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.