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X
Adventure XI.
The Final Problem
It is with a heavy heart that I take up my
pen to write these the last words in which
I shall ever record the singular gifts by
which my friend Mr. Sherlock Holmes was
distinguished.
In an incoherent and, as I deeply feel, an
entirely inadequate fashion, I have
endeavored to give some account of my
strange experiences in his company from the
chance which first brought us together at
the period of the "Study in Scarlet," up to
the time of his interference in the matter
of the "Naval Treaty"--an interference
which had the unquestionable effect of
preventing a serious international
complication.
It was my intention to have stopped there,
and to have said nothing of that event
which has created a void in my life which
the lapse of two years has done little to
fill.
My hand has been forced, however, by the
recent letters in which Colonel James
Moriarty defends the memory of his brother,
and I have no choice but to lay the facts
before the public exactly as they occurred.
I alone know the absolute truth of the
matter, and I am satisfied that the time
has come when no good purpose is to be
served by its suppression.
As far as I know, there have been only
three accounts in the public press: that in
the Journal de Geneve on May 6th, 1891, the
Reuter's despatch in the English papers on
May 7th, and finally the recent letter to
which I have alluded.
Of these the first and second were
extremely condensed, while the last is, as
I shall now show, an absolute perversion of
the facts.
It lies with me to tell for the first time
what really took place between Professor
Moriarty and Mr. Sherlock Holmes.
It may be remembered that after my
marriage, and my subsequent start in
private practice, the very intimate
relations which had existed between Holmes
and myself became to some extent modified.
He still came to me from time to time when
he desired a companion in his
investigation, but these occasions grew
more and more seldom, until I find that in
the year 1890 there were only three cases
of which I retain any record.
During the winter of that year and the
early spring of 1891, I saw in the papers
that he had been engaged by the French
government upon a matter of supreme
importance, and I received two notes from
Holmes, dated from Narbonne and from Nimes,
from which I gathered that his stay in
France was likely to be a long one.
It was with some surprise, therefore, that
I saw him walk into my consulting-room upon
the evening of April 24th.
It struck me that he was looking even paler
and thinner than usual.
"Yes, I have been using myself up rather
too freely," he remarked, in answer to my
look rather than to my words; "I have been
a little pressed of late.
Have you any objection to my closing your
shutters?"
The only light in the room came from the
lamp upon the table at which I had been
reading.
Holmes edged his way round the wall and
flinging the shutters together, he bolted
them securely.
"You are afraid of something?"
I asked.
"Well, I am."
"Of what?"
"Of air-guns."
"My dear Holmes, what do you mean?"
"I think that you know me well enough,
Watson, to understand that I am by no means
a nervous man.
At the same time, it is stupidity rather
than courage to refuse to recognize danger
when it is close upon you.
Might I trouble you for a match?"
He drew in the smoke of his cigarette as if
the soothing influence was grateful to him.
"I must apologize for calling so late,"
said he, "and I must further beg you to be
so unconventional as to allow me to leave
your house presently by scrambling over
your back garden wall."
"But what does it all mean?"
I asked.
He held out his hand, and I saw in the
light of the lamp that two of his knuckles
were burst and bleeding.
"It is not an airy nothing, you see," said
he, smiling.
"On the contrary, it is solid enough for a
man to break his hand over.
Is Mrs. Watson in?"
"She is away upon a visit."
You are alone?"
"Quite."
"Then it makes it the easier for me to
propose that you should come away with me
for a week to the Continent."
"Where?"
"Oh, anywhere.
It's all the same to me."
There was something very strange in all
this.
It was not Holmes's nature to take an
aimless holiday, and something about his
pale, worn face told me that his nerves
were at their highest tension.
He saw the question in my eyes, and,
putting his finger-tips together and his
elbows upon his knees, he explained the
situation.
"You have probably never heard of Professor
Moriarty?" said he.
"Never."
"Aye, there's the genius and the wonder of
the thing!" he cried.
"The man pervades London, and no one has
heard of him.
That's what puts him on a pinnacle in the
records of crime.
I tell you, Watson, in all seriousness,
that if I could beat that man, if I could
free society of him, I should feel that my
own career had reached its summit, and I
should be prepared to turn to some more
placid line in life.
