"Les hommes ont oublié cette vérité, dit le renard. Mais tu ne dois pas l'oublier. Tu deviens responsable pour toujours de ce que tu as apprivoisé. "

"Men have forgotten this truth," said the fox. "But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. " - Antoine de Saint Exupery, The Little Prince


Disclaimer: I do not own Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson, or any related character. All belong to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle


CHAPTER ONE

Watson

"I say Holmes, "

"hmm?"

"I don't get it, why would the man want to give the money to his son?"

"Why wouldn't he?"

"Because he would endanger his own son's life by doing so,and did. "

"It seems to me that Mr. Davis was not an ideal father. "

"Still, it's rather dubious. "

"Watson, you have this romanticized way of looking at things. " said Holmes with a touch of mockery in his voice.

I sighed and let the matter drop,instead absentmindedly watched him as he looked at the most unlikely places for the piece of paper we had broke in the house to find. Said paper held a clue as to where a big fortune was kept, in other words, it was a treasure map,written in code. Mr. Davis, a rich,old man had written the information for his only offspring,before committing suicide,for a very dangerous gang had been after the money. They had managed to steal the letter before it reached the younger Mr. Davis,and had killed him in a series of events.

That April of the year 1886,after Holmes had stayed sprawled on the settee for more than a week,Lestraude had suggested that he work on a rather old case that had remained unfinished,which was the case of the unfortunate father and son.

Holmes had figured that the current resident of Mr. Davis's house,was in fact one of the leader members of the gang,and is still trying to find out the meaning of the code. So we had broke in the house to find the letter. It took Holmes a good fifteen minutes to convince me of the necessity of this course of action,but eventually,not willing to let him go alone,I had accompanied him. The house had had a watch dog. Holmes had sedated it before our entering.

"Maybe he has put it in an obvious place,and you've simply missed it. "

"Watson you have spent far too much time reading Poe. "

I continued to keep watch in the dark,until Holmes's sudden cry of triumph,quiet though it was,startled me.

"Found it. "

He showed me the cover of an old book,it was double layered and the letter had been in the middle of the layers.

"Well,I congratulate you my fellow,can we leave now?"

Before he could respond,we both heard the sound of the yard door being closed and then footsteps coming our way. I had been distracted and hadn't noticed it in time. Holmes swore under his breath and then just as quietly told me to hide behind the curtain and went under the settee. I did as much. The huge house was located rather far from town. I knew well that were our man to fire shots,probably no one would hear,and being the man that he was,he was likely to do such a thing.

I had put us in real danger with my negligence. And to make matters worse,I had made another awful mistake,I had put my revolver on the tea table,far from my reach. In my defense though,I really had not been expecting the man back,mostly because of Holmes's confidence in the matter. Holmes had seen fit to make a mess of the house in his search,it would take the man,Robinson,mere seconds to know there had been a burglary.

I waited with suppressed breath as the man came to the living room and took in the scene before him. I only hoped he wouldn't check if the intruders had left yet,which he did,and the first place he came to look was my hiding place. Before he reached the curtain though,Holmes burst out from under the settee.

"Well, hello Mr. Robison,it's an honor to finally meet you. "

despite his cheerful tone I knew that he dreaded what was to come as much as I. Probably,having notice my horrid error of abandoning my revolver,he was distracting the man so that I could get away. He should have known by then that I would never do such a thing. As Robison turned around to face Holmes I slowly began to move towards the tea table,wishing to heaven he wouldn't notice my presence before I got my revolver.

I wasn't so lucky though,I tripped over one of the thing Holmes had so freely dropped on the ground,I didn't fall and managed to make as little sound as possible,but being a professional criminal,Robinson heard it and turned around,starting towards me.

To our fright,he reached his hand in his trouser pocket to get his revolver,but luckily had made the same mistake as me,and didn't find it there. Meanwhile Holmes managed to throw a vase at his head. The blow wasn't so strong though,and he became only momentarily dazed. I began to run towards the tea table,Robinson after me,but I was't fast enough,war wound and all,and he reached me and tackled me strongly,I fell but hurried to grab my revolver from the table just ten inches away. Robinson kicked at my other hand and I tugged at his legs with all the strength within me and sent him crashing down beside me. He in return put his hands around my neck,trying to choke me. Holmes has always called me a romantic fool,and I think it may be true,there I was choking and hardly able to breath at all,and yet I was busy watching the touch of madness in my attacker's eyes,shining in the moonlight. Indeed,the man seemed to have lost control of himself so easily,or else would never have forgotten my companion.

"Unhand him,Robinson,or I'll shoot. "came the icy voice.

Robison seemed dazed for a moment and then as if suddenly aware of his surroundings and the revolver aimed at him,slowly let go of my neck.

"Get on your feet. "

"You hurt,Watson?"

"no"

"You think you can get away with this?"Robinson said while obeying Holmes's orders.

"What are you going to do,go to the police?"

"I could"

"You'd better not. It wouldn't be so hard to find a scapegoat,considering your background and all your fellow anarchists. "

The man snorted.

"Watson,go see if you can find a sedative for Mr. Robinson here. "

"I have chloroform in the kitchen,second cabinet over the corner. "said Robinson with a wistful smile,he seemed like he wasn't worried about Holmes having found the letter,or else he wouldn't give up so easily,yet another piece of pure luck for us.

"you are a rather smart man,Mr. Robinson,if you don't lose yourself completely in your rage that is. "commented Holmes.

I found said item in the kitchen,put a safe amount of it on a piece of clothing I found nearby and went back.

Holmes got the cloth and cautiously moved to place himself behind Robison,while keeping the revolver aimed at him. Then put the cloth on his nose a mouth until the man was unconscious,caught him and eased him in the floor.

"Quickly Watson,we must leave. "

we hurried to the yard and then the door,Robinson had locked it after entering,and Holmes began to work on it. I turned around to get a look at the large yard at the front of the house. It was spooky and full of wastes or useless,broken items. It was a mess,really. Who on earth would choose such a place for living,this Mr. Davis was proving to be a very strange and heartless man indeed,I mused. But suddenly a twitching caught my eye and I let go of my thoughts to go see the dirty,furry ball,curled on the ground. It took me a moment to realize it was a dog,a setter to be exact,the one Holmes had sedated. Shiny,sticky stains were visible on it's coal black coat and it took me some minutes to know in the faint moonlight that they were blood,it had probably been abused by the madman we just met,poor thing. When I rolled it gently to get a better look at it,it flinched and opened it's eyes slowly. They were dazed and bewildered,but that didn't at all cat my attention,instead,I found myself drowning in those deep,stormy,black eyes.

And suddenly the weight of a thousand memories came crashing down on me.


Note: This is my first fiction. I hope it was good so far, please, please review. tell me how I did.

to be continued. . .