than his English, so I shrugged my shoulders

  resignedly, and continued to look out anxiously for my

  friend. A chill of fear had come over me, as I

  thought that his absence might mean that some blow had

  fallen during the night. Already the doors had all

  been shut and the whistle blown, when--

  "My dear Watson," said a voice, "you have not even

  condescended to say good-morning."

  I turned in uncontrollable astonishment. The aged

  ecclesiastic had turned his face towards me. For an

  instant the wrinkles were smoothed away, the nose drew

  away from the chin, the lower lip ceased to protrude

  and the mouth to mumble, the dull eyes regained their

  fire, the drooping figure expanded. The next the

  whole frame collapsed again, and Holmes had gone as

  quickly as he had come.

  "Good heavens!" I cried; "how you startled me!"

  "Every precaution is still necessary," he whispered.

  "I have reason to think that they are hot upon our

  trail. Ah, there is Moriarty himself."

  The train had already begun to move as Holmes spoke.

  Glancing back, I saw a tall man pushing his way

  furiously through the crowd, and waving his hand as if

  he desired to have the train stopped. It was too

  late, however, for we were rapidly gathering momentum,

  and an instant later had shot clear of the station.

  "With all our precautions, you see that we have cut it

  rather fine," said Holmes, laughing. He rose, and

  throwing off the black cassock and hat which had

  formed his disguise, he packed them away in a

  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

  bludgeon-man was arrested. Otherwise they could not

  have imagined that I had returned to my rooms. They

  have evidently taken the precaution of watching you,

  however, and that is what has brought Moriarty to

  Victoria. You could not have made any slip in

  coming?"

  "I did exactly what you advised."

  "Did you find your brougham?"

  "Yes, it was waiting."

  "Did you recognize your coachman?"

  "No."

  "It was my brother Mycroft. It is an advantage to get

  about in such a case without taking a mercenary into

  your confidence. But we must plant 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 point. "There are

  limits, you see, to our friend's intelligence. It

  would have been a coup-de-ma?

  ?tre had he deduced what I

  would deduce and acted accordingly."

  "And what would he have done had he overtaken us?"

  "There cannot be the least doubt that he would have

  made a murderous attack upon me. It is, however, a

  game at which two may play. The question, now is

  whether we should take a premature lunch here, or run

  our chance of starving before we reach the buffet at

  Newhaven."

  We made our way to Brussels that night and spent two

  days there, moving on upon the third day as far as

  Strasburg. On the Monday morning Holmes had

  telegraphed to the London police, and in the evening

  we found a reply waiting for us at our hotel. Holmes

  tore it open, and then with a bitter curse hurled it

  into the grate.

  "I might have known it!" he groaned. "He has

  escaped!"

  "Moriarty?"

  "They have secured the whole gang with the exception

  of him. He has given them the slip. Of course, when

  I had left the country there was no one to cope with

  him. But I did think that I had put the game in their

  hands. I think that you had better return to England,

  Watson."

  "Why?"

  "Because you will find me a dangerous companion now.

  This man's occupation is gone. He is lost if he

  returns to London. If I read his character right he

  will devote his whole energies to revenging himself

  upon me. He said as much in our short interview, and

  I fancy that he meant it. I should certainly

  recommend you to return to your practice."

  It was hardly an appeal to be successful with one who

  was an old campaigner as well as an old friend. We

  sat in the Strasburg salle-??-manger arguing the

  question for half an hour, but the same night we had

 
resumed our journey and were well on our way to

  Geneva.

  For a charming week we wandered up the Valley of the

  Rhone, and then, branching off at Leuk, we made our

  way over the Gemmi Pass, still deep in snow, and so,

  by way of Interlaken, to Meiringen. It was a lovely

  trip, the dainty green of the spring below, the virgin

  white of the winter above; but it was clear to me that

  never for one instant did Holmes forget the shadow

  which lay across him. In the homely Alpine villages

  or in the lonely mountain passes, I could tell by his

  quick glancing eyes and his sharp scrutiny of every

  face that passed us, that he was well convinced that,

  walk where we would, we could not walk ourselves clear

  of the danger which was dogging our footsteps.

  Once, I remember, as we passed over the Gemmi, and

  walked along the border of the melancholy Daubensee, a

  large rock which had been dislodged from the ridge

  upon our right clattered down and roared into the lake

  behind us. In an instant Holmes had raced up on to

  the ridge, and, standing upon a lofty pinnacle, craned

  his neck in every direction. It was in vain that our

  guide assured him that a fall of stones was a common

  chance in the spring-time at that spot. He said

  nothing, but he smiled at me with the air of a man who

  sees the fulfillment of that which he had expected.

  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 3d of May that we reached the little

  village of Meiringen, where we put up at the

  Englischer Hof, then kept by Peter Steiler the elder.

  Our landlord was an intelligent man, and spoke

  excellent English, having served for three years as

  waiter at the Grosvenor Hotel in London. At his

  advice, on the afternoon of the 4th we set off

  together, with the intention of crossing the hills and

  spending the night at the hamlet of Rosenlaui. We had

  strict injunctions, however, on no account to pass the

  falls of Reichenbach, which are about half-way up the

  hill, without making a small detour to see them.