Between ourselves, the recent cases in
which I have been of assistance to the
royal family of Scandinavia, and to the
French republic, have left me in such a
position that I could continue to live in
the quiet fashion which is most congenial
to me, and to concentrate my attention upon
my chemical researches.
But I could not rest, Watson, I could not
sit quiet in my chair, if I thought that
such a man as Professor Moriarty were
walking the streets of London
unchallenged."
"What has he done, then?"
"His career has been an extraordinary one.
He is a man of good birth and excellent
education, endowed by nature with a
phenomenal mathematical faculty.
At the age of twenty-one he wrote a
treatise upon the Binomial
Theorem, which has had a European vogue.
On the strength of it he won the
Mathematical Chair at one of our smaller
universities, and had, to all appearances,
a most brilliant career before him.
But the man had hereditary tendencies of
the most diabolical kind.
A criminal strain ran in his blood, which,
instead of being modified, was increased
and rendered infinitely more dangerous by
his extraordinary mental powers.
Dark rumors gathered round him in the
university town, and eventually he was
compelled to resign his chair and to come
down to London, where he set up as an army
coach.
So much is known to the world, but what I
am telling you now is what I have myself
discovered.
"As you are aware, Watson, there is no one
who knows the higher criminal world of
London so well as I do.
For years past I have continually been
conscious of some power behind the
malefactor, some deep organizing power
which forever stands in the way of the law,
and throws its shield over the wrong-doer.
Again and again in cases of the most
varying sorts--forgery cases, robberies,
murders--I have felt the presence of this
force, and I have deduced its action in
many of those undiscovered crimes in which
I have not been personally consulted.
For years I have endeavored to break
through the veil which shrouded it, and at
last the time came when I seized my thread
and followed it, until it led me, after a
thousand cunning windings, to ex-Professor
Moriarty of mathematical celebrity.
"He is the Napoleon of crime, Watson.
He is the organizer of half that is evil
and of nearly all that is undetected in
this great city.
He is a genius, a philosopher, an abstract
thinker.
He has a brain of the first order.
He sits motionless, like a spider in the
center of its web, but that web has a
thousand radiations, and he knows well
every quiver of each of them.
He does little himself.
He only plans.
But his agents are numerous and splendidly
organized.
Is there a crime to be done, a paper to be
abstracted, we will say, a house to be
rifled, a man to be removed--the word is
passed to the Professor, the matter is
organized and carried out.
The agent may be caught.
In that case money is found for his bail or
his defence.
But the central power which uses the agent
is never caught--never so much as
suspected.
This was the organization which I deduced,
Watson, and which I devoted my whole energy
to exposing and breaking up.
"But the Professor was fenced round with
safeguards so cunningly devised that, do
what I would, it seemed impossible to get
evidence which would convict in a court of
law.
You know my powers, my dear Watson, and yet
at the end of three months I was forced to
confess that I had at last met an
antagonist who was my intellectual equal.
My horror at his crimes was lost in my
admiration at his skill.
But at last he made a trip--only a little,
little trip--but it was more than he could
afford when I was so close upon him.
I had my chance, and, starting from that
point, I have woven my net round him until
now it is all ready to close.
In three days--that is to say, on Monday
next--matters will be ripe, and the
Professor, with all the principal members
of his gang, will be in the hands of the
police.
Then will come the greatest criminal trial
of the century, the clearing up of over
forty mysteries, and the rope for all of
them; but if we move at all prematurely,
you understand, they may slip out of our
hands even at the last moment.
"Now, if I could have done this without the
knowledge of Professor Moriarty, all would
have been well.
But he was too wily for that.
He saw every step which I took to draw my
toils round him.
Again and again he strove to break away,
but I as often headed him off.
I tell you, my friend, that if a detailed
account of that silent contest could be
written, it would take its place as the
most brilliant bit of thrust-and-parry work
in the history of detection.
Never have I risen to such a height, and
never have I been so hard pressed by an
opponent.
He cut deep, and yet I just undercut him.
This morning the last steps were taken, and
three days only were wanted to complete the
business.
I was sitting in my room thinking the
matter over, when the door opened and
Professor Moriarty stood before me.
