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ADVENTURE XV. It is with a heavy heart that I take jTup my pen to write these the last & words in which I shall ever record the y& singular gifts by which my friend Mr. gk* Sherlock Holmes was distinguished. 4* In an incoherent and, as I deeply feel, an entirely inadequate fashion, I have it endeaverode to give some account of v{ my strange experiences in his company IX from the chance which first brought us s* together at the period of the "Study in Scarlet," up to the time of his in terference in the matter of the "Naval Treaty"an interference which had _, the unquestionable effect of preventing 3 a serious international complication. It was my intention to have stopped I there, and to have said nothing of that eveWt which has created a void in my life which the lapse of two years has done little to fill. My hand has been forced, however, by the recent letters in which Colonel James Moriarty de fends the memory of his brother, and I have no choice but to lay the facts before the public exactly as they oc curred. I alone know the absolute truth of the matter, and I am satisfied that the time has come when no good purpose is to be served by its suppres sion. As far as I know, there have been only three accounts in the public press: that in the Journal de Geneve on May 6th, 1891, the Beuter's dis patch in the English papers on May 7, and finally the recent letters to which I have alluded. Of these the first and second were extremely condensed, while the last is, as I shall now show, an ab solute perversion of the facts. It lies with me to tell for the first time what really took place between Professor Moriarty and Mr. Sherlock Holmes. It may be remembered that after my marriage, and my subsequent start in private practice, the very intimate re lations which had existed between Holmes and myself became to some ex tent modified. He still came to me from time to time when he desired a companion in his investigations, but these occasions grew more and more seldom, until I find that in the year |890 there were only three cases of ^hich I retain any record. During the winter of that year and the early spring of 1891, I saw in the papers that he had been engaged by the French gov ernmert upon a matter of supreme im ortance, and I received two notes rom Holmes, dated from Narbonn nd from Nimes, from which I gath red that his stay in France was likely [0 be a long one. It was with some jurpriso, therefore, that I saw him alk into my consulting-room upon the yening of April 24. It struck me that was looking even paler and thinner han usual. Yes, I have been using myself up jather too freely," he remarked, in Answer to my look rather than to my words I have been a little pressed of late. Have you any objection to my ^losing your shutters?" s| The only light in the room came from the lamp upon the table at which I |ad been reading. Holmes edged his fray round the wall, and flinging the gutters together, he bolted them se lurely. The Final Problem. "You are afraid of something?" I sked. "Well, I am." "Of what?" "Of air-gun's." "My dear Holmes, what do vou ean?" I think that you know me well enough, Watson, to understand that I by no means a nervous man At the same time, it is stupidity rather than courage to refuse to recognize |anger when it is close upon you #ight I trouble you for a |iatch?" He drew in the smoke of Ills cigarette as if the soothing influ ence was grateful to him. "I.must apologize for calling so %te," said he "and I must further Seg you to be so unconventional as to low me to leave your house presently ^scrambling over your back garden "Tall." 'But what does it all, mean?" I sked. He held out his hand, and I saw in .ie light of the lamp that two of his ttnukles were burst and bleeding. ^"It's not an airy nothing, you see," said he, smiling. "On the contrary, i is solid enough for a man to break "s hand over. Is Mrs. Watson in?" 'She is away upon a visit." ?"Indeed! You are alone?" Quite." I*'Then it makes it the easier for me tk propose that you should come away nfith me for a week to the continent Where?" I"Oh, anywhere. It's all the same i me." There was something very strange in a|l this. It was not Holmes' nature to take an aimless holiday, and something about his pale, worn face told me that Jus nerves were at their highest ten sion* He saw the question in my eyes, and, putting his finger tips together and his elbows upon his knees, he ex iained the situation. ^"You have probably never heard of rofessor Moriarty?" said he. Never." |f'Aye, there's the genius and the 1 -winder of the thing!" he cried. "The *^|&n pervades London, and no one has visard of him. That's what puts him oil a pinnacle in the records of crime. -tell you, Watson, in all seriousness, tl tat if I could beat that man, if I c|uld free society of him, I should felel that my own career had reached itj& summit, and I should be prepared tq* turn to some more placid line in life. Between ourselves, the recent causes in which I have been of assist aice to the royal family of Scandina I left me in such a position that I could continue to live in the quiet fashion which is most congenial to me, and to concentrate my attention upon my chemical researches. But I could not rest, Watson, I could not sit quiet in my chair, if I thought that such a man as Professor Moriarty were walk ing the streets of London unchal lenged. "What has he done, then?" "His career has been an extraordi nary one. He is a man of good birth and excellent education, endowed by nature with a phenomenal