Sherlock Holmes complete collection by sir arthur conan doyle

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes THE FINAL PROBLEM

IT IS with a heavy heart that I take up my pen to write these the last wordsin which I shall ever record the singular gifts by which my friend Mr.Sherlock Holmes was distinguished. In an incoherent and, as I deeplyfeel, an entirely inadequate fashion, I have endeavoured to give someaccount of my strange experiences in his company from the chance whichfirst brought us together at the period of the "Study in Scarlet," up to thetime of his interference in the matter of the "Naval Treaty"-aninterference which had the unquestionable effect of preventing a seriousinternational complication. It was my intention to have stopped there, andto have said nothing of that event which has created a void in my lifewhich the lapse of two years has done little to fill. My hand has beenforced, however, by the recent letters in which Colonel James Moriartydefends the memory of his brother, and I have no choice but to lay thefacts before the public exactly as they occurred. I alone know the absolutetruth of the matter, and I am satisfied that the time has come when nogood purpose is to be served by its suppression. As far as I know, therehave been only three accounts in the public press: that in the Journal deGenève on May 6th, 1891, the Reuter's dispatch in the English papers onMay 7th, and finally the recent letters to which I have alluded. Of thesethe first and second were extremely condensed, while the last is, as I shallnow show, an absolute perversion of the facts. It lies with me to tell forthe first time what really took place between Professor Moriarty and Mr.Sherlock Holmes.It may be remembered that after my marriage, and my subsequent startin private practice, the very intimate relations which had existed betweenHolmes and myself became to some extent modified. He still came to mefrom time to time when he desired a companion in his investigations, butthese occasions grew more and more seldom, until I find that in the year1890 there were only three cases of which I retain any record. During thewinter of that year and the early spring of 1891, I saw in the papers thathe had been engaged by the French government upon a matter of supremeimportance, and I received two notes from Holmes, dated from Narbonneand from Nimes, from which I gathered that his stay in France was likelyto be a long one. It was with some surprise, therefore, that I saw him walkinto my consulting-room upon the evening of April 24th. It struck me thathe was looking even paler and thinner than usual."Yes, I have been using myself up rather too freely," he remarked, inanswer to my look rather than to my words; "I have been a little pressedof late. Have you any objection to my closing your shutters?"The only light in the room came from the lamp upon the table at whichI had been reading. Holmes edged his way round the wall, and, flingingthe shutters together, he bolted them securely."You are afraid of something?" I asked.[470] "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 ratherthan 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 cigaretteas if the soothing influence was grateful to him."I must apologize for calling so late," said he, "and I must further begyou to be so unconventional as to allow me to leave your house presentlyby 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 hisknuckles were burst and bleeding."It's not an airy nothing, you see," said he, smiling. "On the contrary, itis 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 comeaway 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'snature to take an aimless holiday, and something about his pale, wornface told me that his nerves were at their highest tension. He saw thequestion in my eyes, and, putting his finger-tips together and his elbowsupon his knees, he explained the situation."You have probably never heard of Professor Moriarty?" said he."Never.""Ay, there's the genius and the wonder of the thing!" he cried. "Theman pervades London, and no one has heard of him. That's what puts himon 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 feelthat 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 casesin which I have been of assistance to the royal family of Scandinavia, andto the French republic, have left me in such a position that I couldcontinue to live in the quiet fashion which is most congenial to me, and toconcentrate my attention upon my chemical researches. But I could notrest, Watson, I could not sit quiet in my chair, if I thought that such a manas 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 birthand excellent education, endowed by nature with a phenomenalmathematical faculty. At the age of twenty-one he wrote a treatise uponthe binomial theorem, which has had a European vogue. On the strengthof it he won the mathematical chair at one of our smaller universities, andhad, to all appearances, a most brilliant career before him. But the manhad hereditary tendencies of the most diabolical [471] kind. A criminalstrain ran in his blood, which, instead of being modified, was increasedand rendered infinitely more dangerous by his extraordinary mentalpowers. Dark rumours gathered round him in the university town, andeventually he was compelled to resign his chair and to