Fandom: Sherlock Holmes/Pirates of the Caribbean crossover
Characters: Watson, Holmes, Jack Sparrow
Rated: G
Disclaimer: I neither own nor profit from PotC or Sherlock Holmes - though that would be cool.
Note: One in the series of ficlets about post-AWE Jack Sparrow and the Fountain of Youth.

The Case of the Amazing Shrinking Man

...of a case in which a collection of maps and a log book had been stolen. I might record the case in full in time, though my friend counts it among his failures. I myself, as well as the police, were then and still are entirely satisfied with the conclusion that the servant who fled on the Princess Anne was the culprit, but Holmes, whenever reminded, insisted that that assumption was both absurd and sloppy, and that they really could not discount the evidence of the dragging shoe marks. However, since he never could present any theory of his own that would better satisfy him, we usually think it best not to mention the case, especially since the theft had been petty.

To recount the case briefly, the theft had occurred at a hydrographer's club in Plymouth, where old charts of the far-off places of the world were being added to, based on the logbooks of a few straggling English ships in those waters. There was nothing particularly valuable in these books and charts, except for an enthusiast, so there was some surprise that a well-paid servant would change his place and freedom for them. The motive of secrecy jumped to many minds, and even Holmes seemed to follow this line of thought for a while - that there was something in those charts the thief did not want England to find out about. The more likely explanation, though, was simply that the servant and the suspected thief, who owed a great deal of money around the city for gambling, took them to sell at the docks, to pay his way out of the country.

The only thing of interest in the case was the mystery of how it was managed. The servant, a Mr Sparrow, was an elderly retired sea-man, sprightly for his age, but feebler than a younger man. He must have well into his seventies, and his duties were relatively light. Yet the robbery had involved breaking into the heavy oak chest by force, which must have taken at least one strong man. Furthermore, the old man had disappeared practically into the air, as a club secretary working late had heard the sound of the wood breaking and hurried into the room almost immediately. No-one would have had time to leave by the door, and the window was much too small for a man to crawl through. There was an old-fashioned waterbottle by the window, empty but for some drops. Holmes examined it minutely, but if he found any clue in it, he never mentioned it afterwards.

The case remains both open and closed, therefore, for my friend's singularity of vision will not allow him to except the inexplicable. This is one of the...

--

Modern sailing had never been to Jack Sparrow's mind - his love for ships had died along with the relinguishing of sails, and the building of steam giants to chuck doggedly across the storms. Nonetheless, they went across the ocean, and if he had to chuck goal to get there, so be it. He was too small, now, to shovel coal at the furnaces, but he ran up and down carrying water and tools, the fires roaring in his ear, the machinery chugging away around him. He had friends out east, friends who wouldn't be surprised to find him a child again, and who could get him and a friend or two into a proper boat out to Fountain Island. He'd done what he set out to do - the island and his little secret were safe; it was time to go back home.