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<h2> Adventure XI. The Final Problem </h2>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"You are afraid of something?" I asked.</p>
<p>"Well, I am."</p>
<p>"Of what?"</p>
<p>"Of air-guns."</p>
<p>"My dear Holmes, what do you mean?"</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"But what does it all mean?" I asked.</p>
<p>He held out his hand, and I saw in the light of the lamp that two of his
knuckles were burst and bleeding.</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"She is away upon a visit."</p>
<p>"Indeed! You are alone?"</p>
<p>"Quite."</p>
<p>"Then it makes it the easier for me to propose that you should come away
with me for a week to the Continent."</p>
<p>"Where?"</p>
<p>"Oh, anywhere. It's all the same to me."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"You have probably never heard of Professor Moriarty?" said he.</p>
<p>"Never."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"What has he done, then?"</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"'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.'</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"'You evidently don't know me,' said he.</p>
<p>"'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.'</p>
<p>"'All that I have to say has already crossed your mind,' said he.</p>
<p>"'Then possibly my answer has crossed yours,' I replied.</p>
<p>"'You stand fast?'</p>
<p>"'Absolutely.'</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"'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.'</p>
<p>"'Have you any suggestion to make?' I asked.</p>
<p>"'You must drop it, Mr. Holmes,' said he, swaying his face about. 'You
really must, you know.'</p>
<p>"'After Monday,' said I.</p>
<p>"'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.'</p>
<p>"'Danger is part of my trade,' I remarked.</p>
<p>"'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.'</p>
<p>"'I am afraid,' said I, rising, 'that in the pleasure of this conversation
I am neglecting business of importance which awaits me elsewhere.'</p>
<p>"He rose also and looked at me in silence, shaking his head sadly.</p>
<p>"'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.'</p>
<p>"'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.'</p>
<p>"'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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"You have already been assaulted?"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"You will spend the night here?" I said.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"The practice is quiet," said I, "and I have an accommodating neighbor. I
should be glad to come."</p>
<p>"And to start to-morrow morning?"</p>
<p>"If necessary."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"Where shall I meet you?"</p>
<p>"At the station. The second first-class carriage from the front will be
reserved for us."</p>
<p>"The carriage is our rendezvous, then?"</p>
<p>"Yes."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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—</p>
<p>"My dear Watson," said a voice, "you have not even condescended to say
good-morning."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"Good heavens!" I cried; "how you startled me!"</p>
<p>"Every precaution is still necessary," he whispered. "I have reason to
think that they are hot upon our trail. Ah, there is Moriarty himself."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"Have you seen the morning paper, Watson?"</p>
<p>"No."</p>
<p>"You haven't' seen about Baker Street, then?"</p>
<p>"Baker Street?"</p>
<p>"They set fire to our rooms last night. No great harm was done."</p>
<p>"Good heavens, Holmes! this is intolerable."</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"I did exactly what you advised."</p>
<p>"Did you find your brougham?"</p>
<p>"Yes, it was waiting."</p>
<p>"Did you recognize your coachman?"</p>
<p>"No."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"As this is an express, and as the boat runs in connection with it, I
should think we have shaken him off very effectively."</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"What will he do?"</p>
<p>"What I should do?"</p>
<p>"What would you do, then?"</p>
<p>"Engage a special."</p>
<p>"But it must be late."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"One would think that we were the criminals. Let us have him arrested on
his arrival."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"What then?"</p>
<p>"We shall get out at Canterbury."</p>
<p>"And then?"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>At Canterbury, therefore, we alighted, only to find that we should have to
wait an hour before we could get a train to Newhaven.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"Already, you see," said he.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"And what would he have done had he overtaken us?"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"I might have known it!" he groaned. "He has escaped!"</p>
<p>"Moriarty?"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"Why?"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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-�-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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>It may have been a little over an hour before I reached Meiringen. Old
Steiler was standing at the porch of his hotel.</p>
<p>"Well," said I, as I came hurrying up, "I trust that she is no worse?"</p>
<p>A look of surprise passed over his face, and at the first quiver of his
eyebrows my heart turned to lead in my breast.</p>
<p>"You did not write this?" I said, pulling the letter from my pocket.
"There is no sick Englishwoman in the hotel?"</p>
<p>"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—"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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?</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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,</p>
<p>Very sincerely yours,</p>
<p>Sherlock Holmes</p>
<p>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 his
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.</p>
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