come down toLondon, where he set up as an army coach. So much is known to theworld, 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 highercriminal world of London so well as I do. For years past I havecontinually been conscious of some power behind the malefactor, somedeep organizing power which forever stands in the way of the law, andthrows its shield over the wrong-doer. Again and again in cases of themost varying sorts-forgery cases, robberies, murders-I have felt thepresence of this force, and I have deduced its action in many of thoseundiscovered crimes in which I have not been personally consulted. Foryears I have endeavoured to break through the veil which shrouded it, andat last the time came when I seized my thread and followed it, until it ledme, after a thousand cunning windings, to ex-Professor Moriarty, ofmathematical celebrity."He is the Napoleon of crime, Watson. He is the organizer of half thatis 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 sitsmotionless, like a spider in the centre of its web, but that web has athousand radiations, and he knows well every quiver of each of them. Hedoes little himself. He only plans. But his agents are numerous andsplendidly 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 passedto the professor, the matter is organized and carried out. The agent may becaught. In that case money is found for his bail or his defence. But thecentral power which uses the agent is never caught-never so much assuspected. This was the organization which I deduced, Watson, and whichI devoted my whole energy to exposing and breaking up."But the professor was fenced round with safeguards so cunninglydevised that, do what I would, it seemed impossible to get evidence whichwould 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 lastmet an antagonist who was my intellectual equal. My horror at his crimeswas lost in my admiration at his skill. But at last he made a trip-only alittle, little trip-but it was more than he could afford, when I was so closeupon him. I had my chance, and, starting from that point, I have wovenmy net round him until now it is all ready to close. In three days-that is tosay, on Monday next-matters will be ripe, and the professor, with all theprincipal members of his gang, will be in the hands of the police. Thenwill come the greatest criminal trial of the century, the clearing up of overforty mysteries, and the rope for all of them; but if we move at allprematurely, you understand, they may slip out of our hands even at thelast moment."Now, if I could have done this without the knowledge of ProfessorMoriarty, all would have been well. But he was too wily for that. He sawevery step which I took to draw my toils round him. Again and again hestrove 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 wouldtake its place as the most brilliant bit of thrust-and-parry work in thehistory of detection. Never have I risen to such a height, and never have Ibeen so hard pressed by an opponent. He cut deep, and yet I just undercuthim. This morning the last steps were taken, and three days [472] onlywere wanted to complete the business. I was sitting in my room thinkingthe matter over when the door opened and Professor Moriarty stoodbefore me."My nerves are fairly proof, Watson, but I must confess to a start whenI saw the very man who had been so much in my thoughts standing thereon my threshold. His appearance was quite familiar to me. He isextremely tall and thin, his forehead domes out in a white curve, and histwo eyes are deeply sunken in his head. He is clean-shaven, pale, andascetic-looking, retaining something of the professor in his features. Hisshoulders are rounded from much study, and his face protrudes forwardand is forever slowly oscillating from side to side in a curiously reptilianfashion. He peered at me with great curiosity in his puckered eyes." 'You have less frontal development than I should have expected,'said he at last. 'It is a dangerous habit to finger loaded firearms in thepocket of one's dressing-gown.'"The fact is that upon his entrance I had instantly recognized theextreme personal danger in which I lay. The only conceivable escape forhim lay in silencing my tongue. In an instant I had slipped the revolverfrom 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. Hestill smiled and blinked, but there was something about his eyes whichmade 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 tosay.'" '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 thetable. But he merely drew out a memorandum-book in which he hadscribbled some dates." 'You crossed my path on the fourth of January,' said he. 'On thetwenty-third you incommoded me; by the middle of February I wasseriously inconvenienced by you; at the end of March I was absolutelyhampered in my plans; and now, at the close of April, I find myselfplaced in such a position through your continual persecution that I am inpositive danger of losing my liberty. The situation is becoming animpossible 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 willsee that there can be but one outcome to this affair. It is necessary thatyou should withdraw. You have worked things in such a fashion that wehave only one resource left. It has been an intellectual treat to me to seethe 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 anyextreme measure. You smile, sir, but I assure you that it really would.' " 'Danger is part of my trade,' I remarked." 