"My nerves are fairly proof, Watson, but I
must confess to a start when I saw the very
man who had been so much in my thoughts
standing there on my threshhold.
His appearance was quite familiar to me.
He is extremely tall and thin, his forehead
domes out in a white curve, and his two
eyes are deeply sunken in his head.
He is clean-shaven, pale, and ascetic-
looking, retaining something of the
professor in his features.
His shoulders are rounded from much study,
and his face protrudes forward, and is
forever slowly oscillating from side to
side in a curiously reptilian fashion.
He peered at me with great curiosity in his
puckered eyes.
"'You have less frontal development than I
should have expected,' said he, at last.
'It is a dangerous habit to finger loaded
firearms in the pocket of one's dressing-
gown.'
"The fact is that upon his entrance I had
instantly recognized the extreme personal
danger in which I lay.
The only conceivable escape for him lay in
silencing my tongue.
In an instant I had slipped the revolver
from the drawer into my pocket, and was
covering him through the cloth.
At his remark I drew the weapon out and
laid it cocked upon the table.
He still smiled and blinked, but there was
something about his eyes which made me feel
very glad that I had it there.
"'You evidently don't know me,' said he.
"'On the contrary,' I answered, 'I think it
is fairly evident that I do.
Pray take a chair.
I can spare you five minutes if you have
anything to say.'
"'All that I have to say has already
crossed your mind,' said he.
"'Then possibly my answer has crossed
yours,' I replied.
"'You stand fast?'
"'Absolutely.'
"He clapped his hand into his pocket, and I
raised the pistol from the table.
But he merely drew out a memorandum-book in
which he had scribbled some dates.
"'You crossed my path on the 4th of
January,' said he.
'On the 23d you incommoded me; by the
middle of February I was seriously
inconvenienced by you; at the end of March
I was absolutely hampered in my plans; and
now, at the close of April, I find myself
placed in such a position through your
continual persecution that I am in positive
danger of losing my liberty.
The situation is becoming an impossible
one.'
"'Have you any suggestion to make?'
I asked.
"'You must drop it, Mr. Holmes,' said he,
swaying his face about.
'You really must, you know.'
"'After Monday,' said I.
"'Tut, tut,' said he.
'I am quite sure that a man of your
intelligence will see that there can be but
one outcome to this affair.
It is necessary that you should withdraw.
You have worked things in such a fashion
that we have only one resource left.
It has been an intellectual treat to me to
see the way in which you have grappled with
this affair, and I say, unaffectedly, that
it would be a grief to me to be forced to
take any extreme measure.
You smile, sir, but I assure you that it
really would.'
"'Danger is part of my trade,' I remarked.
"'That is not danger,' said he.
'It is inevitable destruction.
You stand in the way not merely of an
individual, but of a mighty organization,
the full extent of which you, with all your
cleverness, have been unable to realize.
You must stand clear, Mr. Holmes, or be
trodden under foot.'
"'I am afraid,' said I, rising, 'that in
the pleasure of this conversation I am
neglecting business of importance which
awaits me elsewhere.'
"He rose also and looked at me in silence,
shaking his head sadly.
"'Well, well,' said he, at last.
'It seems a pity, but I have done what I
could.
I know every move of your game.
You can do nothing before Monday.
It has been a duel between you and me, Mr.
Holmes.
You hope to place me in the dock.
I tell you that I will never stand in the
dock.
You hope to beat me.
I tell you that you will never beat me.
If you are clever enough to bring
destruction upon me, rest assured that I
shall do as much to you.'
"'You have paid me several compliments, Mr.
Moriarty,' said I.
'Let me pay you one in return when I say
that if I were assured of the former
eventuality I would, in the interests of
the public, cheerfully accept the latter.'
"'I can promise you the one, but not the
other,' he snarled, and so turned his
rounded back upon me, and went peering and
blinking out of the room.
"That was my singular interview with
Professor Moriarty.
I confess that it left an unpleasant effect
upon my mind.
His soft, precise fashion of speech leaves
a conviction of sincerity which a mere
bully could not produce.
Of course, you will say: 'Why not take
police precautions against him?' the reason
is that I am well convinced that it is from
his agents the blow will fall.
