The day Dr Watson was introduced to Holmes and myself was a landmark day in all of our lives. I had left Holmes in his laboratory doing his experiments, whilst I was in the room below, where I conducted experiments of my own. When I went back upstairs, I expected Holmes to be alone.
"Holmes, I do hope you have had some success, as I..." I started, before noticing Dr Stamford and a new man in the room, and I took my cream and brown top hat off. "My apologies, I do not believe I am acquainted with a man such as yourself."
Holmes span around to greet me with a wild grin upon his face. Such an expression, I knew, indicated success.
"Jen, how good of you to join us! This is Dr Watson, this is my good friend Mr Edmund Jenkins," he jovially announced, introducing me to Dr Watson and vice versa. "Yes, I have had quite some success! I was just about to tell the good doctor here about it."
I walked over and stood to Holmes' right. Holmes took a bodkin from the cluttered work surface in front of us.
"Let us have some fresh blood," Holmes started, digging the bodkin into his finger, before pulling it out and taking the scarlet drop from the end with a pipette. "Now I add this small quantity of blood to a litre of water. You perceive that the resulting mixture has the appearance of pure water. The proportion of blood cannot be more than one in a million. I have no doubt, however, that we shall be able to obtain the characteristic reaction."
And he managed to do just that, laughing in joy once he had done so!
"Remarkable, Holmes, remarkable!" I exclaimed, grinning and clapping my friend on the shoulder. "Congratulations!"
Holmes turned to Dr Watson.
"What do you make of it, good sir?" he asked, clearly expecting a reaction akin to my own, just as clearly not about to get it.
"It seems to be a very delicate test." Dr Watson remarked.
From my brief analysis of the man, I could tell that he was not fully at ease with Holmes. My friend, more than likely too wrapped up in his discovery, had clearly not made this observation.
"Beautiful! Beautiful!" Holmes cried. "The old guaiacum test was very clumsy and uncertain. So is the microscopic examination for blood corpuscles. The latter is valueless if the stains are a few hours old. Now, this appears to act as well, whether the blood is old or new. Had this test been invented, there are hundreds of men now walking the Earth who would long ago have paid for the penalty of their crimes."
"Indeed!" Dr Watson murmured, either over-whelmed or not interested by Holmes' discovery; I was not quite sure which.
If you are wondering why I have not spoken a great deal, know that I know not to speak once Holmes is in his element!
"Criminal cases are continually hinging upon that one point," Holmes continued. "A man is suspected of a crime months perhaps after it has been committed. His linen or clothes are examined and brownish stains are discovered upon them. Are blood stains, or mud stains, or rust stains, or fruit stains, or what are they? That is a question which has puzzled many an expert, and why? Because there was no reliable test. Now we have the Sherlock Holmes test, and there will no longer be any difficulty."
Holmes bowed to an imaginary audience.
"You must be proud of your discovery, Holmes," I told him. "It will considerably better our field of work."
"Indeed! You are to be congratulated." Watson, whom, I now realized, was merely surprised by my friend's enthusiasm, said.
"There was the case of Von Bischoff at Frankfurt last year. He would certainly have been hanged, had this test been in existence," Holmes offered. "Then there was Mason of Bradford, and the notorious Muller, and Lefevre of Montpellier, and Samson of New Orleans. I could name a score of cases in which it would have been decisive."
"You seem to be a walking calendar of crime!" Stamford said with a laugh.
"That he is!" I agreed.
"You might start a paper on those lines," Stamford told Holmes. "Call it the 'Police News of the Past'!"
"Very interesting reading it might be made, too," Holmes remarked, covering the prick on his finger with a small piece of plaster. "I have to be careful," he explained to Dr Watson, turning to him with a smile. "For I dabble with poisons a good deal."
Holmes held his discoloured hand out to the good doctor.
"I, on the other hand, handle chemicals of the more explosive and flammable kind." I added.
"For what reason?" Dr Watson demanded.
"Everyone is inclined to have their interests, are they not?" I replied.
"WE came on business," Stamford told me and Holmes, as he sat on a stool and pushed another towards Dr Watson. "My friend here wants to take diggings and, as you were complaining that you could get no-one to go thirds with you, I thought that I had better bring you together."
Holmes looked to me, and I to him, delight on both of our faces.
"We have our eyes on rooms in Baker Street." I told Dr Watson.
"It would suit us down to the ground," Holmes added. "You don't mind the smell of strong tobacco, I hope?"
"I always smoke ship's, myself." Dr Watson replied.
"That's good enough. I generally have chemicals about, and occasionally do experiments. Would that annoy you?"
"By no means."
"Let me see... What are my other shortcomings? I get in the dumps at times, and don't speak for days on end. You must not think I am sulky when I do that. Just let me alone, and I'll soon be right. What have you to confess now? It's just as well for three fellows to know the worst of one another before they begin to live together!"
Dr Watson laughed. I paid close attention to what he had to say.
"I keep a bull pup," he began. "And I object to rows because my nerves are shaken, and I get up at all sorts of ungodly hours, and I am extremely lazy. I have another set of vices when I'm well, but those are the principal ones at present."
Suddenly, Holmes turned anxious.
"Do you include violin playing in your category of rows?" he asked.
Of course! He was (and still is) rather attached to his violin!
"It depends on the player," Dr Watson answered. "A well played violin is a treat for the gods. A Badly played one-"
Holmes and I laughed aloud.
"Oh, that's all right!" he cried.
"He is rather a fine violinist!" I remarked.
"And what of your vices?" Dr Watson asked me.
I thought long and hard about my answer.
"They are quite similar to my friend's," I told him. "You will quickly learn the differences."
"I think we may consider the thing as settled," Holmes announced. "That is, if the rooms are agreeable to you."
"When shall we see them?" Dr Watson asked.
"Call for us here at noon tomorrow, and we'll go together and settle everything." Holmes said.
"All right," Dr Watson agreed. "Noon exactly."
We all shook hands, before he left with Dr Stamford.
"Should we have told him, perhaps?" I asked my friend.
"Never with Stamford in the room," Holmes replied, looking up at me from his chemicals. "Besides, as you rightly said before, he will quickly learn the differences between us."
A/N:
This is the last of the prologues. As you can probably see, it's basically the initial meeting between Holmes and Watson with Jen added into it.
Also, I probably won't be updating for a while, as I still haven't completed Chapter 1 and I have more fore-front things to update (aka A Private Matter!).
~Ellis~
