Mouselet and the Ferret were waiting for Sherlock Holmes to finish searching the study of the man he suspected of arranging to have his brother abducted. They had been left in a long alcove, which appeared to serve as a repository of coats, hats and overshoes, to hunt through the pockets and collect anything which might be of use in finding the missing brother.

They had accumulated a small pile of items, which they had collected on the seat of a wicker chair and Mouselet was sitting beside them, watching the Ferret, who was checking a pair of gloves at one end of an otherwise empty shelf at the back of the alcove.

Satisfied that the gloves held nothing of interest, the Ferret decided the shelf would be ideal for him to try out his latest dance routine. Mouselet half watched him, while wondering what they would be having for lunch, when suddenly the Ferret completely disappeared.

Alarmed, Mouselet scrambled onto the shelf, but there was no sign of her friend. Then she heard a whistle from outside and Holmes hurried in, picked her up and put her in one coat pocket, and the articles they had found in another.

“Where’s Ferret?” he asked.

“He’s vanished,” Mouselet squeaked.

“Which is what we must do,” Holmes replied. “That was Billy, whistling to say Bartlett will soon be back. Don’t worry, we’ll find him later.”

Holmes hurriedly slipped out of the tradesman’s entrance and out of the side gate. Once on the pavement, Mouselet explained what had happened.

“We’ll wait for a few minutes to see if Ferret turns up, and if not we’ll come back later,” Holmes said.

They waited for nearly quarter of an hour, but there was no sign of the Ferret, so they headed back to 221B. There they found both Dr Watson and Inspector Lestrade.

Mrs Hudson brought in their lunch, but Holmes said, “No time to eat!”

“I presumed that would be the case, Mr Holmes,” Mrs Hudson said, “which is why I told the Inspector he could stay, as he might as well eat yours for you.”

Both Watson and Lestrade tucked into the meal, while Mouselet, who had clambered out of Holmes’ coat pocket, ate the crumbs they dropped under the table.

Having reviewed all that he had learnt that morning, together with the further information he had gained from the scraps from his pocket, Holmes said, “Bartlett will have to contact the abductors by this evening. I would suggest you have him followed, Lestrade.”

“Very well, Mr Holmes. Should we arrest him once he’s made the contact?” Lestrade asked.

“I doubt very much there will be sufficient proof to formally charge him at that point. But I would appreciate it if you could detain him for a period, but which time I hope to have the proof you will need.”

Lestrade nodded. “I’ll get onto that at once.”

As soon as Lestrade had left, Holmes turned to Watson and said, “We need to return to the house. I believe Ferret has found the way messages and small items are passed to the outside without anyone noticing.”

“Where is Ferret?” Watson asked.

“That’s the problem. Mouselet tells me he simply disappeared.”

Watson turned to look at Mouselet who said, “It was like a conjuring trick. You remember when you were the Great Mysterioso, except on that occasion Ferret disappeared because he’d fallen off the table. This time he’d vanished completely. I couldn’t even hear him.”

“So, if we can find Ferret, we’ll know how they managed their contact. We’d better all go, I think.”

Hurriedly, everyone got ready. The Ocelot departed, saying he’d meet them on the way, the Sloth climbed into Watson’s adapted medical bag, and Poley the Moley and Mouselet took up places in Watson’s overcoat pockets. Aemelia Vole was happy not to join them, and expressed great pleasure in being able to get on with her sewing in peace.

When they arrived at Bartlett’s house, Freddy, another of Holmes’ Irregulars appeared and said that Bartlett had gone out. “An’ ‘e seemed to be in a proper two-and-eight. Rushed orf, ‘e did.” Holmes gave him sixpence and told him that he wouldn’t be needed again and to share the money with the others who had been watching the house. “Right-o, Mr ‘Olmes.”

“This way,” Holmes said, leading the way to the tradesman’s entrance. Once inside they crept round the back of the house and then towards the front, until they reached the spot which Holmes judged to be just outside the alcove where the Ferret had disappeared. “Sloth, could you go up that tree and keep watch?” he asked. “I doubt Bartlett will be back, but I’d rather he didn’t find us here.”


Their attention was taken by a strange sound coming from inside the wall of building.

The Ocelot went to investigate and said, “There’s the bottom of a pipe down here. It’s more or less hidden but the pipe seems to be shaking a little.”

“How wide is the pipe?” Holmes asked.

“From what I can see, it’s about Poley size, but it might get narrower inside.”

“Shall I go and have a look?” Poley asked from Watson’s pocket.

“If you could,” Holmes said, “but be careful. We don’t want you getting stuck.”

“I am not the one who gets stuck,” Poley replied. Mouselet smiled, Poley had used a ‘Mrs Hudson speaking firmly to her tenants’ voice.

Watson put Poley down by the end of the pipe and she scrambled in and quickly disappeared. Then the pipe started to shake more violently, Poley slid back out and the Ferret shot out, flew over her head, and ended up in a nearby holly bush. Watson retrieved him.

“What’s this?” Holmes asked. He had picked up a small waxed parcel which had followed the Ferret out, but had landed rather more decorously.

“Someone pushed it in on top of me, so I grabbed hold of it, thinking it might be important. Then they reached in and tried to take it back, and I bit them.”

“Why were you in there in the first place?” the Ocelot asked.

“I was practising my dance routine and it swallowed me up. I couldn’t get back up and couldn’t turn round.”

“You didn’t think of crawling backwards?”

“I did, a bit. And then I thought I’d have a little rest.”

Poley snorted and Mouselet giggled.

“I don’t think we need to go into further details,” Holmes said. “We should leave. This packet contains the papers which will give Lestrade all the reasons he needs to arrest Bartlett.”

They returned to 221B, with the Ferret protesting loudly that no, he hadn’t been stuck, just resting a little.