I have the best proofs that it would be
so."
"You have already been assaulted?"
"My dear Watson, Professor Moriarty is not
a man who lets the grass grow under his
feet.
I went out about mid-day to transact some
business in Oxford Street.
As I passed the corner which leads from
Bentinck Street on to the Welbeck Street
crossing a two-horse van furiously driven
whizzed round and was on me like a flash.
I sprang for the foot-path and saved myself
by the fraction of a second.
The van dashed round by Marylebone Lane and
was gone in an instant.
I kept to the pavement after that, Watson,
but as I walked down Vere Street a brick
came down from the roof of one of the
houses, and was shattered to fragments at
my feet.
I called the police and had the place
examined.
There were slates and bricks piled up on
the roof preparatory to some repairs, and
they would have me believe that the wind
had toppled over one of these.
Of course I knew better, but I could prove
nothing.
I took a cab after that and reached my
brother's rooms in Pall Mall, where I spent
the day.
Now I have come round to you, and on my way
I was attacked by a rough with a bludgeon.
I knocked him down, and the police have him
in custody; but I can tell you with the
most absolute confidence that no possible
connection will ever be traced between the
gentleman upon whose front teeth I have
barked my knuckles and the retiring
mathematical coach, who is, I dare say,
working out problems upon a black-board ten
miles away.
You will not wonder, Watson, that my first
act on entering your rooms was to close
your shutters, and that I have been
compelled to ask your permission to leave
the house by some less conspicuous exit
than the front door."
I had often admired my friend's courage,
but never more than now, as he sat quietly
checking off a series of incidents which
must have combined to make up a day of
horror.
"You will spend the night here?"
I said.
"No, my friend, you might find me a
dangerous guest.
I have my plans laid, and all will be well.
Matters have gone so far now that they can
move without my help as far as the arrest
goes, though my presence is necessary for a
conviction.
It is obvious, therefore, that I cannot do
better than get away for the few days which
remain before the police are at liberty to
act.
It would be a great pleasure to me,
therefore, if you could come on to the
Continent with me."
"The practice is quiet," said I, "and I
have an accommodating neighbor.
I should be glad to come."
"And to start to-morrow morning?"
"If necessary."
"Oh yes, it is most necessary.
Then these are your instructions, and I
beg, my dear Watson, that you will obey
them to the letter, for you are now playing
a double-handed game with me against the
cleverest rogue and the most powerful
syndicate of criminals in Europe.
Now listen!
You will dispatch whatever luggage you
intend to take by a trusty messenger
unaddressed to Victoria to-night.
In the morning you will send for a hansom,
desiring your man to take neither the first
nor the second which may present itself.
Into this hansom you will jump, and you
will drive to the Strand end of the Lowther
Arcade, handing the address to the cabman
upon a slip of paper, with a request that
he will not throw it away.
Have your fare ready, and the instant that
your cab stops, dash through the Arcade,
timing yourself to reach the other side at
a quarter-past nine.
You will find a small brougham waiting
close to the curb, driven by a fellow with
a heavy black cloak tipped at the collar
with red.
Into this you will step, and you will reach
Victoria in time for the Continental
express."
"Where shall I meet you?"
"At the station.
The second first-class carriage from the
front will be reserved for us."
"The carriage is our rendezvous, then?"
"Yes."
It was in vain that I asked Holmes to
remain for the evening.
It was evident to me that he thought he
might bring trouble to the roof he was
under, and that that was the motive which
impelled him to go.
With a few hurried words as to our plans
for the morrow he rose and came out with me
into the garden, clambering over the wall
which leads into Mortimer Street, and
immediately whistling for a hansom, in
which I heard him drive away.
In the morning I obeyed Holmes's
injunctions to the letter.
A hansom was procured with such precaution
as would prevent its being one which was
placed ready for us, and I drove
immediately after breakfast to the Lowther
Arcade, through which I hurried at the top
of my speed.
A brougham was waiting with a very massive
driver wrapped in a dark cloak, who, the
instant that I had stepped in, whipped up
the horse and rattled off to Victoria
Station.
On my alighting there he turned the
carriage, and dashed away again without so
much as a look in my direction.
