Holmes and I did spend an exceedingly pleasant afternoon. Our errands did not take us long at the naval offices, for Holmes had very specific inquiries that the clerk could not deny him, and there was time for us to take a leisurely lunch prior to the concert. The cellist was skilful and played many of my favourite concertos and sonatas, and I enjoyed myself, although I did feel somewhat guilty for having forgotten myself so much while Mrs Kendrick had been left behind in the Baker Street apartment with what in the end was so much busywork.

When we returned to Baker Street, we found an untouched tray of food resting on the table, half a pot of stone-cold tea sitting on the middle of the sofa, discarded papers strewn about the room, a fire than had been allowed to burn nearly out, and an empty inkwell. Although Sherlock Holmes and I were both more relaxed for our afternoon activities, it was plainly evident from the state of the sitting room that the same could not be said of our lady companion.

She was standing by the window as we entered the room and turned to face Holmes, ignoring my presence. "If there happens to be need for a second message," she told him with evident frustration, "and you insist upon writing the concealed text, then you will be the one who must cipher it." There were ink stains spotting her white fingers and she held a piece of paper neatly folded in her hand.

It was this paper that Holmes looked to eagerly, ignoring her irritation with him completely. "Did you really cipher the entire thing?" he asked with some surprise. "I had thought that you should certainly have abbreviated it or altered it somehow." He reached out for it, not taking time to remove either hat or coat.

"It is exactly as you had written," she told him, thrusting the paper toward him. "However, due to the length, I was unable to use the same sets of rhyming couplets that our friend had used. Hopefully two sextets will suffice, composed in couplets as they are." Her tone was crisper than it had been since we met her and I began to wonder if Holmes had not pressed matters too far.

"This is better than I had hoped," Holmes declared, unfolding the sheet and looking at what she had written. "My dear lady, you have done wonderfully and I am much reproved." He doffed his cap to her and sank down in a slight bow. She relaxed her posture slightly as Holmes stood and passed the note to me.

I read, "Had our warning they cared to hear,
"Nothing us now would cheer,
"However they ne'er did our councilentreat,
"So their great triumph becomes instead defeat.
"This is what they feared the most,
"Lesser men would have dared not boast.

"Of offered aide the wise man thieves,
"For enemies offer it rare indeed.
"We this outcome did not divine,
"However our consent we do now assign.
"The twists of fate we cannot know,
"For the river of time will ne'er stop its flow."

"Now we can only hope that Thomason has time enough to decode the message and answer our summons," Holmes noted, tossing aside his hat and removing his coat. "For it is only once we have spoken with him that we may truly bring this mystery to its full conclusion."

It was at this juncture that we heard the bell and the trooping of feet up the stairs. "Ah, Wiggins," said Holmes, hurrying across to the door and ushering the street Arab into the room. "I am glad to see that you are at least punctual today." From this comment, I gathered that Holmes had previously had difficulty with the young boys he employed not reporting in as ordered. Of course not being involved with so intimately with Holmes's cases as I once had been, I could not state this with complete certainty.

"Aye, guv'nor," Wiggins said, rubbing at his filthy chin with a hand that was equally as dirty. "You've got more work for us?"

"A copper penny for you each now," said Holmes, reaching into his pocket for the requisite number of coins, "and another two upon a job well completed."

"'tis an easy job then," Wiggins noted with a sigh. For long tasks or difficult observations the boys were paid up to a shilling a piece upon successfully carrying out their duties. "Can't say that I mind it though," he added, "for the last job you set us to was hard enough, Mr Holmes."

"The note please, Watson," said Holmes. I handed the page to him, refolding it. Holmes thrust it into an envelope and secreted the envelope away inside a thick book he drew from his stacks. "You will take this book and wait on London Bridge. Use the rest of the Irregulars to keep a sharp watch for a sailor carrying a heavy stick and walking with a limp. Now," Holmes continued, "these features may easily enough be feigned, but do not give this book to one who does not have the blue tattoo of an anchor on his hand just here, cut through by a thick scar."

"And if someone else comes asking after this book?" Wiggins inquired.

Holmes hid an empty envelope inside another book and handed that to Wiggins as well. "Then give them this," he directed. Wiggins nodded and scurried away down the stairs, books tucked beneath his arm and copper coins clutched in his hand.

"What again did the note direct?" I asked once the boy was gone.


Editor's Note

All of the messages do, in fact, contain the enciphered messages indicated. The above poem written by Mrs Marian Kendrick also contains the message written by Holmes. For those who wish to embark upon some mental exercise, Doctor Watson's chronicle has been split at this point to not have the doctor's question answered too soon and spoil the exercise for those few who may wish to undertake it.

To decipher the message, follow the instructions recounted by Doctor Watson in the preceeding sections. Remember to use only those lines of the poem that contain words in the key (in italics) and to count any word in those lines with the same number of letters as any word in the key as a dash (dah). All others count as dot (di). Any numbers that the message may contain will be in 'cut' or abbreviated form. The Morse alphabet and abbreviated numbers may be found at:

www . kent-engineers . com / thecode . htm