The Red Headed League: Just One Question...

[kestrel337.livejournal.com]

Canon Story: The Red Headed League
Title: Just One Question...
Author: Kestrel337
Rating: G
Warnings: none
Author's Notes:

He’d drunk for several nights on the story of the basement, the thieves, the arrest. It was only some weeks afterwards that Merryweather guiltily began to wonder. He tried not to think on it, because the explanation had been so tidily arranged. But finally, once the gin stopped flowing, he had to ask: what had they done with the dirt?

Comments

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

The classic answer is that they dug another hole to hide it in.

[debriswoman]

A valid point...perhaps Mr Wilson's cellar floor is a couple of inches higher now?

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Flowing gin, eh? Mr. Merryweather is not quite as staid as he paints himself...

It's a very good point. I suppose, as debriswoman so amusingly suggests, the dug-out soil must have remained in the cellar. Perhaps the question ought to be, how did Clay prevent Wilson from entering his own cellar all the time the tunnel was in progress? Wilson was got out of the way while the actual digging was happening, but he could have chosen to enter the cellar any time he was home. And though you could hide the entrance to the tunnel, it's unlikely you could disguise a huge heap of earth.

[kestrel337.livejournal.com]

Ah, well. I tend to like the notion of these perfectly appropriate people having perfectly inappropriate vices.

[tripleransom.livejournal.com]

Maybe he walked around casually dropping it like those guys in The Great Escape?

[tardisjournal.livejournal.com]

An excellent question! I suppose Holmes had it all figured it but assumed it was too obvious to mention--or explain to Watson.

Go pour another drink Mr Merryweather--everything will be alright!

[mistyzeo.livejournal.com]

What HAD THEY DONE? Excellent question.

[mundungus42.livejournal.com]

Poor Mr. Merryweather! The dear man seems to have been under some strain of late...

I read one explanation that the tunnel had gone all the way to McFarlane's carriage-building depot, where the dirt was carted away in a dray, which also answers the question of how two men were going to get all that gold away. However, that's still a LOT of dirt to deal with before one gets there.

[kestrel337.livejournal.com]

Being newish to the ACD fandom, I was fairly certain there was an explanation that I'd just never heard.