So far all had gone admirably.
My luggage was waiting for me, and I had no
difficulty in finding the carriage which
Holmes had indicated, the less so as it was
the only one in the train which was marked
"Engaged."
My only source of anxiety now was the non-
appearance of Holmes.
The station clock marked only seven minutes
from the time when we were due to start.
In vain I searched among the groups of
travellers and leave-takers for the lithe
figure of my friend.
There was no sign of him.
I spent a few minutes in assisting a
venerable Italian priest, who was
endeavoring to make a porter understand, in
his broken English, that his luggage was to
be booked through to Paris.
Then, having taken another look round, I
returned to my carriage, where I found that
the porter, in spite of the ticket, had
given me my decrepit Italian friend as a
traveling companion.
It was useless for me to explain to him
that his presence was an intrusion, for my
Italian was even more limited than his
English, so I shrugged my shoulders
resignedly, and continued to look out
anxiously for my friend.
A chill of fear had come over me, as I
thought that his absence might mean that
some blow had fallen during the night.
Already the doors had all been shut and the
whistle blown, when--
"My dear Watson," said a voice, "you have
not even condescended to say good-morning."
I turned in uncontrollable astonishment.
The aged ecclesiastic had turned his face
towards me.
For an instant the wrinkles were smoothed
away, the nose drew away from the chin, the
lower lip ceased to protrude and the mouth
to mumble, the dull eyes regained their
fire, the drooping figure expanded.
The next the whole frame collapsed again,
and Holmes had gone as quickly as he had
come.
"Good heavens!"
I cried; "how you startled me!"
"Every precaution is still necessary," he
whispered.
"I have reason to think that they are hot
upon our trail.
Ah, there is Moriarty himself."
The train had already begun to move as
Holmes spoke.
Glancing back, I saw a tall man pushing his
way furiously through the crowd, and waving
his hand as if he desired to have the train
stopped.
It was too late, however, for we were
rapidly gathering momentum, and an instant
later had shot clear of the station.
"With all our precautions, you see that we
have cut it rather fine," said Holmes,
laughing.
He rose, and throwing off the black cassock
and hat which had formed his disguise, he
packed them away in a hand-bag.
"Have you seen the morning paper, Watson?"
"No."
"You haven't' seen about Baker Street,
then?"
"Baker Street?"
"They set fire to our rooms last night.
No great harm was done."
"Good heavens, Holmes! this is
intolerable."
"They must have lost my track completely
after their bludgeon-man was arrested.
Otherwise they could not have imagined that
I had returned to my rooms.
They have evidently taken the precaution of
watching you, however, and that is what has
brought Moriarty to Victoria.
You could not have made any slip in
coming?"
"I did exactly what you advised."
"Did you find your brougham?"
"Yes, it was waiting."
"Did you recognize your coachman?"
"No."
"It was my brother Mycroft.
It is an advantage to get about in such a
case without taking a mercenary into your
confidence.
But we must plan what we are to do about
Moriarty now."
"As this is an express, and as the boat
runs in connection with it, I should think
we have shaken him off very effectively."
"My dear Watson, you evidently did not
realize my meaning when I said that this
man may be taken as being quite on the same
intellectual plane as myself.
You do not imagine that if I were the
pursuer I should allow myself to be baffled
by so slight an obstacle.
Why, then, should you think so meanly of
him?"
"What will he do?"
"What I should do?"
"What would you do, then?"
"Engage a special."
"But it must be late."
"By no means.
This train stops at Canterbury; and there
is always at least a quarter of an hour's
delay at the boat.
He will catch us there."
"One would think that we were the
criminals.
Let us have him arrested on his arrival."
"It would be to ruin the work of three
months.
We should get the big fish, but the smaller
would dart right and left out of the net.
On Monday we should have them all.
No, an arrest is inadmissible."
"What then?"
"We shall get out at Canterbury."
"And then?"
"Well, then we must make a cross-country
journey to Newhaven, and so over to Dieppe.
Moriarty will again do what I should do.
He will get on to Paris, mark down our
luggage, and wait for two days at the
depot.