'This is not danger,' said he. 'It is inevitable destruction. You stand inthe way not merely of an individual but of a mighty organization, the fullextent of [473] which you, with all your cleverness, have been unable torealize. You must stand clear, Mr. Holmes, or be trodden under foot.'" 'I am afraid,' said I, rising, 'that in the pleasure of this conversation Iam 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 Icould. I know every move of your game. You can do nothing beforeMonday. It has been a duel between you and me, Mr. Holmes. You hopeto place me in the dock. I tell you that I will never stand in the dock. Youhope to beat me. I tell you that you will never beat me. If you are cleverenough to bring destruction upon me, rest assured that I shall do as muchto you.'" 'You have paid me several compliments, Mr. Moriarty,' said I. 'Letme pay you one in return when I say that if I were assured of the formereventuality I would, in the interests of the public, cheerfully accept thelatter.'" 'I can promise you the one, but not the other,' he snarled, and soturned his rounded back upon me and went peering and blinking out ofthe room."That was my singular interview with Professor Moriarty. I confess thatit left an unpleasant effect upon my mind. His soft, precise fashion ofspeech leaves a conviction of sincerity which a mere bully could notproduce. Of course, you will say: 'Why not take police precautionsagainst him?' The reason is that I am well convinced that it is from his agents the blow would fall. I have the best of proofs that it would be so.""You have already been assaulted?""My dear Watson, Professor Moriarty is not a man who lets the grassgrow under his feet. I went out about midday to transact some business inOxford Street. As I passed the corner which leads from Bentinck Street onto the Welbeck Street crossing a two-horse van furiously driven whizzedround and was on me like a flash. I sprang for the foot-path and savedmyself by the fraction of a second. The van dashed round by MaryleboneLane 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 theroof of one of the houses and was shattered to fragments at my feet. Icalled the police and had the place examined. There were slates andbricks piled up on the roof preparatory to some repairs, and they wouldhave me believe that the wind had toppled over one of these. Of course Iknew better, but I could prove nothing. I took a cab after that and reachedmy brother's rooms in Pall Mall, where I spent the day. Now I have comeround 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 tellyou with the most absolute confidence that no possible connection willever be traced between the gentleman upon whose front teeth I havebarked my knuckles and the retiring mathematical coach, who is, Idaresay, working out problems upon a black-board ten miles away. Youwill not wonder, Watson, that my first act on entering your rooms was toclose your shutters, and that I have been compelled to ask yourpermission to leave the house by some less conspicuous exit than thefront door."I had often admired my friend's courage, but never more than now, ashe sat quietly checking off a series of incidents which must havecombined 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 planslaid, [474] and all will be well. Matters have gone so far now that they canmove without my help as far as the arrest goes, though my presence isnecessary for a conviction. It is obvious, therefore, that I cannot do betterthan get away for the few days which remain before the police are atliberty to act. It would be a great pleasure to me, therefore, if you couldcome on to the Continent with me.""The practice is quiet," said I, "and I have an accommodatingneighbour. I should be glad to come.""And to start to-morrow morning?""If necessary.""Oh, yes, it is most necessary. Then these are your instructions, and Ibeg, my dear Watson, that you will obey them to the letter, for you arenow playing a double-handed game with me against the cleverest rogueand the most powerful syndicate of criminals in Europe. Now listen! Youwill dispatch whatever luggage you intend to take by a trusty messengerunaddressed to Victoria to-night. In the morning you will send for ahansom, desiring your man to take neither the first nor the second whichmay 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 cabmanupon a slip of paper, with a request that he will not throw it away. Haveyour fare ready, and the instant that your cab stops, dash through theArcade, timing yourself to reach the other side at a quarter-past nine. Youwill find a small brougham waiting close to the curb, driven by a fellowwith a heavy black cloak tipped at the collar with red. Into this you willstep, 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 bereserved for us.""The carriage is our rendezvous, then?""Yes."It was in vain that I asked Holmes to remain for the evening. It wasevident to me that he thought he might bring trouble to the roof he wasunder, and that that was the motive which impelled him to go. With a fewhurried words as to our plans for the morrow he rose and came out withme into the garden, clambering over the wall which leads into MortimerStreet, and immediately whistling for a hansom, in which