657 lines
50 KiB
Plaintext
657 lines
50 KiB
Plaintext
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1893
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SHERLOCK HOLMES
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THE FINAL PROBLEM
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by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
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It is with a heavy heart that I take up my pen to write these the
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last words in which I shall ever record the singular gifts by which my
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friend Mr. Sherlock Holmes was distinguished. In an incoherent and, as
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I deeply feel, an entirely inadequate fashion, I have endeavoured to
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give some account of my strange experiences in his company from the
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chance which first brought us together at the period of the 'Study
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in Scarlet,' up to the time of his interference in the matter of the
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'Naval Treaty'-an interference which had the unquestionable effect
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of preventing a serious international complication. It was my
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intention to have stopped there, and to have said nothing of that
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event which has created a void in my life which the lapse of two years
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has done little to fill. My hand has been forced, however, by the
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recent letters in which Colonel James Moriarty defends the memory of
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his brother, and I have no choice but to lay the facts before the
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public exactly as they occurred. I alone know the absolute truth of
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the matter, and I am satisfied that the time has come when no good
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purpose is to be served by its suppression. As far as I know, there
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have been only three accounts in the public press: that in the Journal
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de Geneve on May 6th, 1891, the Reuter's dispatch in the English
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papers on May 7th, and finally the recent letters to which I have
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alluded. Of these the first and second were extremely condensed, while
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the last is, as I shall now show, an absolute perversion of the facts.
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It lies with me to tell for the first time what really took place
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between Professor Moriarty and Mr. Sherlock Holmes.
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It may be remembered that after my marriage, and my subsequent start
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in private practice, the very intimate relations which had existed
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between Holmes and myself became to some extent modified. He still
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came to me from time to time when he desired a companion in his
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investigations, but these occasions grew more and more seldom, until I
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find that in the year 1890 there were only three cases of which I
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retain any record. During the winter of that year and the early spring
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of 1891, I saw in the papers that he had been engaged by the French
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government upon a matter of supreme importance, and I received two
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notes from Holmes, dated from Narbonne and from Nimes, from which I
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gathered that his stay in France was likely to be a long one. It was
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with some surprise, therefore, that I saw him walk into my
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consulting-room upon the evening of April 24th. It struck me that he
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was looking even paler and thinner than usual.
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"Yes, I have been using myself up rather too freely," he remarked,
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in answer to my look rather than to my words; "I have been a little
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pressed of late. Have you any objection to my closing your shutters?"
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The only light in the room came from the lamp upon the table at
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which I had been reading. Holmes edged his way round the wall, and,
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flinging the shutters together, he bolted them securely.
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"You are afraid of something?" I asked.
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"Well, I am."
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"Of what?"
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"Of air-guns."
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"My dear Holmes, what do you mean?"
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"I think that you know me well enough, Watson, to understand that
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I am by no means a nervous man. At the same time, it is stupidity
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rather than courage to refuse to recognize danger when it is close
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upon you. Might I trouble you for a match?" He drew in the smoke of
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his cigarette as if the soothing influence was grateful to him.
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"I must apologize for calling so late," said he, "and I must further
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beg you to be so unconventional as to allow me to leave your house
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presently by scrambling over your back garden wall."
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"But what does it all mean?" I asked.
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He held out his hand, and I saw in the light of the lamp that two of
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his knuckles were burst and bleeding.
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"It's not an airy nothing, you see," said he, smiling. "On the
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contrary, it is solid enough for a man to break his hand over. Is Mrs.
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Watson in?"
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"She is away upon a visit."
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"Indeed You are alone?"
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"Quite."
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"Then it makes it the easier for me to propose that you should
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come away with me for a week to the Continent."
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"Where?"
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"Oh, anywhere. It's all the same to me."
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There was something very strange in all this. It was not Holmes's
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nature to take an aimless holiday, and something about his pale,
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worn face told me that his nerves were at their highest tension. He
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saw the question in my eyes, and, putting his finger-tips together and
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his elbows upon his knees, he explained the situation.
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"You have probably never heard of Professor Moriarty?" said he.
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"Never."
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"Ay, there's the genius and the wonder of the thing" he cried.
