#TimeManager Part 26
#wss366 #TimeTravelAuthors 07/17

Light broke through the cloud cover and rain as they left the croft. Poe was the first to react. “Gorgeous. The colors are like Evangeline’s smile.”

TM spoke next, “Tis a bonny sight.”

Looking out over the moor, they saw a thrice-arched rainbow, its colors crisp as a midwinter frost. And as if coming through a divine gate, a flock of polled sheep walked under its arch, attended by shepherds in sunshine yellow mackintoshes and dancing dogs.

“Amazing. Truly remarkable,” Holmes said.

“Of all God’s creations, the rainbow is among the most wondrous,” said Watson, “but I never expected to hear you marvel at one.”

“The refraction of light through water droplets is scientifically interesting,” Holmes replied, “and while rare triple arches are not unheard of. But that’s not what I meant. Look there, note the shepherd in the well-worn light-green slouch hat. Oxford man. Theology, if I’m not mistaken. Dropped out in his third year to marry a local girl he met on holiday. A truly unexpected sight on Dartmoor.”

"Creeky cracck caw crickty crack... light my britches on fire... creky crak caw…

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#TimeManager Part 25
#wss366 #TimeTravelAuthors 07/15

“We’re done here,” Holmes said to Watson.

Watson looked pointedly at us. “What about them?”

“Yeah, what about us?” Raven said.

“Totally irrelevant. They’re innocent bystanders.”

“Bystanders, but hardly innocent. Crackky Crak cacacacaw,” Raven cackled at its own joke.

“I’d like to tag along,” Poe said, speaking up.

“Just don’t get in the way,” Sherlock said, turning and leaving the croft.

“If you’re after the #bounty, it goes to the widow,” Watson added.

“Come, Watson. Time is wasting. They’re time travelers and have no use for English pounds.”

“Time wasting. Time wasting. TM arrest them for time wasting. Crawky cawcacaw.”

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#TimeManager Part 24: Blacking

#wss366 #TimeTravelAuthors 07/05

“That’s Sherlock Holmes,” Raven said in a stage whisper.

“Do tell,” muttered Poe, dryly.

Raven stretched, smoothing her feathers. “Autograph, please, Mr. Holmes?”

Watson blinked, his eyes as round as TM’s. Holmes regarded her, faintly amused. “Remarkable. A talking raven. American, by the timbre. Bright, yet prone to absurdity.”

“The criminal,” Watson prompted, redirecting anxiously.

“Disguised as a gentleman, officer, constable, or valet; yet unmistakably of inferior stock.”

“How #can you be sure?”

“The blacking tin. Smears on the chair betray a clumsy hand. One polishes with precision or not at all. The details, Watson; details always betray the breeding.”

Note 1: A tin is a can .
Note 2: As you watch Basil Rathbone on the screen canned ** music is playing #around you.

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#wss366 06/30
#TimeManager Part 23: Elementary

CRASH

In the lightning flash, a man’s silhouette.

“Frankenstein!” Raven squawked. “In the door!”

BOOM

The tall figure was lit again.

Poe shuddered. “Was it the gentle monster...”

TM’s eyes spun, searching for another timeline.

FLASH

“...or tormented to frustrated anger?”

Raven fluffed and spread their wings, trying to look frightening. A piece of down floated in the air.

TM broke the mood of excited terror. “Frankenstein was the doctor.”

“Correct,” the figure said in refined Victorian English. He stepped through the door, coming in out of the #downpour, followed closely by a shorter man with a revolver.

After one quick appraising glance at the time-traveling trio, the taller man dismissed them and strode to the table, where he picked up a biscuit. “Made today with local ingredients. He has an accomplice.”

“I have them covered,” the other man said in an educated English accent, his revolver pointed at Poe.

“You can put the gun down. They are time travelers.” The tall man was clearly in charge, but his tone showed no need to be overbearing.

“Bosh, time travelers.” Despite the man’s incredulous answer, the gun wavered and then fell to his side.

The time travelers began to relax, with puzzlement replacing fear. Raven even peeked out from behind Poe’s head. And whispered, “What’s he, a wizard?”

“Look at them,” the tall man said.

“You’re not one to joke. But Time travelers?” his companion answered.

“Crekidy. Crack. Yeah, how did you know?” Raven asked, their head next to Poe’s ear.

Poe grit his teeth and put a hand over his ear, while the shorter man stared incredulously at the “talking” raven.

“Observe—their clothes; clearly from the future. And that one with clockwork eyes, a gnome or leprechaun. Both, I think. They are clearly not part of McFair’s gang. Remember my rule: ‘When the impossible is eliminated, no matter how improbable, what remains must be true.”

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#wss366 06/29
#TimeManager Part 23: File under Gruesome

“The main event.” Castaneda waved at a colorful procession. At the end was a single-#file line of people in wooden yokes. “Allies or enemies, they all get eaten.”

“Enough.” Poe picked up the comatose Raven.

TM agreed and grabbed a random timeline. Castaneda’s sun-bleached house faded, replaced by a mist-enshrouded moor and a crude stone croft.

Raven woke, shook her feathers, and screamed, “Wet!”

The croft looked warmly inviting, so they entered.

Inside, on the table, were bacon, biscuits, handcuffs, and the file used on them.

Poe selected the file and, making sawing motions, said, “File that adventure under gruesome.”

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#wss366 06/21 #Punch #TimeManager Part 22
#TimeTravelAuthors #Safe

A short Mayan arrived with fruity drinks in pottery bowls for each guest and a dish of fried mealy worms for Raven.

“Isn’t he beautiful?” Castaneda said. The man lightly punched his shoulder and flashed a smile full of white teeth.

“Punch,” Casting said, waving at the drinks. “Sorry, ice is a luxury.”

Raven checked for a drunk worms, and finding none, pecked at his dish. “Crakkeee, Holy Hot Tamales!” He practically immersed his head in a drink, gulping it down. “Krackers, what kind of God-forsaken unsafe chiles did you use?”

“Their local, quite the punch.”

Poe and TM watched, amazed.

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