I heard himdrive away.In the morning I obeyed Holmes's injunctions to the letter. A hansomwas procured with such precautions as would prevent its being one whichwas placed ready for us, and I drove immediately after breakfast to theLowther Arcade, through which I hurried at the top of my speed. Abrougham was waiting with a very massive driver wrapped in a darkcloak, who, the instant that I had stepped in, whipped up the horse andrattled off to Victoria Station. On my alighting there he turned thecarriage, and dashed away again without so much as a look in mydirection.So far all had gone admirably. My luggage was waiting for me, and Ihad no difficulty in finding the carriage which Holmes had indicated, theless 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. Thestation clock marked only seven minutes from the time when we were dueto start. In vain I searched among the groups of travellers and leave-takersfor the lithe figure of my friend. There was no sign of him. I spent a fewminutes in assisting a venerable Italian priest, who was endeavouring tomake a porter understand, in his broken English, that his luggage [475]was to be booked through to Paris. Then, having taken another lookround, I returned to my carriage, where I found that the porter, in spite ofthe ticket, had given me my decrepit Italian friend as a travellingcompanion. It was useless for me to explain to him that his presence wasan intrusion, for my Italian was even more limited than his English, so Ishrugged my shoulders resignedly, and continued to look out anxiouslyfor my friend. A chill of fear had come over me, as I thought that hisabsence might mean that some blow had fallen during the night. Alreadythe doors had all been shut and the whistle blown, when- -"My dear Watson," said a voice, "you have not even condescended tosay good-morning."I turned in uncontrollable astonishment. The aged ecclesiastic hadturned his face towards me. For an instant the wrinkles were smoothedaway, the nose drew away from the chin, the lower lip ceased to protrudeand the mouth to mumble, the dull eyes regained their fire, the droopingfigure expanded. The next the whole frame collapsed again, and Holmeshad 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 tothink 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 wavinghis hand as if he desired to have the train stopped. It was too late,however, for we were rapidly gathering momentum, and an instant laterhad shot clear of the station."With all our precautions, you see that we have cut it rather fine," saidHolmes, laughing. He rose, and throwing off the black cassock and hatwhich had formed his disguise, he packed them away in a hand-bag."Have you seen the morning paper, Watson?""No.""You haven't seen about Baker Street, then?""Baker Street?""They set fire to our rooms last night. No great harm was done.""Good heavens, Holmes, this is intolerable!""They must have lost my track completely after their bludgeonman wasarrested. 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 couldnot 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 acase without taking a mercenary into your confidence. But we must planwhat we are to do about Moriarty now.""As this is an express, and as the boat runs in connection with it, Ishould think we have shaken him off very effectively.""My dear Watson, you evidently did not realize my meaning when Isaid that this man may be taken as being quite on the same intellectualplane as myself. [476] You do not imagine that if I were the pursuer Ishould 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 atleast 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 arrestedon his arrival.""It would be to ruin the work of three months. We should get the bigfish, but the smaller would dart right and left out of the net. On Mondaywe 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, andso over to Dieppe. Moriarty will again do what I should do. He will get onto Paris, mark down our luggage, and wait for two days at the depot. Inthe meantime we shall treat ourselves to a couple of carpet-bags,encourage the manufactures of the countries through which we travel, andmake our way at our leisure into Switzerland, via Luxembourg and Basle."At Canterbury, therefore, we alighted, only to find that we should haveto wait an hour before we could get a train to Newhaven.I was still looking rather ruefully after the rapidly disappearing luggagevan which contained my wardrobe, when Holmes pulled my sleeve andpointed up the line."Already, you see," said he.Far away, from among the Kentish woods there rose a thin spray ofsmoke. A minute later a carriage and engine could be seen flying alongthe open curve which leads to the station. We had hardly time to take ourplace 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 androck over the points. "There are limits, you see, to our friend'sintelligence. It would have been a coup-de-maître had he deduced what Iwould 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 murderousattack upon me. It is, however, a game at which two may play. Thequestion now is whether we should take a premature lunch here, or runour 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 Strasbourg. On the Mondaymorning Holmes had telegraphed to the London police, and in theevening 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 