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"The man pervades London, and no one has heard of him. That's what
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puts him on a pinnacle in the records of crime. I tell you Watson,
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in all seriousness, that if I could beat that man, if I could free
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society of him, I should feel that my own career had reached its
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summit, and I should be prepared to turn to some more placid line in
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life. Between ourselves, the recent cases in which I have been of
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assistance to the royal family of Scandinavia, and to the French
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republic, have left me in such a position that I could continue to
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live in the quiet fashion which is most congenial to me, and to
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concentrate my attention upon my chemical researches. But I could
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not rest, Watson, I could not sit quiet in my chair, if I thought that
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such a man as Professor Moriarty were walking the streets of London
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unchallenged."
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"What has he done, then?"
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"His career has been an extraordinary one. He is a man of good birth
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and excellent education, endowed by nature with a phenomenal
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mathematical faculty. At the age of twenty-one he wrote a treatise
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upon the binomial theorem, which has had a European vogue. On the
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strength of it he won the mathematical chair at one of our smaller
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universities, and had, to all appearances, a most brilliant career
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before him. But the man had hereditary tendencies of the most
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diabolical kind. A criminal strain ran in his blood, which, instead of
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being modified, was increased and rendered infinitely more dangerous
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by his extraordinary mental powers. Dark rumours gathered round him in
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the university town, and eventually he was compelled to resign his
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chair and to come down to London, where he set up as an army coach. So
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much is known to the world, but what I am telling you now is what I
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have myself discovered.
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"As you are aware, Watson, there is no one who knows the higher
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criminal world of London so well as I do. For years past I have
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continually been conscious of some power behind the malefactor, some
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deep organizing power which forever stands in the way of the law,
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and throws its shield over the wrong-doer. Again and again in cases of
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the most varying sorts-forgery cases, robberies, murders-I have felt
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the presence of this force, and I have deduced its action in many of
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those undiscovered crimes in which I have not been personally
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consulted. For years I have endeavoured to break through the veil
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which shrouded it, and at last the time came when I seized my thread
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and followed it, until it led me, after a thousand cunning windings,
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to ex-Professor Moriarty, of mathematical celebrity.
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"He is the Napoleon of crime, Watson. He is the organizer of half
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that is evil and of nearly all that is undetected in this great
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city. He is a genius, a philosopher, an abstract thinker. He has a
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brain of the first order. He sits motionless, like a spider in the
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centre of its web, but that web has a thousand radiations, and he
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knows well every quiver of each of them. He does little himself He
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only plans. But his agents are numerous and splendidly organized. Is
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there a crime to be done a paper to be abstracted, we will say, a
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house to be rifled, a man to be removed the word is passed to the
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professor, the matter is organized and carried out. The agent may be
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caught. In that case money is found for his bail or his defence. But
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the central power which uses the agent is never caught-never so much
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as suspected. This was the organization which I deduced, Watson, and
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which I devoted my whole energy to exposing and breaking up.
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"But the professor was fenced round with safeguards so cunningly
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devised that, do what I would, it seemed impossible to get evidence
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which would convict in a court of law. You know my powers, my dear
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Watson, and yet at the end of three months I was forced to confess
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that I had at last met an antagonist who was my intellectual equal. My
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horror at his crimes was lost in my admiration at his skill. But at
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last he made a trip-only a little, little trip-but it was more than he
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could afford, when I was so close upon him. I had my chance, and,
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starting from that point, I have woven my net round him until now it
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is all ready to close. In three days-that is to say, on Monday
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next-matters will be ripe, and the professor, with all the principal
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members of his gang, will be in the hands of the police. Then will
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come the greatest criminal trial of the century, the clearing up of
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over forty mysteries, and the rope for all of them; but if we move
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at all prematurely, you understand, they may slip out of our hands
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even at the last moment.
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"Now, if I could have done this without the knowledge of Professor
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Moriarty, all would have been well. But he was too wily for that. He
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saw every step which I took to draw my toils round him. Again and
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again he strove to break away, but I as often headed him off. I tell
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you, my friend, that if a detailed account of that silent contest
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could be written, it would take its place as the most brilliant bit of
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thrust-and-parry work in the history of detection. Never have I
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risen to such a height, and never have I been so hard pressed by an
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opponent. He cut deep, and yet I just undercut him. This morning the
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last steps were taken, and three days only were wanted to complete the
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business. I was sitting in my room thinking the matter over when the
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door opened and Professor Moriarty stood before me.
