The Case of the Missing WIF Key [Sherlock fan story and genuine Steemit help request]

It had been a blissfully uneventful summer's day before I arrived at 221B Baker St.

Mrs Hudson greeted me at the door and one look at her face was all I needed to understand the situation at hand.

"Mr Watson!" she exclaimed.

I raised my hand for her to stop.

"He's on cocaine again, isn't he." I said.

"No, Mr Watson!" she said, "Worse... he's found Steemit.com!"

"Dear God!" I said. "This is just what Mycroft and I had hoped to avoid. How long?"

"Well... he got in on Beta and he's already posted 73 times and earned $24,743." she replied.

"He's lost then. There's nothing I can do." I said and began to turn away to leave.

"No Mr Watson!" cried Mrs Hudson. "It's worse than that... he's found a new case, on Steemit!"

I swung around in shock, and fairly sprinted through the door, almost knocking over poor Mrs Hudson.

After bounding up the stairs I threw open the door. There was Sherlock, lying unconscious on the floor, next to his laptop.

He looked more of a wreck than I'd feared but, after a quick examination, I concluded that he wasn't in a life-threatening physical condition.

"Holmes." I said as I lightly patted the side of his face. "Holmes... can you hear me?"

"What the devil is afoot, Watson?" he murmured. Then his eyes opened widely and he quickly sat up.

"The Case of the Missing WIF Key, Watson." He said. "That's what's afoot!"

"The case of the what?" I replied. "Holmes, listen. You're an addict. You shouldn't be anywhere near something as potent as Steemit.com!"

^ He said.

Then he slammed the space bar on his laptop then pointed at the centre of the screen as it flickered to life. 

"Look for yourself." he said. "My WIF key is not there!"

I did, and could clearly see that, where the WIF key should have been, in the permissions tab under his account name @sherlock, there was none. I thought back to my own adventures on the site, especially my many late nights mining that most elusive of cryptocurrency.

"That's odd." I said, musing. "I've been mining Steem for a few weeks and I had no problem finding my WIF key."

He immediately stood up and looked at me in a way that made me feel more guilty than anything I've ever seen in my life.

"Et tu, Brute?" He whispered, with a cry in his voice. "You mean to say that you knew about Steemit.com and were withholding it from me?"

"Now... now Holmes, I... er... that is to say Mycroft and I... er" I stuttered.

Holmes closed his eyes at the mention of his brother. 

"Mycroft too." he said. "I might have known."

Suddenly, he seemed to realise that he'd moved out of typing range for the first time in days and hastily dumped himself back onto the floor before continuing in a low, beaten tone.

"Lucky for you, I need help." he spat.

"Well Holmes," I said as I wiped the sweat from my brow, "I don't know what to say. It's a jolly pickle that you've found yourself in. Have you considered asking the community?"

His head slumped against the keyboard and he was silent for a full minute. I could only guess what terrors were visiting him in the silence...

"He's finally beaten me." he said. "I've been such a fool but I can see it all clearly now. Moriarty must have set up this entire website, no... the entire concept of blockchain currencies... nay! The whole internet! All to lead me into an intellectual trap where the final checkmate would be... leaving me helpless and stranded without a WIF key."

All I could do was put my arm around the great, if utterly broken detective.

"I hope someone, somewhere will solve this case Sherlock. We all need help from time to time."

THE END