My friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, may be the best at noticing things, but Mrs. Hudson, our Landlady was the first to notice the trouble in the kitchen.

"Eeeeek!!" I heard her scream.

This brought me into the kitchen rather quickly, "What is it Mrs. Hudson?" I asked.

"I just saw one of them! I wasn’t sure before, but I just saw one." She panted.

"What did you see, Mrs. Hudson? Please calm down." I said.

"A mouse!" She said, pointing out the kitchen door, presumably where she had seen it exit from, "It got into the cheese! Look!"

"Oh, well, we’ll just go get some rat traps tomorrow, nothing to worry about. Although, I'm surprised Toby never found them before..." I said, thoughtfully "Oh, don’t worry, Mrs. Hudson." I added as I left, "We'll take care of it." I went into the other room to tell Holmes about the mice and what had upset Mrs. Hudson.

I laughed, "Like they’re hiding? They must not have been here long, Holmes. Mice aren’t that smart."

"Impossible." Holmes said, going into the kitchen.

"What is?" Mrs. Hudson asked, as she tried to salvage the cheese.

"We don’t have mice." He said, as he picked up a piece of cheese that had been nibbled by the tiny thief.

"Then I suppose you did that, Mr. Holmes, hm?" She asked him, indicating the cheese, "I saw one, you can’t tell me I’m seeing things... but then..." She stopped.

"But, I never..." He said, a bit more to himself than to either of us, "No holes, no place for them to get in from, I've never heard one..."

"Well, I just saw one, Mr. Holmes." She said, a bit frustrated.

"Hmm..." He sighed, examining the kitchen quickly with his eyes before he turned and left.

It was really nothing for him to worry about, but it did seem to bother my friend a bit more than he wished to let on that he had not noticed the mouse problem before Mrs. Hudson brought it to his attention.

He sat in his chair by the fire silently for some time, then he finally spoke, "Watson, did you ever notice mice in this house?"

"No, I never did." I said, looking over to him, "It’s very curious." I smiled, "But nothing to worry about, I don’t think. Nothing some mouse traps won’t fix."

"Hmm... yes. --Do you suppose they just got here?" He asked, "I never noticed anywhere in the house they could come in from, no holes I mean. No place they could live... No signs of them even being here."

"Yes, and I’d think that Toby would make a fuss if he knew they were here, wouldn’t you?"

"I know! Why, it’s almost like..." He trailed off.

I laughed, "Like they’re hiding? They must not have been here long, Holmes. Mice aren’t that smart."

"You’d be surprised, Watson. Some interesting experiments have been done on rats and mice. They do learn." He said, tapping his forehead.

"So, you think we have a mouse genius living in our house?" I laughed. He paused, then laughed too.

"I suppose not! Yes, they’ve just recently moved in, no doubt... Silly thought." He chuckled.

The next day I went to get a mousetrap for Mrs. Hudson. She would hardly let us rest until she had one. "I don’t want the filthy things in my kitchen!" She’d told me several times that morning.

So, I got about 5 of them, and set them out with some bait. The traps set there for about a week, and it was considered by all living at 221 B Baker Street to have been a one time thing, particularly by Sherlock Holmes, whom was happy to see that he had not missed the presence of mice in his home.

However... the day I was going to clear the traps I noticed that the one by the kitchen had been set off. Set off, no less, by someone who had triggered it with a pencil and taken the cheese bait. I was quite confused, and as I went around to get the others found that each of them had been set off in similar ways.

I showed the last one, which had been triggered with a pebble, to Holmes who looked at it curiously. "These others were all like that, too." I said, showing him the other traps, one with a twig trapped in it rather than a mouse, "Could mice have done this?" I asked.

"This is very strange!" He said, "I’ve seen no signs of mice" and it's certainly unlikely that mice are smart enough to set off the traps like that. But what else on earth would?"

"I can't imagine." I said, "Maybe we do have smart mice. They’ve probably learned everything they know from you." I laughed.

Holmes laughed too, "That would be something. I doubt it’s anything to bother with. We have more pressing mysteries. I'm sure ‘Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Smart Mice’ will not interest many readers, Watson." I laughed, then went to put the traps away, "I suppose not." I said.

And that was that for some little time" but it is the last part of my story -- though brief -- is quite strange.

I was sitting in the front room with Sherlock Holmes listening to him play his violin when I heard Toby barking at something in the kitchen. I hadn’t recalled ever hearing him bark quite like that, so I excused myself to go see what it was.

When I entered the kitchen I Toby was barking playfully, but at what I could not see. I walked over to calm him, when what should run past me at high speeds then a small brown mouse! I turned to see if I could find where it was going, when to my surprise, Toby nipped my ankle and yanked on my trousers. He didn’t hurt me really, but it was enough to stop me long enough for the mouse to get away.

I scolded Toby, and walked back out to the front room, where Holmes was still playing, he addressed me without stopping the song.

He came back up with a bit of brown cloth on his pinkie finger. We all looked close at it, and noticed that it was nothing less that a tiny deerstalker.

"What on earth was that?"

I explained to him all that had occurred.

"So we do have mice?"

"Yes... it would seem so... It was the strangest thing too, that Toby should nip at me like that..." I paused just long enough for Holmes to comment.

"Yes, they usually go after me." He paused then laughed.

I laughed, then continued, "And... you really won’t believe this..." I trailed off.

"Yes, go on?"

"Well, maybe it’s just getting late... but I swear that I saw that mouse...." I paused again.

"Out with it Watson, come on."

"I thought I saw it wearing a deer stalker and an Inverness cape..." I paused, then laughed at how silly it sounded, Holmes laughed too, but our laughing was cut off by a scream from the kitchen.

We both rushed in to find Mrs. Hudson in the kitchen with a odd look on her face. "What is it?" I asked.

"Those mice are back!" She squealed, "It was there only a moment ago. It must be some kind of terrible joke too. Mr. Holmes, if this is one of your experiments..." "What is, Mrs. Hudson?" Holmes asked in surprise.

"That mouse was wearing clothes, Mr. Holmes. I wasn’t sure the first time, but there’s no doubt in my mind now!"

I looked at Mrs. Hudson in surprise, and then to Sherlock Holmes, but he was picking something up off the ground.

He came back up with a bit of brown cloth on his pinkie finger. We all looked close at it, and noticed that it was nothing less that a tiny deerstalker.

I doubt the mystery will every be solved, but Holmes says that he doesn’t much mind the mice, after all, if they never show themselves then why worry about them?

But, if Mrs. Hudson should ever complain about the missing cheese or the triggered trap, Holmes would joke that she’s very lucky our house mouse doesn’t attempt anything more than that... because our mouse genius obviously learned from the best of them.

THE END