20. From W. Y. Traveller: Wiggins takes a job as a chimney sweep.
Wiggins was accustomed to holding a variety of odd jobs and hustles, especially during the Yuletide, when money was scarcer than ever. He'd mostly cut out pickpocketing, on a promise to Dr. Watson and Mr. Holmes (with an addendum it was a fall-back,) but in addition to Irregular work, he often helped out a tobacco shop, running deliveries, and sometimes swept up at a ladies' tea room owned by a soft-hearted woman with no children of her own, earning pennies from ladies who tweaked his cheeks and called him "just adorable."
This season, he'd picked up some work chimney sweeping. Bert had recommended it, said it was awful fun to climb in chimneys and no one cared if you were dirty, though he also said it could give you quite the cough. Wiggins had his sister make a mask for the work. And well, it was alright, sure. Bert sang an awful lot and sometimes it got grating, but there was nothing like climbing up in chimneys.
Well, it was nigh on Christmas when Wiggins was wedged in a chimney with his sweep, humming to himself, when his sweep dislodged a brick. He barely dodged, and cursed loudly, then exclaimed to himself as he realized he'd unearthed the corner of a locked chest and what looked frighteningly like a the bones of a human hand. He scampered out of the chimney quick as a flash, and called to Bert, "I'm off- I gotta fetch Mr. Holmes!"
I couldn't resist putting a Mary Poppins reference in here...