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"My nerves are fairly proof, Watson, but I must confess to a start
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when I saw the very man who had been so much in my thoughts standing
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there on my threshold. His appearance was quite familiar to me. He
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is extremely tall and thin, his forehead domes out in a white curve,
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and his two eyes are deeply sunken in his head. He is clean-shaven,
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pale, and ascetic-looking, retaining something of the professor in his
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features. His shoulders are rounded from much study, and his face
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protrudes forward and is forever slowly oscillating from side to
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side in a curiously reptilian fashion. He peered at me with great
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curiosity in his puckered eyes.
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"'You have less frontal development than I should have expected,'
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said he at last. 'It is a dangerous habit to finger loaded firearms in
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the pocket of one's dressing-gown.'
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"The fact is that upon his entrance I had instantly recognized the
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extreme personal danger in which I lay. The only conceivable escape
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for him lay in silencing my tongue. In an instant I had slipped the
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revolver from the drawer into my pocket and was covering him through
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the cloth. At his remark I drew the weapon out and laid it cocked upon
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the table. He still smiled and blinked, but there was something
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about his eyes which made me feel very glad that I had it there.
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"'You evidently don't know me,' said he.
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"'On the contrary,' I answered, 'I think it is fairly evident that I
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do. Pray take a chair. I can spare you five minutes if you have
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anything to say.'
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"'All that I have to say has already crossed your mind,' said he.
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"'Then possibly my answer has crossed yours,' I replied.
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"'You stand fast?'
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"'Absolutely.'
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"He clapped his hand into his pocket, and I raised the pistol from
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the table. But he merely drew out a memorandum-book in which he had
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scribbled some dates.
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"'You crossed my path on the fourth of January,' said he. 'On the
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twenty-third you incommoded me; by the middle of February I was
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seriously inconvenienced by you; at the end of March I was
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absolutely hampered in my plans; and now, at the close of April, I
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find myself placed in such a position through your continual
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persecution that I am in positive danger of losing my liberty. The
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situation is becoming an impossible one.'
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"'Have you any suggestion to make?' I asked.
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"'You must drop it, Mr. Holmes,' said he, swaying his face about.
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'You really must, you know.'
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"'After Monday,' said I.
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"'Tut, tut!' said he. 'I am quite sure that a man of your
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intelligence will see that there can be but one outcome to this
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affair. It is necessary that you should withdraw. You have worked
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things in such a fashion that we have only one resource left. It has
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been an intellectual treat to me to see the way in which you have
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grappled with this affair, and I say, unaffectedly, that it would be a
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grief to me to be forced to take any extreme measure. You smile,
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sir, but I assure you that it really would.'
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"'Danger is part of my trade,' I remarked.
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"This is not danger,' said he. 'It is inevitable destruction. You
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stand in the way not merely of an individual but of a mighty
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organization, the full extent of which you, with all your
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cleverness, have been unable to realize. You must stand clear, Mr.
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Holmes, or be trodden under foot.'
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"'I am afraid,' said I, rising, 'that in the pleasure of this
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conversation I am neglecting business of importance which awaits me
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elsewhere.'
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"He rose also and looked at me in silence, shaking his head sadly.
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"'Well, well,' said he at last. 'It seems a pity, but I have done
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what I could. I know every move of your game. You can do nothing
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before Monday. It has been a duel between you and me, Mr. Holmes.
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You hope to place me in the dock. I tell you that I will never stand
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in the dock. You hope to beat me. I tell you that you will never
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beat me. If you are clever enough to bring destruction upon me, rest
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assured that I shall do as much to you.'
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"'You have paid me several compliments, Mr. Moriarty,' said I.
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'Let me pay you one in return when I say that if I were assured of the
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former eventuality I would, in the interests of the public, cheerfully
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accept the latter.'
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"'I can promise you the one, but not the other,' he snarled, and
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so turned his rounded back upon me and went peering and blinking out
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of the room.