In the meantime we shall treat ourselves to
a couple of carpet-bags, encourage the
manufactures of the countries through which
we travel, and make our way at our leisure
into Switzerland, via Luxembourg and
Basle."
At Canterbury, therefore, we alighted, only
to find that we should have to wait an hour
before we could get a train to Newhaven.
I was still looking rather ruefully after
the rapidly disappearing luggage-van which
contained my wardrobe, when Holmes pulled
my sleeve and pointed up the line.
"Already, you see," said he.
Far away, from among the Kentish woods
there rose a thin spray of smoke.
A minute later a carriage and engine could
be seen flying along the open curve which
leads to the station.
We had hardly time to take our place behind
a pile of luggage when it passed with a
rattle and a roar, beating a blast of hot
air into our faces.
"There he goes," said Holmes, as we watched
the carriage swing and rock over the
points.
"There are limits, you see, to our friend's
intelligence.
It would have been a coup-de-maitre had he
deduced what I would deduce and acted
accordingly."
"And what would he have done had he
overtaken us?"
"There cannot be the least doubt that he
would have made a murderous attack upon me.
It is, however, a game at which two may
play.
The question now is whether we should take
a premature lunch here, or run our chance
of starving before we reach the buffet at
Newhaven."
We made our way to Brussels that night and
spent two days there, moving on upon the
third day as far as Strasburg.
On the Monday morning Holmes had
telegraphed to the London police, and in
the evening we found a reply waiting for us
at our hotel.
Holmes tore it open, and then with a bitter
curse hurled it into the grate.
"I might have known it!" he groaned.
"He has escaped!"
"Moriarty?"
"They have secured the whole gang with the
exception of him.
He has given them the slip.
Of course, when I had left the country
there was no one to cope with him.
But I did think that I had put the game in
their hands.
I think that you had better return to
England, Watson."
"Why?"
"Because you will find me a dangerous
companion now.
This man's occupation is gone.
He is lost if he returns to London.
If I read his character right he will
devote his whole energies to revenging
himself upon me.
He said as much in our short interview, and
I fancy that he meant it.
I should certainly recommend you to return
to your practice."
It was hardly an appeal to be successful
with one who was an old campaigner as well
as an old friend.
We sat in the Strasburg salle-à-manger
arguing the question for half an hour, but
the same night we had resumed our journey
and were well on our way to Geneva.
For a charming week we wandered up the
Valley of the Rhone, and then, branching
off at Leuk, we made our way over the Gemmi
Pass, still deep in snow, and so, by way of
Interlaken, to Meiringen.
It was a lovely trip, the dainty green of
the spring below, the *** white of the
winter above; but it was clear to me that
never for one instant did Holmes forget the
shadow which lay across him.
In the homely Alpine villages or in the
lonely mountain passes, I could tell by his
quick glancing eyes and his sharp scrutiny
of every face that passed us, that he was
well convinced that, walk where we would,
we could not walk ourselves clear of the
danger which was *** our footsteps.
Once, I remember, as we passed over the
Gemmi, and walked along the border of the
melancholy Daubensee, a large rock which
had been dislodged from the ridge upon our
right clattered down and roared into the
lake behind us.
In an instant Holmes had raced up on to the
ridge, and, standing upon a lofty pinnacle,
craned his neck in every direction.
It was in vain that our guide assured him
that a fall of stones was a common chance
in the spring-time at that spot.
He said nothing, but he smiled at me with
the air of a man who sees the fulfillment
of that which he had expected.
And yet for all his watchfulness he was
never depressed.
On the contrary, I can never recollect
having seen him in such exuberant spirits.
Again and again he recurred to the fact
that if he could be assured that society
was freed from Professor Moriarty he would
cheerfully bring his own career to a
conclusion.
"I think that I may go so far as to say,
Watson, that I have not lived wholly in
vain," he remarked.
"If my record were closed to-night I could
still survey it with equanimity.
The air of London is the sweeter for my
presence.
In over a thousand cases I am not aware
that I have ever used my powers upon the
wrong side.
Of late I have been tempted to look into
the problems furnished by nature rather
than those more superficial ones for which
our artificial state of society is
responsible.
Your memoirs will draw to an end, Watson,
upon the day that I crown my career by the
capture or extinction of the most dangerous
and capable criminal in Europe."
