Stirring the Pot

[capt_facepalm]

Title: Stirring the Pot
Author: capt_facepalm
Rating: PG-13
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes (Gaslight ACD)
Characters: Dr John Watson, Mr Sherlock Holmes, Inspectors Hopkins and Lestrade
Summary: Testing the inspectors
Warning: (none)
Word Count: 100
Author's Notes: July 19th 2021 prompt: Hidden In Plain Text

.oOOo.

Sometimes, when my fellow-lodger was extremely bored he would do something he called “stirring the pot”. He would engage in pranks ranging from childish to alarming. Proximity made me his most convenient target but alas I wasn’t always a good sport.

Today, however, Holmes set a task for Inspectors Lestrade and Hopkins and they sat across the desk from each other, heads bent low.

‘I’ve given them a cypher,’ said Holmes. ‘You remember the “Dancing Men"? The first one who cracks the code wins, but we may need to flee.’

‘Why?’

‘Because the message isn’t flattering.’

.oOOo.

Please sign the guestbook

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Supplementary Notes: The dancing men cypher is borrowed from The Adventure of the Dancing Men.
Clue 1: contains 3 a's, 3 e's, and 2 r's.
Clue 2: drabble, including the solution has 100 words

Comments

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

I used the Dancing Men code, too, today, and so I let my 10 year old son decipher your ending. Of course, then I had to tell him what the last word means. I look forward cringe at him using it in the future. Excellent drabble!

[gardnerhill]

Ooooh naughty Holmes.

[capt_facepalm]

LOL! I just changed the rating to "PG-13"

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

No worries. It's like a foreign language [you know, British :)] 'Why is Lestrade a bottom, Mama?' ha, ha!

[pompey_01]

So I was putting spaces between the words as I was deciphering instead of leaving them all squished into one line. And when I got to the end, I had to ask myself out loud "what's a _______?" before I realized I had the spacing between the words wrong! XD