mathemat ical faculty. At the age of twenty-one he wrote a treatise upon the Binomial Theorem which has had a European vogue. On the strength of it he won the mathematical chair at one of our smaller universities, and had, to all appearances, a most brilliant career be fore him. But the man-had hereditary tendencies of the most diabolical kind. A criminal strain ran in his blood, which, instead of being modified, was increased and rendered infinitely more dangerous by his extraordinary mental powers. Dark rumors gathered round him in the university town, and eventu ally he was compelled to resign his chair and to come down to London, where he set up as an army coach. So much is known to the world, but what I am telling you now is what I have myself discovered. "As you are aware, Watson, there is no one who knows the higher crimi nal world of London so well as I do. For years past I have continually been conscious of some power behind the malefactor, some deep organizing power which forever stands in the way of the law that throws its shield over the wrongdoer. Again and again in cases of the most varying sortsforgery cases, robberies, murdersI have felt the presence of this force, and I have deduced its action in many of those undiscovered crimes in which I have not been personally consulted. For years I have endeavored to break thru the veil which shrouded it, and at last the time came when I seized my thread and followed it, until it\ led me, after a thou sand cunning windings, to ex-Professor Moriarty of mathematical celebrity. "He is the Napoleon of crime, Wat son.. He is the organizer of half that is evil and of nearly all that is undetected in this great city. He is a genius, a philosopher, an abstract thinker. He has a brain of the first order. He sits motionless, like a spider in the center of its web, but that web has a thousand radiations, and he knows well every quiver of each of them. He does little himself. He only plans. But his agents are numerous and splendidly organized. Is there a crime to be done, a paper to be abstracted, we will say, a house to be rifled, a man to be removedthe word is passed to the professor, the matter'is organized and carried out. The agent may be caught. In that case money is found for his bail or his de fense. But the central power which uses the agent is never caughtnever so much as suspected. This was the organization which I deduced, Watson, and which I devoted my whole energy to exposing and breaking up. But the professor was fenced round with safeguards so cunningly .devised that, do what I would, it seemed impos sible to get evidence which would con vict in a court of law. You know my powers, my dear Watson, and yet at the end of three months I was forced to confess that I had at last met an an tagonist who was my intellectual equal. My horror at his crimes was lost in my admiration at his skill. But at last he made a triponly a little, little trip but it was more than he could afford, when I was so close upon him. I had my chance, and, starting from that point, I have woven my net round him until now it is all ready to close. In three daysthat is to say, on Monday nextmatters will be ripe, and the pro fessor, with all the principal members of his gang, will be in the hands of the police. Then will come the greatest criminal trial of the century, the clear ing up of over forty mysteries, and the rope for all of them but if we move at all prematurely, you understand, they may slip out of our hands even at the last moment. Now, if I could have done this with out the knowledge of Professor Moriar ty, all would have been well. But he was too wily for that. He saw every step which I took to draw my toils round him. Again and again he strove to break away, but I as often headed him off. I tell you, my friend, that if a detailed account of that silent contest could be written, it would take its place as the most brilliant bit of thrust-and parry work in the history of detection. Never have I risen to such a height, and never have I been so hard pressed by an opponent. He cut fieep, and yet I just undercut him. This morning the last steps were taken, and three days only were wanted to complete the busi ness. I was sitting in my room think ing the matter over, when the door opened and Professor Moriarty stood before me. My nerves are fairly proof, Watson, but I must confess to a start when I saw the very man who had been so much in my thoughts standing there on my threshold. His appearance was quite familiar to me. He is extremely tall and thin, his forehead domes out in a white curve, and his two eyes are deeply sunken in his head. He is clean-shaven, pale, and ascetic-looking, retaining some thing of the professor in his features. His shoulders are rounded from much study, and his face protrudes forward, and is forever slowly oscillating from side to side in curiously reptilian fash- and to the French republic, have' ion. He peered at me with great curi- .1 yAH mam m. 'tfBsatej.1 4 Wednesday Evening^* THE ^INNEAPOWS, JOURNAL. osity 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 the pocket of one's dressing gown.' "The fact is that upon his entrance I had instantly recognized the extreme personal danger in which I lay. The only conceivable escape for him lay in silencing my tongue. In an instant I had slipped the revolver from the drawer into my pocket, and was cover ing him thru the cloth. At his remark I drew the weapon out and laid it cocked upon the table. He still smiled and blinked, but there was something about his eyes which made me feel very glad that I had it there. 