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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"—and 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 on 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 Genève on May 6th, 1891, the Reuters
dispatch 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."
"Indeed! 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 fingertips 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
appearance, 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 wrongdoer. 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
defense 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 threshold. 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 this 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 that 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 revolved
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 patch 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, abut 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 midday 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 footpath 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 blackboard 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 tomorrow 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 tonight 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, handling 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 though 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 nonappearance 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 travelers and leave-takers for the
little 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 handbag. "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 carpetbags, 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 point. "There are limits, you see, to our friend's
intelligence. It would have been a coup-de-maître 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
virgin 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 dogging 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 springtime 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 tonight 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 halfway 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 a 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 halfway 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 hotel?"
"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 practice 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 plowed 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 boulder 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 notebook 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 weighted 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.
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