hasgiven [477] them the slip. Of course, when I had left the country there wasno one to cope with him. But I did think that I had put the game in theirhands. I think that you had better return to England, Watson.""Why?""Because you will find me a dangerous companion now. This man'soccupation is gone. He is lost if he returns to London. If I read hischaracter right he will devote his whole energies to revenging himselfupon 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 oldcampaigner as well as an old friend. We sat in the Strasbourg salle-àmanger arguing the question for half an hour, but the same night we hadresumed our journey and were well on our way to Geneva.For a charming week we wandered up the valley of the Rhone, andthen, branching off at Leuk, we made our way over the Gemmi Pass, stilldeep in snow, and so, by way of Interlaken, to Meiringen. It was a lovelytrip, the dainty green of the spring below, the virgin white of the winterabove; but it was clear to me that never for one instant did Holmes forgetthe shadow which lay across him. In the homely Alpine villages or in thelonely mountain passes, I could still tell by his quick glancing eyes andhis sharp scrutiny of every face that passed us, that he was well convincedthat, walk where we would, we could not walk ourselves clear of thedanger which was dogging our footsteps.Once, I remember, as we passed over the Gemmi, and walked along theborder of the melancholy Daubensee, a large rock which had beendislodged from the ridge upon our right clattered down and roared intothe 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 wasin vain that our guide assured him that a fall of stones was a commonchance in the springtime at that spot. He said nothing, but he smiled at mewith the air of a man who sees the fulfilment of that which he hadexpected.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 thatsociety was freed from Professor Moriarty he would cheerfully bring hisown career to a conclusion."I think that I may go so far as to say, Watson, that I have not livedwholly in vain," he remarked. "If my record were closed to-night I couldstill survey it with equanimity. The air of London is the sweeter for mypresence. In over a thousand cases I am not aware that I have ever usedmy powers upon the wrong side. Of late I have been tempted to look intothe problems furnished by nature rather than those more superficial onesfor which our artificial state of society is responsible. Your memoirs willdraw to an end, Watson, upon the day that I crown my career by thecapture or extinction of the most dangerous and capable criminal inEurope."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 amconscious that a duty devolves upon me to omit no detail.It was on the third of May that we reached the little village ofMeiringen, where we put up at the Englischer Hof, then kept by PeterSteiler the elder. Our landlord was an intelligent man and spoke excellentEnglish, having served for three [478] years as waiter at the GrosvenorHotel in London. At his advice, on the afternoon of the fourth we set offtogether, with the intention of crossing the hills and spending the night atthe hamlet of Rosenlaui. We had strict injunctions, however, on noaccount to pass the falls of Reichenbach, which are about halfway up thehills, 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 thesmoke from a burning house. The shaft into which the river hurls itself isan immense chasm, lined by glistening coal-black rock, and narrowinginto a creaming, boiling pit of incalculable depth, which brims over andshoots the stream onward over its jagged lip. The long sweep of greenwater roaring forever down, and the thick flickering curtain of sprayhissing forever upward, turn a man giddy with their constant whirl andclamour. We stood near the edge peering down at the gleam of thebreaking water far below us against the black rocks, and listening to thehalf-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 traveller has to return as he came. We hadturned to do so, when we saw a Swiss lad come running along it with aletter in his hand. It bore the mark of the hotel which we had just left andwas addressed to me by the landlord. It appeared that within a very fewminutes of our leaving, an English lady had arrived who was in the laststage of consumption. She had wintered at Davos Platz and wasjourneying now to join her friends at Lucerne, when a sudden hemorrhagehad 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, ifI would only return, etc. The good Steiler assured me in a postscript thathe would himself look upon my compliance as a very great favour, since the lady absolutely refused to see a Swiss physician, and he could not butfeel that he was incurring a great responsibility.The appeal was one which could not be ignored. It was impossible torefuse the request of a fellow-countrywoman dying in a strange land. YetI had my scruples about leaving Holmes. It was finally agreed, however,that he should retain the young Swiss messenger with him as guide andcompanion while I returned to Meiringen. My friend would stay somelittle time at the fall, he said, and would then walk slowly over the hill toRosenlaui, where I was to rejoin him in the evening. As I turned away Isaw Holmes, with his back against a rock and his arms folded, gazingdown at the rush of the