'You evidently don't know me,' said he. 'On the contrary,' I answered, I think it is fairly evident that I do. Pray take a.chair. I can spare you five minutes if you have anything to say.' All that I have to say has already crossed your mind,' said he. lf 'Then possibly my answer has crossed vours.' I replied. 'You stand fast?' 'Absolutely.' "He clapped his hand into his pocket, and I raised the pistol from the table. But he merely drew out a memorandum book in which he had scribbled some dates. 'You crossed my path on the 4th of January,' said he. "On the 23d you in commoded me by the middlexof Feb- ruary I was seriously inconvenienced by you at the end of March I was ab solutely hampered in my plans and now, at the close of April, I find myself The Original Stories of the Great Detective Which*Made Their Author, A. Conan Doyle,* Famous. COPYRIGHT, 1004, BY HARPER A BROTHER* with Professor Moriarty. I confess that it left an unpleasant effect upon my mind. His soft, precise fashion of speech leaves a conviction of sincerity which a mere buHy could not produce. Of course, you will say 'Why not take police precautions against him?' The reason is that I am well convinced that it is from his agents the blow would fall. I have the best of proofs that it would be so." "You have already been as saulted?" "My dear Watson, Professor Mori arity is not a man who lets the grass grow under his feet. I went out about middav to transact some business in Oxford street. As I passed the corner which leads from Ben tinck street on to the Welbeck street crossing a two-horse van furi ously driven whizzed round and was on me like a flash. I sprang for the footpath and saved myself by the frac tion of a second. The van dashed round by Marylbone lane and was gone in an instant. I kept to the pavement after that, Watson, but as I walked down Vere street a brick came down from the roof of one of the houses and was shattered to fragments at my feet. 1 called the police and had the place examined. There were slates and bricks piled up on the roof preparatory to some repairs, and they would have me believe that the wind had toppled over one of these. Of course I knew better, but I could prove nothing. I took a cab after that and reached my brother's ipoms in Pall Mall, where I spent the day. Now I have come round to you, and on my way I was attacked by a rough with a bludgeon. 'MY DECREPIT ITALIAN FRIEND." placed in such a position thru your con tinual persecution that I am in posi tive danger of losing my liberty. The situation is becoming an impossible one.' 'Have you any suggestion to make?' asked. 'You must drop it, Mr. Holmes,' said he, swaying his face about. 'You really must, you know." 'After Monday,' said I. "Tut, tut!' said he. I am quite sure that a man of your intelligence will see that there can be but one outcome to this affair. It is necessary that you should withdraw. You have worked things in such a fashion that we have only one resource left. It has been an intellectual treat to me to see the way in which you have grappled with this affair, and I say, unaffectedly, that it would be a grief to me to be forced to take any extreme measure. You smile, sir, but I assure you that it really would.' "Danger is part of my trade,' I re marked. 'This is not danger,' said he. 'It is inevitable destruction. You stand in the way not merely of an individual, but of a mighty organization, the full extent of which* you, with all your clev erness, have been unable to realize. You must stand clear, Mr. Holmes, or be trodden under foot.' I am afraid,' said I, rising, 'that in the pleasure of this" conversation I am neglecting business of importance which awaits me elsewhere.' "He rose also and looked at me in silence, shaking his head sadlv. 'Well, well,' said he, at last. 'It seems a pity, but I have dene what I could. I know every move of your game. You can do nothing before Mon day. It has been a duel between you and me Mr. Holmes. You hope to place me in the dock. I tell you that I will never stand in the dock. You hope to beat me. I tell you that you will never beat me. If you are clever enough to bring destruction, upon me, rest as sured that I shall do as much to you.' 'You have paid me several compli ments, Mr. Moriarty,i said I. 'Let me pay you one in return when I say that if I were assured of the former eventual ity I would, in the interests of the pub lic, cheerfully accept the latter.' I can promise you the one, but not the other,' he snarled and so turned his rounded back upon me, and went peering and blinking out of the room, I knocked him down and the police have him in custody but I can tell you with the most absolute confidence that no possible connection will ever be traced between the gentleman upon whose front teeth I have barked my knuckles and the retiring mathematical coach, who is, I dare say, working out problems upon a blackboard ten miles away. You will not wonder, Watson, that my first act on entering your rooms was to close your shutters, and that I have been compelled to ask your permission to leave the house by some less conspicuous exit than the front door.'' I had often admired my friend's courage, but never more than now, as he sat quietly checking off a series of incidents which must have combined to make up a day of horror. "You will spend the night here?" I said. "No, my friend, you might find me a dangerous guest. I have my plans laid and all will be well. Matters have gone so 'far now that they can move without my help as far as the arrest goes, tho my presence