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"That was my singular interview with Professor Moriarty. I confess
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that it left an unpleasant effect upon my mind. His soft, precise
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fashion of speech leaves a conviction of sincerity which a mere
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bully could not produce. Of course, you will say: 'Why not take police
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precautions against him?' The reason is that I am well convinced
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that it is from his agents the blow would fall. I have the best of
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proofs that it would be so."
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"You have already been assaulted?"
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"My dear Watson, Professor Moriarty is not a man who lets the
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grass grow under his feet. I went out about midday to transact some
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business in Oxford Street. As I passed the corner which leads from
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Bentinck Street on to the Welbeck Street crossing a two-horse van
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furiously driven whizzed round and was on me like a flash. I sprang
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for the foot-path and saved myself by the fraction of a second. The
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van dashed round by Marylebone Lane and was gone in an instant. I kept
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to the pavement after that, Watson, but as I walked down Vere Street a
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brick came down from the roof of one of the houses and was shattered
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to fragments at my feet. I called the police and had the place
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examined. There were slates and bricks piled up on the roof
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preparatory to some repairs, and they would have me believe that the
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wind had toppled over one of these. Of course I knew better, but I
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could prove nothing. I took a cab after that and reached my
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brother's rooms in Pall Mall, where I spent the day. Now I have come
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round to you, and on my way I was attacked by a rough with a bludgeon.
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I knocked him down, and the police have him in custody; but I can tell
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you with the most absolute confidence that no possible connection will
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ever be traced between the gentleman upon whose front teeth I have
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barked my knuckles and the retiring mathematical coach, who is, I
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daresay, working out problems upon a black-board ten miles away. You
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will not wonder, Watson, that my first act on entering your rooms
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was to close your shutters, and that I have been compelled to ask your
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permission to leave the house by some less conspicuous exit than the
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front door."
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I had often admired my friend's courage, but never more than now, as
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he sat quietly checking off a series of incidents which must have
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combined to make up a day of horror.
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"You will spend the night here?" I said.
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"No, my friend, you might find me a dangerous guest. I have my plans
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laid, and all will be well. Matters have gone so far now that they can
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move without my help as far as the arrest goes, though my presence
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is necessary for a conviction. It is obvious, therefore, that I cannot
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do better than get away for the few days which remain before the
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police are at liberty to act. It would be a great pleasure to me,
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therefore, if you could come on to the Continent with me."
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"The practice is quiet," said I, "and I have an accommodating
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neighbour. I should be glad to come."
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"And to start to-morrow morning?"
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"If necessary."
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"Oh, yes, it is most necessary. Then these are your instructions,
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and I beg, my dear Watson, that you will obey them to the letter,
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for you are now playing a double-handed game with me against the
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cleverest rogue and the most powerful syndicate of criminals in
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Europe. Now listen! You will dispatch whatever luggage you intend to
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take by a trusty messenger unaddressed to Victoria to-night. In the
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morning you will send for a hansom, desiring your man to take
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neither the first nor the second which may present itself. Into this
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hansom you will jump, and you will drive to the Strand end of the
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Lowther Arcade, handing the address to the cabman upon a slip of
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paper, with a request that he will not throw it away. Have your fare
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ready, and the instant that your cab stops, dash through the Arcade,
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timing yourself to reach the other side at a quarter-past nine. You
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will find a small brougham waiting close to the curb, driven by a
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fellow with a heavy black cloak tipped at the collar with red. Into
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this you will step, and you will reach Victoria in time for the
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Continental express."
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"Where shall I meet you?"
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"At the station. The second first-class carriage from the front will
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be reserved for us."
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"The carriage is our rendezvous, then?"
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"Yes."
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It was in vain that I asked Holmes to remain for the evening. It was
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evident to me that he thought he might bring trouble to the roof he
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was under, and that that was the motive which impelled him to go. With
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a few hurried words as to our plans for the morrow he rose and came
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out with me into the garden, clambering over the wall which leads into
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Mortimer Street, and immediately whistling for a hansom, in which I
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heard him drive away.
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In the morning I obeyed Holmes's injunctions to the letter. A hansom
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was procured with such precautions as would prevent its being one
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which was placed ready for us, and I drove immediately after breakfast
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to the Lowther Arcade, through which I hurried at the top of my speed.
