Dr. Watson had expected to find Holmes tied up, or perhaps knocked unconscious, but he had never anticipated that the criminals would chain him to a bed. The detective informed the startled doctor that he had been hanging by the wrists for nearly four hours, and that he would very much appreciate it if Watson would liberate him.
"Underneath this pillow lies the key to my release," Holmes told him, "Hurry! There's not a second to waste!"
Watson promptly unchained his friend and together they escaped the criminals' hideout. After a bit of deduction, they determined where the blackguards had fled and were able to successfully apprehend most of them. Watson didn't ask how Holmes had ended up being captured and shackled to a bed. It was obvious to him that his friend was highly embarrassed about being found in such a ridiculous situation and would prefer not to discuss the incident.
However, the matter was destined to come up again during the following week. Watson had just finished his breakfast when Holmes came storming into the room, obviously very displeased about something.
"My dear Watson," he began, "You remember, a few days ago, when you were er…unchained me from that uh…"
"Yes, Holmes, I remember. What about it?" Watson cut in.
"I had, that is to say, I was wearing clothes when you found me, wasn't I?"
"Clothes? I should say so! Why on earth wouldn't you have been wearing clothes?"
"And you didn't happen to see the woman anywhere near the area at the time, did you?"
"Irene Adler? We haven't seen or heard anything about her for years, Holmes."
"That's what I thought," Holmes said warily.
"Why do you ask?"
"The editor of one of those awful periodicals you're always reading has sent me a letter. In it, he thanks me for my contribution to his next edition. He has also been considerate enough to enclose a copy of the story I supposedly wrote, which details how the famous detective Mr. Sherlock Holmes was recently stripped and chained to a bedpost by a certain famous opera singer."
"Good heavens! You don't think that someone was watching us? Or perhaps its one of the gang members that escaped from our grasp. They could be trying to ruin you in order to get revenge."
"We may never know. But no matter who is behind this, I can't allow this story to appear in print. I do have a reputation to uphold!"
"Write to the editor," I suggested, "If the latest issue hasn't been published yet, you should be able to remove the story in question."
Holmes took Watson's advice. The editor very kindly complied with his request and the subject was never brought up again. The two fellow-lodgers eventually forgot about the incident. Although it was never seen in print, the editor kept the manuscript and filed it with the rest of the magazine archives. But that was not the end of this piece of fabricated rubbish. More than one hundred years later, the original document was found by a group of screenwriters in the midst of doing research for their latest project, a movie supposedly based on the adventures of Holmes and Watson. The Sherlockian universe would never be the same.