  It is indeed, a fearful place. The torrent, swollen

  by the melting snow, plunges into a tremendous abyss,

  from which the spray rolls up like the smoke from a

  burning house. The shaft into which the river hurls

  itself is a immense chasm, lined by glistening

  coal-black rock, and narrowing into a creaming,

  boiling pit of incalculable depth, which brims over

  and shoots the stream onward over its jagged lip. The

  long sweep of green water roaring forever down, and

  the thick flickering curtain of spray hissing forever

  upward, turn a man giddy with their constant whirl and

  clamor. We stood near the edge peering down at the

  gleam of the breaking water far below us against the

  black rocks, and listening to the half-human shout

  which cam booming up with the spray out of the abyss.

  The path has been cut half-way round the fall to

  afford a complete view, but it ends abruptly, and the

  traveler has to return as he came. We had turned to

  do so, when we saw a Swiss lad come running along it

  with a letter in his hand. It bore the mark of the

  hotel which we had just left, and was addressed to me

  by the landlord. It appeared that within a very few

  minutes of our leaving, and English lady had arrived

  who was in the last stage of consumption. She had

  wintered at Davos Platz, and was journeying now to

  join her friends at Lucerne, when a sudden hemorrhage

  had overtaken her. It was thought that she could

  hardly live a few hours, but it would be a great

  consolation to her to see an English doctor, and, if I

  would only return, etc. The good Steiler assured me

  in a postscript that he would himself look upon my

  compliance as a very great favor, since the lady

  absolutely refused to see a Swiss physician, and he

  could not but feel that he was incurring a great

  responsibility.

  The appeal was one which could not be ignored. It was

  impossible to refuse the request of a

  fellow-countrywoman dying in a strange land. Yet I

  had my scruples about leaving Holmes. It was finally

  agreed, however, that he should retain the young Swiss

  messenger with him as guide and companion while I

  returned to Meiringen. My friend would stay some

  little time at the fall, he said, and would then walk

  slowly over the hill to Rosenlaui, where I was to

  rejoin him in the evening. As I turned away I saw

  Holmes, with his back against a rock and his arms

  folded, gazing down at the rush of the waters. It was

  the last that I was ever destined to see of him in

  this world.

  When I was near the bottom of the descent I looked

  back. It was impossible, from that position, to see

  the fall, but I could see the curving path which winds

  over the shoulder of the hill and leads to it. Along

  this a man was, I remember, walking very rapidly.

  I could see his black figure clearly outlined against

  the green behind him. I noted him, and the energy wit

  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 ma
rk

  upon it! Ha, it must have been written by that tall

  Englishman who came in after you had gone. He said--"

  but I waited for none of the landlord's explanations.

  In a tingle of fear I was already running down the

  village street, and making for the path which I had so

  lately descended. It had taken me an hour to come

  down. For all my efforts two more had passed before I

  found myself at the fall of Reichenbach once more.

  There was Holmes's Alpine-stock still leaning against

  the rock by which I had left him. But there was no

  sign of him, and it was in vain that I shouted. My

  only answer was my own voice reverberating in a

  rolling echo from the cliffs around me.

  It was the sight of that Alpine-stock which turned me

  cold and sick. He had not gone to Rosenlaui, then.

  He had remained on that three-foot path, with sheer

  wall on one side and sheer drop on the other, until

  his enemy had overtaken him. The young Swiss had gone

  too. He had probably been in the pay of Moriarty, and

  had left the two men together. And then what had

  happened? Who was to tell us what had happened then?

  I stood for a minute or two to collect myself, for I

  was dazed with the horror of the thing. Then I began

  to think of Holmes's own methods and to try to

  practise them in reading this tragedy. It was, alas,

  only too easy to do. During our conversation we had

  not gone to the end of the path, and the Alpine-stock

  marked the place where we had stood. The blackish

  soil is kept forever soft by the incessant drift of

  spray, and a bird would leave its tread upon it. Two

  lines of footmarks were clearly marked along the

  farther end of the path, both leading away from me.

  There were none returning. A few yards from the end

  the soil was all ploughed up into a patch of mud, and

  the branches and ferns which fringed the chasm were

  torn and bedraggled. I lay upon my face and peered

  over with the spray spouting up all around me. It had

  darkened since I left, and now I could only see here

  and there the glistening of moisture upon the black

  walls, and far away down at the end of the shaft the

  gleam of the broken water. I shouted; but only the

  same half-human cry of the fall was borne back to my

  ears.

  But it was destined that I should after all have a

  last word of greeting from my friend and comrade. I

  have said that his Alpine-stock had been left leaning

  against a rock which jutted on to the path. From the

  top of this bowlder the gleam of something bright

  caught my eye, and, raising my hand, I found that it

  came from the silver cigarette-case which he used to

  carry. As I took it up a small square of paper upon

  which it had lain fluttered down on to the ground.

  Unfolding it, I found that it consisted of three pages

  torn from his note-book and addressed to me. It was

  characteristic of the man that the direction was a

  precise, and the writing as firm and clear, as though

  it had been written in his study.

  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