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A brougham was waiting with a very massive driver wrapped in a dark
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cloak, who, the instant that I had stepped in, whipped up the horse
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and rattled off to Victoria Station. On my alighting there he turned
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the carriage, and dashed away again without so much as a look in my
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direction.
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So far all had gone admirably. My luggage was waiting for me, and
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I had no difficulty in finding the carriage which Holmes had
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indicated, the less so as it was the only one in the train which was
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marked "Engaged." My only source of anxiety now was the non-appearance
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of Holmes. The station clock marked only seven minutes from the time
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when we were due to start. In vain I searched among the groups of
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travellers and leave-takers for the lithe figure of my friend. There
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was no sign of him. I spent a few minutes in assisting a venerable
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Italian priest, who was endeavouring to make a porter understand, in
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his broken English, that his luggage was to be booked through to
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Paris. Then, having taken another look round, I returned to my
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carriage, where I found that the porter, in spite of the ticket, had
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given me my decrepit Italian friend as a travelling companion. It
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was useless for me to explain to him that his presence was an
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intrusion, for my Italian was even more limited than his English, so I
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shrugged my shoulders resignedly, and continued to look out
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anxiously for my friend. A chill of fear had come over me, as I
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thought that his absence might mean that some blow had fallen during
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the night. Already the doors had all been shut and the whistle
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blown, when-
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"My dear Watson," said a voice, "you have not even condescended to
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say good-morning.'
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I turned in uncontrollable astonishment. The aged ecclesiastic had
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turned his face towards me. For an instant the wrinkles were
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smoothed away, the nose drew away from the chin, the lower lip
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ceased to protrude and the mouth to mumble, the dull eyes regained
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their fire, the drooping figure expanded. The next the whole frame
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collapsed again, and Holmes had gone as quickly as he had come.
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"Good heavens!" I cried, "how you startled me!"
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"Every precaution is still necessary," he whispered. "I have
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reason to think that they are hot upon our trail. Ah, there is
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Moriarty himself."
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The train had already begun to move as Holmes spoke. Glancing
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back, I saw a tall man pushing his way furiously through the crowd,
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and waving his hand as if he desired to have the train stopped. It was
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too late, however, for we were rapidly gathering momentum, and an
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instant later had shot clear of the station.
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"With all our precautions, you see that we have cut it rather fine,"
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said Holmes, laughing. He rose, and throwing off the black cassock and
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hat which had formed his disguise, he packed them away in a hand-bag.
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"Have you seen the morning paper, Watson?"
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"No."
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"You haven't seen about Baker Street, then?"
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"Baker Street?"
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"They set fire to our rooms last night. No great harm was done."
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"Good heavens, Holmes, this is intolerable!"
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"They must have lost my track completely after their bludgeonman was
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arrested. Otherwise they could not have imagined that I had returned
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to my rooms. They have evidently taken the precaution of watching you,
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however, and that is what has brought Moriarty to Victoria. You
|
|
could not have made any slip in coming?"
|
|
"I did exactly what you advised."
|
|
"Did you find your brougham?"
|
|
"Yes, it was waiting."
|
|
"Did you recognize your coachman?"
|
|
"No."
|
|
"It was my brother Mycroft. It is an advantage to get about in
|
|
such a case without taking a mercenary into your confidence. But we
|
|
must plan what we are to do about Moriarty now."
|
|
"As this is an express, and as the boat runs in connection with
|
|
it, I should think we have shaken him off very effectively."
|
|
"My dear Watson, you evidently did not realize my meaning when I
|
|
said that this man may be taken as being quite on the same
|
|
intellectual plane as myself. You do not imagine that if I were the
|
|
pursuer I should allow myself to be baffled by so slight an
|
|
obstacle. Why, then, should you think so meanly of him?"
|
|
"What will he do?"
|
|
"What I should do."
|
|
"What would you do, then?"
|
|
"Engage a special."
|
|
"But it must be late."
|
|
"By no means. This train stops at Canterbury; and there is always at
|
|
least a quarter of an hour's delay at the boat. He will catch us
|
|
there."
|
|
"One would think that we were the criminals. Let us have him
|
|
arrested on his arrival."
|
|
"It would be to ruin the work of three months. We should get the big
|
|
fish, but the smaller would dart right and left out of the net. On
|
|
Monday we should have them all. No, an arrest is inadmissible."