I shall be brief, and yet exact, in the
little which remains for me to tell.
It is not a subject on which I would
willingly dwell, and yet I am conscious
that a duty devolves upon me to omit no
detail.
It was on the 3d of May that we reached the
little village of Meiringen, where we put
up at the Englischer Hof, then kept by
Peter Steiler the elder.
Our landlord was an intelligent man, and
spoke excellent English, having served for
three years as waiter at the Grosvenor
Hotel in London.
At his advice, on the afternoon of the 4th
we set off together, with the intention of
crossing the hills and spending the night
at the hamlet of Rosenlaui.
We had strict injunctions, however, on no
account to pass the falls of Reichenbach,
which are about half-way up the hill,
without making a small detour to see them.
It is indeed, a fearful place.
The torrent, swollen by the melting snow,
plunges into a tremendous abyss, from which
the spray rolls up like the smoke from a
burning house.
The shaft into which the river hurls itself
is an immense chasm, lined by glistening
coal-black rock, and narrowing into a
creaming, boiling pit of incalculable
depth, which brims over and shoots the
stream onward over its jagged lip.
The long sweep of green water roaring
forever down, and the thick flickering
curtain of spray hissing forever upward,
turn a man giddy with their constant whirl
and clamor.
We stood near the edge peering down at the
gleam of the breaking water far below us
against the black rocks, and listening to
the half-human shout which came booming up
with the spray out of the abyss.
The path has been cut half-way round the
fall to afford a complete view, but it ends
abruptly, and the traveler has to return as
he came.
We had turned to do so, when we saw a Swiss
lad come running along it with a letter in
his hand.
It bore the mark of the hotel which we had
just left, and was addressed to me by the
landlord.
It appeared that within a very few minutes
of our leaving, an English lady had arrived
who was in the last stage of consumption.
She had wintered at Davos Platz, and was
journeying now to join her friends at
Lucerne, when a sudden hemorrhage had
overtaken her.
It was thought that she could hardly live a
few hours, but it would be a great
consolation to her to see an English
doctor, and, if I would only return, etc.
The good Steiler assured me in a postscript
that he would himself look upon my
compliance as a very great favor, since the
lady absolutely refused to see a Swiss
physician, and he could not but feel that
he was incurring a great responsibility.
The appeal was one which could not be
ignored.
It was impossible to refuse the request of
a fellow-countrywoman dying in a strange
land.
Yet I had my scruples about leaving Holmes.
It was finally agreed, however, that he
should retain the young Swiss messenger
with him as guide and companion while I
returned to Meiringen.
My friend would stay some little time at
the fall, he said, and would then walk
slowly over the hill to Rosenlaui, where I
was to rejoin him in the evening.
As I turned away I saw Holmes, with his
back against a rock and his arms folded,
gazing down at the rush of the waters.
It was the last that I was ever destined to
see of him in this world.
When I was near the bottom of the descent I
looked back.
It was impossible, from that position, to
see the fall, but I could see the curving
path which winds over the shoulder of the
hill and leads to it.
Along this a man was, I remember, walking
very rapidly.
I could see his black figure clearly
outlined against the green behind him.
I noted him, and the energy with which he
walked but he passed from my mind again as
I hurried on upon my errand.
It may have been a little over an hour
before I reached Meiringen.
Old Steiler was standing at the porch of
his hotel.
"Well," said I, as I came hurrying up, "I
trust that she is no worse?"
A look of surprise passed over his face,
and at the first quiver of his eyebrows my
heart turned to lead in my breast.
"You did not write this?"
I said, pulling the letter from my pocket.
"There is no sick Englishwoman in the
"Certainly not!" he cried.
"But it has the hotel mark upon it!
Ha, it must have been written by that tall
Englishman who came in after you had gone.
He said--"
But I waited for none of the landlord's
explanations.
In a tingle of fear I was already running
down the village street, and making for the
path which I had so lately descended.
It had taken me an hour to come down.
For all my efforts two more had passed
before I found myself at the fall of
Reichenbach once more.
There was Holmes's Alpine-stock still
leaning against the rock by which I had
left him.
