FIC: When Diversions Are Few: G

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Title: When Diversions Are Few
Form/Wordcount: Fic, 221b
Characters/Pairings: Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, Inspector Lestrade
Rating: G
Warnings/Content: None.
Author’s Notes: Everyone’s clearly a little bored when this case crops up. For the April prompt for Holmes Minor.

***

“Hi! Cab!”

The old man who’d shouted in such a hale fashion sprinted after the receding hansom bearing a silhouetted figure, with a spryness that belied his decrepit appearance.

Watson and Lestrade watched this spectacle in stunned wonder for seven seconds before turning to look at each other. Lestrade reached for his waistcoat.

Much later Holmes related to his two friends the chase he’d had to make as no cabs would stop for him – through mud and street-filth, nearly waylaid by pedestrians and police alike, nearly running straight into a lamp-post at one point.

“A full mile, at least,” the sleuth responded when the Inspector asked how long he’d managed to keep up the chase. “But in ten minutes I’d caught up enough to climb aboard the rear of the cab, for the remainder of the ride to the station, where I lost myself in the crowd to follow him.”

“Ten minutes for a mile or so, you say?” Watson said, and grinned. Lestrade's face fell.

Holmes looked at both. “What the deuce is wrong with you two?”

Watson turned to the police inspector and held out his hand as a chagrined Lestrade fumbled with another waistcoat pocket. “Told you he’d keep that pace up for at least a mile, and he’d do it under a quarter-hour. You lose the bet.”

Comments

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Brilliant - well, they need to have some entertainment from Holmes' activities.

I've added your author tag.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Thank you! (One small adjustment - it's "gardnerhill" with no "e" between the D and N.)

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Amended - and I looked really carefully at the spelling too. *sigh*

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I do like this sidelight on the detective career, and believe it entirely.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Sometimes the lesser beings in Holmes' orbit have to make the case as entertaining as possible.

[debriswoman]

A neat response, and a nice little earner for Watson:-)

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Hope Watson doesn't spend that half-crown all in one place.

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Hee, hee. Run, Holmes, run!

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

There's a half-crown riding on this, old man!

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

And Watson is (if you take canon literally) an inveterate gambler.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for having a go ^^

And very amusing ^_^ I'm rather tickled that you reinterpreted the illustration of the two men together as Watson and Lestrade - an inspired leap.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

The hat, coat, and smug look said "Lestrade" to me - and as if they were checking their pocket-watches to see how fast their friend could sprint.