a/n: refers to "The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb"

Holmes and companions do not belong to me.

A rubaiyat

POV of Watson

Too high a price?

It isn't very often I begin

A case which Sherlock Holmes finds merit in;

But once or twice such cases come my way

Which have a general practice origin.

~0~

A railway porter urged me out of bed;

"I've got him here, quite safe and sound!" he said.

I wondered what strange creature needed help

And found an injured engineer, instead.

~0~

So, thus I met young Victor Hatherley;

His long and trying night was plain to see;

A dash of brandy quickly calmed him down;

A blood-stained stump was where his thumb should be.

~o~

A dreadful wound; crude bandage soaked in blood:

A tale he feared would not be understood.

Wound dressed; we both set out for Baker Street;

If anyone could sort this out; Holmes could.

~o~

We listened to the tale he had to tell,

Which culminated in one night of hell:

A recently apprenticed engineer.

(An orphan and a bachelor, as well.)

~0~

A job with fifty guineas as reward,

A chance for meagre funds to be restored;

A midnight rendezvous in secrecy,

And any doubts about the work; ignored.

~o~

A seam of Fuller's Earth beneath a field;

A find, it seemed, which had to be concealed.

A scheme to raise the funds to buy more land

And profit from an "unexpected" yield.

~0~

A press, in use, required some expert care,

And no-one was to know that it was there.

A meeting therefore planned for late at night,

So neighbours stayed completely unaware.

~0~

At this point, more anomalies appeared;

Our client asked for details to be cleared.

He understood hydraulics very well,

But not how Fuller's Earth was engineered.

~0~

A deal was struck; he caught the late night train

And met his strange employer once again.

With carriage windows made from frosted glass,

Attempts to map his journey were in vain.

~0~

A large forbidding house was all he saw;

A foreign girl, seen briefly at the door.

A sparsely furnished room, a stack of books

On poetry and science, nothing more.

~0~

A warning from that frightened foreign maid;

A plea to head for home and leave, unpaid.

He wondered at her manner and her words:

A fifty guinea fee, and so he stayed.

~0~

The sound of slamming doors as footsteps neared;

The frightened foreign lady disappeared.

The stranger introduced a second man;

Thickset and short with fine chinchilla beard.

~0~

He pushed aside vague thoughts of fear; instead,

Down corridors and stairways he was led.

A low door was unlocked, he stepped inside;

A metal floor and metal overhead.

~0~

The whole room was a huge hydraulic press;

A faulty piston seal meant force was less.

He gave them all the details for repair;

Quite happy with the ease of his success.

~0~

The facts still did not match the tale he'd heard:

Compressing Fuller's Earth was quite absurd.

He asked precisely what the press was for,

And soon regretted every careless word.

~0~

A sharp retort; an angrily locked door;

The sound as levers clanked and moved once more.

The sight revealed by lamplight chilled his soul;

The ceiling dropping down towards the floor.

~0~

The clanging metal drowned his desperate cry:

Those callous men had left him there to die!

Despairing, he prepared for crushing death

Until a line of yellow caught his eye.

~0~

He watched a growing square illuminate;

His only chance; no time to hesitate.

Behind, the crash of ceiling hitting floor;

An echo of what should have been his fate.

~0~

The frightened foreign girl by candlelight;

Pursuers gaining ground, a desperate flight.

A bedroom; all escape routes barred and locked:

One choice remained; a jump from first floor height.

~0~

Not fast enough; a final maiming blow;

A fall into the bushes far below:

Collapse; then waking, soaked in dew and blood;

The next train home; escape from heartless foe.

~0~

So, back to where we talked in Baker Street;

The engineer sat back; his tale complete.

No sound as we absorbed what we had heard;

A tale of dark intent and cruel deceit.

~0~

Holmes told the mutilated engineer

"You're not the first to suffer this, I fear.

A young man in the same fine trade as you

Had been reported missing late last year."

~0~

"The leader is a ruthless, evil man;

You'll need to lead us back there if you can.

We'll borrow several men from Scotland Yard.

No time to lose if we're to thwart their plan."

~0~

Inspector Bradstreet joined us on the case;

He opened up his map to find the place.

Fresh horses and a drive of ten clear miles;

The station served as central plotting base.

~0~

Holmes smiled, "I know precisely where they are;

A fresh horse hasn't driven very far.

They drove six miles away and six miles back;

Your journey, my dear friend, was circular."

~0~

"A gang of coiners; that will be their game;

And Scotland Yard are looking for the same."

But as we neared the station, we could see

The house we sought, engulfed in smoke and flame.

~0~

"The lamp you dropped" Holmes said, "has caught alight;

A just revenge for such a dreadful night.

To bring those fiends to justice will be hard.

The blackguards will be miles away by now."

~0~

The engineer declared quite ruefully,

"Well, this has been a grim affair for me.

I have not gained a single thing of worth

And lost my thumb and fifty guinea fee."

~0~

But Holmes replied, " My friend please understand;

You've such a tale to tell throughout the land.

Experience is valuable indeed;

The proof of your ordeal is in your hand."

~0~

a/n2: a rubai, is a 4 line verse;or quatrain. A rubaiyat is a set of these verses. A common pattern is to have lines 1,2 and 4 rhyme with each other.