But there was no sign of him, and it was in
vain that I shouted.
My only answer was my own voice
reverberating in a rolling echo from the
cliffs around me.
It was the sight of that Alpine-stock which
turned me cold and sick.
He had not gone to Rosenlaui, then.
He had remained on that three-foot path,
with sheer wall on one side and sheer drop
on the other, until his enemy had overtaken
him.
The young Swiss had gone too.
He had probably been in the pay of
Moriarty, and had left the two men
together.
And then what had happened?
Who was to tell us what had happened then?
I stood for a minute or two to collect
myself, for I was dazed with the horror of
the thing.
Then I began to think of Holmes's own
methods and to try to practise them in
reading this tragedy.
It was, alas, only too easy to do.
During our conversation we had not gone to
the end of the path, and the Alpine-stock
marked the place where we had stood.
The blackish soil is kept forever soft by
the incessant drift of spray, and a bird
would leave its tread upon it.
Two lines of footmarks were clearly marked
along the farther end of the path, both
leading away from me.
There were none returning.
A few yards from the end the soil was all
ploughed up into a patch of mud, and the
branches and ferns which fringed the chasm
were torn and bedraggled.
I lay upon my face and peered over with the
spray spouting up all around me.
It had darkened since I left, and now I
could only see here and there the
glistening of moisture upon the black
walls, and far away down at the end of the
shaft the gleam of the broken water.
I shouted; but only the same half-human cry
of the fall was borne back to my ears.
But it was destined that I should after all
have a last word of greeting from my friend
and comrade.
I have said that his Alpine-stock had been
left leaning against a rock which jutted on
to the path.
From the top of this bowlder the gleam of
something bright caught my eye, and,
raising my hand, I found that it came from
the silver cigarette-case which he used to
carry.
As I took it up a small square of paper
upon which it had lain fluttered down on to
the ground.
Unfolding it, I found that it consisted of
three pages torn from his note-book and
addressed to me.
It was characteristic of the man that the
direction was a precise, and the writing as
firm and clear, as though it had been
written in his study.
My dear Watson [it said], I write these few
lines through the courtesy of Mr. Moriarty,
who awaits my convenience for the final
discussion of those questions which lie
between us.
He has been giving me a sketch of the
methods by which he avoided the English
police and kept himself informed of our
movements.
They certainly confirm the very high
opinion which I had formed of his
abilities.
I am pleased to think that I shall be able
to free society from any further effects of
his presence, though I fear that it is at a
cost which will give pain to my friends,
and especially, my dear Watson, to you.
I have already explained to you, however,
that my career had in any case reached its
crisis, and that no possible conclusion to
it could be more congenial to me than this.
Indeed, if I may make a full confession to
you, I was quite convinced that the letter
from Meiringen was a hoax, and I allowed
you to depart on that errand under the
persuasion that some development of this
sort would follow.
Tell Inspector Patterson that the papers
which he needs to convict the gang are in
pigeonhole M., done up in a blue envelope
and inscribed "Moriarty."
I made every disposition of my property
before leaving England, and handed it to my
brother Mycroft.
Pray give my greetings to Mrs. Watson, and
believe me to be, my dear fellow,
Very sincerely yours,
Sherlock Holmes
A few words may suffice to tell the little
that remains.
An examination by experts leaves little
doubt that a personal contest between the
two men ended, as it could hardly fail to
end in such a situation, in their reeling
over, locked in each other's arms.
Any attempt at recovering the bodies was
absolutely hopeless, and there, deep down
in that dreadful caldron of swirling water
and seething foam, will lie for all time
the most dangerous criminal and the
foremost champion of the law of their
generation.
The Swiss youth was never found again, and
there can be no doubt that he was one of
the numerous agents whom Moriarty kept in
this employ.
As to the gang, it will be within the
memory of the public how completely the
evidence which Holmes had accumulated
exposed their organization, and how heavily
the hand of the dead man weighed upon them.
Of their terrible chief few details came
out during the proceedings, and if I have
now been compelled to make a clear
statement of his career it is due to those
injudicious champions who have endeavored
to clear his memory by attacks upon him
whom I shall ever regard as the best and
the wisest man whom I have ever known.