a/n: contains many spoilers for "The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge".

A ballad.

Holmes and companions do not belong to me.

Point of view of Doctor Watson.

Sharing the sport

Scott Eccles, worthy citizen,

A gentleman in every way;

Appeared at our consulting room,

Disheveled and in disarray.

~0~

In disarray, unshaved, unwashed;

A most uncommon, careless state.

He sat and sighed and told his tale;

His quite grotesque and sorry fate.

~0~

His sorry fate was thus described:

A rock of his community;

He'd met a man while playing cards

And found they got on famously.

~0~

So famously, in fact, that soon

His company at home was sought;

To call for dinner, stay the night;

Agreed without a second thought.

~0~

His second thoughts appeared too late;

A mediocre meal at best.

His friend, who seemed preoccupied,

At one o'clock disturbed his rest.

~0~

His rest disturbed, he overslept;

He rose, disgruntled, looked around;

His friend and staff had disappeared,

No single trace of them was found.

~0~

He could not find a trace at all

And headed homeward, quite perplexed;

He made enquiries where he could,

And turned up at our lodgings, vexed.

~0~

Quite vexed, put out and not amused;

He could not work it out at all.

He still had more to say, but then

Two grim inspectors came to call.

~0~

One man who called, Inspector Baynes,

A florid man, with piercing eyes,

Informed us of a battered corpse;

Our client's friend, to his surprise.

~0~

Surprise, regret, now edged with fear;

What evil had engulfed his friend?

While he still slept, what dire events

Had led to such a dreadful end?

~0~

A dreadful end, a dreadful crime;

The chance of answers soon, remote.

Our client then recalled his friend

Received and read then burned a note.

~0~

That note, Inspector Baynes now held;

Still readable, though slightly charred.

When client and policemen left,

Holmes sat in silence, smoking hard...

~0~

He broke the silence, thought aloud

About the death, its time and place.

We took a train to find out more

About this melancholy case.

~0~

A cold and melancholy walk,

Across the common in the rain.

Inspector Baynes with Holmes and I

Unraveling a tangled skein.

~0~

A tangled skein and dark intent,

No clue about the victim's role.

Two miles from home he'd met his death;

Precisely what had been his goal?

~0~

His goal now narrowed down by Holmes;

Appeared to be a house nearby.

Where had that victim headed for

On leaving home that night, and why?

~0~

That home, in which our client stayed,

Was now, with shadowed drive, in sight.

A shaken constable appeared,

Still trembling from a recent fright.

~0~

The recent fright, he soon explained;

He'd sat, just reading, in his chair,

Then, at the window, saw a face

With big white teeth and goggled stare.

~0~

A goggled stare which froze the blood;

It vanished through the shrubbery.

A size twelve footprint left behind

Confirmed how big the thing must be.

~0~

That thing was not the only one

Which left a chill upon that day.

Some items Mr Baynes had found

Were quite grotesque, he led the way.

~0~

He led the way through several rooms,

Past clothing, pipes, an old guitar

Then took us to the kitchen where

We saw the strangest things by far.

~0~

Three strange possessions lying there:

A wizened, shrunken man or ape;

A slaughtered cockerel, blood on white;

Charred bones, but not of human shape.

~0~

Inhuman objects, one and all:

What purpose did each one fulfill?

What sinister events took place?

What dreadful deeds were hiding still?

~0~

Still hidden: days and days passed by;

I waited for my friend to act.

My role; to wait quite patiently,

To share the sport but not distract.

~0~

Distraction came as headline news:

The capture of the victim's cook.

Holmes sprang up sharply, as if stung,

Then headed out to take a look.

~0~

Holmes looked, then warned Inspector Baynes

His capture might be falsely linked.

Baynes thanked him for his trouble then

Announced he'd carry on, and winked.

~0~

This wink unsettled Holmes, he'd thought

The man was heading for a fall;

And yet the man had hidden depths

And still might triumph after all.

~0~

With thoughts of triumph far away,

Holmes filled me in on what he knew.

A neighbour, Mr Henderson,

Had merited a closer view.

~0~

A closer view, my friend declared,

Revealed the strangest enterprise:

Two daughters, servant, governess,

Kept carefully from prying eyes.

~0~

Away from prying eyes to please

The master; fierce, with mystery past.

The governess, a Miss Burnet

Might lead us to the truth at last.

~0~

The truth, as Homes envisaged it,

Suggested she had sent that note.

He'd seen the style of penmanship;

It was a female hand which wrote.

~0~

And if this female penned those words,

Was she involved as foe or friend?

And why was she no longer seen?

And had she met a dreadful end?

~0~

A dreadful end for Miss Burnet?

Had she been harshly locked away?

An old employee with a grudge

Reported back to Holmes each day.

~0~

If no report on Miss Burnet

Appeared, we'd have to put things right.

With picklock, jemmy, steady nerves;

We'd have to raid the house that night.

~0~

We did not raid the house that night;

Events in fact moved on again;

Miss Burnet fled captivity

When bundled on a waiting train.

~0~

A train on which the others left

For destination yet unknown;

The shaken lady waited now;

To tell her story, quite alone.

~0~

Now quite alone and quite relieved,

A widowed lady, cut and bruised;

The livid marks upon her arms

Revealed how she had been ill used.

~0~

Ill used indeed; her husband dead,

A victim of his president.

That vile dictator and his staff

Spread sorrow everywhere they went.

~0~

Her sorrow turned towards revenge;

That president was forced to flee;

She joined his household, took her time,

Awaited opportunity.

~0~

When opportunity appeared,

She'd signal to her friends outside;

But spotted, she'd been forced to write

The note which meant our victim died.

~o~

Our victim, tragic nobleman

A credit to his family name;

Our client used as alibi;

A president's eternal shame.

~0~

That president had slipped the noose;

Inspector Baynes was on the case

Quite sure that they would get their man

When evil raised its ugly face.

~0~

And evil had its just reward;

A later headline story read

Of unknown man and servant found

Complete with gunshot wounds to head.

~0~

So many wounds inflicted by

So cruel a man with evil past;

I hoped those victims who'd survived

Could now sleep peacefully, at last.

~0~

At last our case had reached an end

A complicated case, we thought;

Inspector Baynes had proved his worth,

And once again, I'd shared the sport.

~0~

a/n 2:ballad:a narrative poetry form, usually in 4 line stanzas, no set length or syllable count.