Free Invasion from Uranus by Nick Pollotta Page B

I would ever allow you to play dice with these master criminals again?"
    Waving a tendril of reeking smoke away from his face, Holmes scowled. "But Watson it is for the intellectual conflict that I play this dangerous game!"
    The physician snapped shut the revolver and tucked it away. "Not justice?"
    Throwing open the disguised door to the secret stairwell, the consulting detective sullenly admitted that justice was a consideration in the matter. At least to some small degree.
    As the companions exited the Hofnagel Mansion, Holmes paused on the paving stones near the street to light his calabash pipe, while Dr. Watson rummaged inside their Hansom cab and retrieved a small wooden box.
    "Well," puffed the great detective, a cool breeze from the Thames ruffling his hair. "I suppose this sordid tale will make a fine addition to your literary monographs, old man."
    "Most certainly. But only after we are finished," retorted Watson. Kneeling in the dewy grass, he searched under an elderberry bush and meticulously attached two wires to the screws atop the coal miner's tool and pulled the plunger fully upwards. "And although it is good reading, safety must always come first, and I will never again allow us to face a lunatic genius twice."
    In sudden understanding, Sherlock Holmes gasped and dropped the clay pipe. "John, no!" he cried, reaching outward.
    "Too late," said Watson flamboyantly ramming the plunger downward.
    In a strident thunderclap, the mansion erupted into a fireball, the doors blowing off the structure and the windows disintegrating into twinkling shards. Holmes nimbly ducked as a glass dagger zinged dangerously by, and Watson grabbed the reins of the cab to keep the rearing horses under control.
    "Down, boys," the physician whispered to the frightened animals. "Easy now, easy." They whinnied in reply and reluctantly obeyed their master.
    More and louder explosions followed the main blast as the acid vat in the cellar added its fury to the growing conflagration until red tongues of fire licked at the distant twinkling stars.
    From the nearby village, a fire bell began to softly ring as the burning building began to collapse inward upon itself as the main support beams snapped apart to the sound of ancient splintering wood.
    "
Finito
," sighed the doctor, tying off the reins and wincing from the effort. His old wound was acting up again. Bedamn that Jezebel's bullet! The royal war in India had been much safer than his chronic romances.
    With the dancing light of the blazing inferno illuminating the English countryside, the great detective crossed his arms and blinked in somber thought. Then slowly, ever so slowly, Sherlock Holmes turned to stare at his old friend with new found respect shining in his eyes.
    "Indeed," murmured Holmes, an excited smile playing on his lips. "And it has just this moment occurred to me what a truly excellent opponent in this game you would make."
    "Eh? What was that?" asked Dr. Watson standing perfectly still.
    "You are a graduate of two universities," said Holmes coming closer. "A military officer with knowledge of weapons and explosives. A practicing physician with a detailed command of chemistry and biology, plus the only other living man trained in my own specialty of deductive logic."
    Watson slowly turned about, his features as controlled as a redoubtable cribbage player. "Hmm, yes. Interesting. Quite. However, old man, I am not a criminal."
    Holmes started to chuckle that his dear friend took the schoolboy jib so deeply, then paused as he noted something odd in the way the man answered. After listening to a thousand lies, one becomes sensitive to such altered permutations in speech.
    "We each all have our secrets, John," stated the great detective carefully. "Is there no crime in your past in which Scotland Yard would be interested? A crime of passion, perhaps?"
    A deathly pale Watson stammered something inane in reply about overdue library books and taxes.
    "Nothing more?" purred