope everyone enjoyed! :)