|
|
"What then?"
|
|
"We shall get out at Canterbury."
|
|
"And then?"
|
|
"Well, then we must make a cross-country journey to Newhaven, and so
|
|
over to Dieppe. Moriarty will again do what I should do. He will get
|
|
on to Paris, mark down our luggage, and wait for two days at the
|
|
depot. In the meantime we shall treat ourselves to a couple of
|
|
carpet-bags, encourage the manufactures of the countries through which
|
|
we travel, and make our way at our leisure into Switzerland, via
|
|
Luxembourg and Basle."
|
|
At Canterbury, therefore, we alighted, only to find that we should
|
|
have to wait an hour before we could get a train to Newhaven.
|
|
I was still looking rather ruefully after the rapidly disappearing
|
|
luggage-van which contained my wardrobe, when Holmes pulled my
|
|
sleeve and pointed up the line.
|
|
"Already, you see," said he.
|
|
Far away, from among the Kentish woods there rose a thin spray of
|
|
smoke. A minute later a carriage and engine could be seen flying along
|
|
the open curve which leads to the station. We had hardly time to
|
|
take our place behind a pile of luggage when it passed with a rattle
|
|
and a roar, beating a blast of hot air into our faces.
|
|
"There he goes," said Holmes, as we watched the carriage swing and
|
|
rock over the points. "There are limits, you see, to our friend's
|
|
intelligence. It would have been a coup-mattre 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 Strasbourg. 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 Strasbourg
|
|
salle-a-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 still
|
|
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 to-night
|
|
I could still survey it with equanimity. The air of London is the
|
|
sweeter for my presence. In over a thousand cases I am not aware
|
|
that I have ever used my powers upon the wrong side. Of late I have
|
|
been tempted to look into the problems furnished by nature rather than
|
|
those more superficial ones for which our artificial state of
|
|
society is responsible. Your memoirs will draw to an end, Watson, upon
|
|
the day that I crown my career by the capture or extinction of the
|
|
most dangerous and capable criminal in Europe."
|
|
I shall be brief, and yet exact, in the little which remains for
|
|
me to tell. It is not a subject on which I would willingly dwell,
|
|
and yet I am conscious that a duty devolves upon me to omit no detail.
|
|
It was on the third 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
|
|
fourth 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 hills, without making a
|
|
small detour to see them.
|
|
It is, indeed, a fearful place. The torrent, swollen 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 clamour. 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 traveller 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 favour, 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 hills 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 explanation. In a tingle
|
|
of fear I was already running down the village street, and making
|
|
for the path which I had so lately descended. It had taken me an
|
|
hour to come down. For all my efforts two more had passed before I
|
|
found myself at the fall of Reichenbach once more. There was
|
|
Holmes's Alpine-stock still leaning against the rock by which I had
|
|
left him. But there was no sign of him, and it was in vain that I
|
|
shouted. My only answer was my own voice reverberating in a rolling
|
|
echo from the cliffs around me.
|
|
It was the sight of that Alpine-stock which turned me cold and sick.
|
|
He had not gone to Rosenlaui, then. He had remained on that three-foot
|
|
path, with sheer wall on one side and sheer drop on the other, until
|
|
his enemy had overtaken him. The young Swiss had gone too. He had
|
|
probably been in the pay of Moriarty and had left the two men
|
|
together. And then what had happened? Who was to tell us what had
|
|
happened then?
|
|
I stood for a minute or two to collect myself, for I was dazed
|
|
with the horror of the thing. Then I began to think of Holmes's own
|
|
methods and to try to practise them in reading this tragedy. It was,
|
|
alas, only too easy to do. During our conversation we had not gone
|
|
to the end of the path, and the Alpine-stock marked the place where we
|
|
had stood. The blackish soil is kept forever soft by the incessant
|
|
drift of spray, and a bird would leave its tread upon it. Two lines of
|
|
footmarks were clearly marked along the farther end of the path,
|
|
both leading away from me. There were none returning. A few yards from
|
|
the end the soil was all ploughed up into a patch of mud, and the
|
|
brambles 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 that 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 as 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 cauldron 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 endeavoured 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.
|
|
|
|
THE END
|