waters. It was the last that I was ever destined tosee of him in this world.When I was near the bottom of the descent I looked back. It wasimpossible, from that position, to see the fall, but I could see the curvingpath which winds over the shoulder of the hills and leads to it. Along thisa man was, I remember, walking very rapidly.I could see his black figure clearly outlined against the green behindhim. I noted him, and the energy with which he walked, but he passedfrom my mind again as I hurried on upon my errand.It may have been a little over an hour before I reached Meiringen. OldSteiler 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 hiseyebrows my heart turned to lead in my breast. [479] "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 musthave been written by that tall Englishman who came in after you hadgone. He said- -"But I waited for none of the landlord's explanation. In a tingle of fear Iwas already running down the village street, and making for the pathwhich 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 ofReichenbach once more. There was Holmes's Alpine-stock still leaningagainst 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 voicereverberating in a rolling echo from the cliffs around me.It was the sight of that Alpine-stock which turned me cold and sick. Hehad 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 enemyhad overtaken him. The young Swiss had gone too. He had probably beenin the pay of Moriarty and had left the two men together. And then whathad 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 thehorror of the thing. Then I began to think of Holmes's own methods andto try to practise them in reading this tragedy. It was, alas, only too easyto 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 blackishsoil is kept forever soft by the incessant drift of spray, and a bird wouldleave its tread upon it. Two lines of footmarks were clearly marked alongthe farther end of the path, both leading away from me. There were nonereturning. A few yards from the end the soil was all ploughed up into apatch of mud, and the brambles and ferns which fringed the chasm weretorn and bedraggled. I lay upon my face and peered over with the sprayspouting up all around me. It had darkened since I left, and now I couldonly 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. Ishouted; but only that same half-human cry of the fall was borne back tomy ears.But it was destined that I should, after all, have a last word of greetingfrom my friend and comrade. I have said that his Alpine-stock had beenleft leaning against a rock which jutted on to the path. From the top of thisbowlder the gleam of something bright caught my eye, and raising myhand I found that it came from the silver cigarette-case which he used tocarry. As I took it up a small square of paper upon which it had lainfluttered down on to the ground. Unfolding it, I found that it consisted ofthree pages torn from his notebook and addressed to me. It wascharacteristic of the man that the direction was as precise, and the writingas 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 thosequestions which lie between us. He has been giving me a sketch ofthe methods by which he avoided the English police and kepthimself informed of our movements. They certainly confirm thevery high opinion which I had formed of his abilities. I am pleasedto think that I shall be able to free society from any further effectsof his presence, though I fear that it is at a cost which will givepain to my [480] friends, and especially, my dear Watson, to you. Ihave already explained to you, however, that my career had in anycase reached its crisis, and that no possible conclusion to it couldbe more congenial to me than this. Indeed, if I may make a fullconfession to you, I was quite convinced that the letter from Meiringen was a hoax, and I allowed you to depart on that errandunder the persuasion that some development of this sort wouldfollow. Tell Inspector Patterson that the papers which he needs toconvict the gang are in pigeonhole M., done up in a blue envelopeand inscribed "Moriarty." I made every disposition of my propertybefore leaving England and handed it to my brother Mycroft. Praygive my greetings to Mrs. Watson, and believe me to be, my dearfellow,Very sincerely yours,SHERLOCK HOLMES.A few words may suffice to tell the little that remains. An examination byexperts leaves little doubt that a personal contest between the two menended, as it could hardly fail to end in such a situation, in their reelingover, locked in each other's arms. Any attempt at recovering the bodieswas absolutely hopeless, and there, deep down in that dreadful cauldronof swirling water and seething foam, will lie for all time the mostdangerous criminal and the foremost champion of the law of theirgeneration. The Swiss youth was never found again, and there can be nodoubt that he was one of the numerous agents whom Moriarty kept in hisemploy. As to the gang, it will be within the memory of the public howcompletely the evidence which Holmes had accumulated exposed theirorganization, and how heavily the hand of the dead man weighed uponthem. 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 endeavoured to clearhis memory by attacks upon him whom I shall ever regard as the best andthe wisest man whom I have ever known.