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"Blast it! I knew I left Holmes' instructions here somewhere."
Inspector Amelineau stood clear of the small storm that was Dr Watson, hunting through the piles of papers and oddments that littered his and Holmes joint study. The Inspector was great full to be working this end of the case with the good doctor and not off in the desert with Holmes.
Dodging a small statue of Thoth that had been tossed aside by Watson the inspector noticed a sheet of paper on the floor, picking it up in case it proved to be the missing instructions he frowned down at the mess of ink on the page.
"Looks like you've had ants in your ink Doctor." Amelineau said jokingly setting the sheet of ink smears down.
Watson whirled round and was at the table in seconds, "Well done! Come on we've wasted enough time looking for our orders!" and he was running out of the door.
Amelineau blinked and hurried after him, "Err beg pardon Doctor but."
"Not ants, Demotic." Watson called back over his shoulder as they ran, "To dangerous to write the instructions in plain English, too many people round here read hieroglyphic and Holmes was going so fast that Demotic was the only way I could keep up."
The inspector made a noise of, he hoped, understanding and silently hoped he'd get a better explanation later. Somehow running into one of Holmes infamously complicated plans following ant dance steps did not appeal. He tied a mental knot in his handkerchief to remind him to ask later and then pushed the whole thing out of his mind.