is necessary for conviction. It is obvious, therefore, that I cannot do better than get away for the few days which remain before the police are at liberty to act. It would be a great pleasure to me, there fore, if you could come on to the con tinent with me." "The practice is quiet," said I, "and I have an accommodating,neigh bor. I should be glad to come.'' "And to start tomorrow morning?" "If necessary." "Oh, yes, it is most necessary. Then these are your instructions, and I beg, my dear Watson, that you will obey them to the letter, for you are now playing a double-handed game with me against the cleverest rogue and the most powerful syndicate of criminals in Europe. Now listen. You will dis patch whatever luggage you intend to take by a trusty messenger unad dresse'd to Victoria tonight. In the morning you will send for a hansom, desiring your man to take neither the first nor the second which may present itself.- #Into this hansom you will jump, and you will drive to the Strand end of the Lowther *Arcade, handing the address to the cabman upon a slip of paper, with a request that he will not throw it away. Have your fare ready, and the instant that your cab stops, dash thru the Arcade, timing "That was my singulkr-interview ^yourself to reach, theater sfde. at a fD. Defective Pag* *!r" curb, driven by a fellow with a heavy black cloak tipped at the collar with red. Into this you will step, and you will reach Victoria in time for the Continental express." "Where shall I meet you?" "At the station. The second first class carriage from the front will reserved for us." "The carriage is our rendeavdtii then?" "Yes." It was in vain that I asked Holmes to remain for the evening. It w: evident to me that he thought he migh' bring trouble to the roof he was under, and that that was the motive which impelled him to go. With a few hur ried words as to our plans for the mor row he rose and came out with me into the**garden, clambering over the wall which leads into Mortimer street, and immediately whistling for a hansom, in which I heard him drive away. In the morning I obeyed Holmes' in junctions to the letter. A hansom was procured with such precautions as would prevent its being one which was placed ready for us, and I drove immediately after breakfast to the Lowther arcade, thru which I hurried at the top of my speed. A brougham was waiting with a very massive driver wrapped in a dark cloak, who, the instant that I had stepped in, whipped up the horse and rattled off to Victoria station. On my alighting there he turned the carriage, and dashed away again without so much as a look in my direction. So far all had gone admirably. My luggage was waiting for me, and I had no difficulty in finding the carriage which Holmes had indicated, the less so as it was the only one in the train which was marked "Engaged." My only source of anxiety now was the non-appearance of Holmes. The station clock marked only seven minutes ffom the time when we were due to start. In vain I searched among the groups of travelers and leave-takers for the lithe figure of my friend. There was no sign of him. I spent a few minutes in assisting a venerable Italian priest, who was endeavoring to make a porter un derstand, in his broken English, that his luggage was to be booked thru to Paris. Then, having taken another look round, I returned to my carriage, where I found that the porter, in spite of the ticket, had given me my decrepit Ital ian friend as a traveling companion. It was useless for me to explain to him that his presence was an intrusion, for my Italian was even more limited than his English, so I shrugged my shoulders resignedly, and continued to look out anxiously for my friend. A chill of fear had come over me, as I thought that his absence might mean that some blow had fallen during the night. Al ready 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 astonish ment. The aged ecclesiastic had turned his fact 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 neces- sary," 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 thru 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 in stant later had shot clear of the sta tion. "With all our precautions, you see that T\e have cut it rather fine," said Holmes, laughing. He rose, and throwing off the black cassock and hat which had formed his disguise, he packed them away in a handbag. "Have you seen the morning paper, Watson?" "No." "You haven't seen about Baker stTeet, then?" /'Baker street?" They set fire to our rooms last night. No great harm was done." "Good heavens, Holmes! this is intol erable. They must have lost my track com pletely after their bludgeon-man was ar rested. 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?" 1 did exactly what vou advised.'' "Did you find your brougham?" "Yes, it was waiting." "Did you recognize your coach- man?" "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 arrest ed on his arrival." "It would 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 thenP' "Well, then we must make a cross country journey to Newhaven, and so over to 'Dieppe. Moriarty will again do what I should do. He will get on to Paris, mark down our luggage and wait for two days at the depot. In the meantime we shall treat ourselves to a couple of carpetbags, encourage the manufactures of the conutry thru which we travel and make our way at our leizure into Switzerland via Luxembourg and Basle." At Canterbury, therefore, we alight ed, 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, July' 5, 1905. UP tn quarter past nine. You will find a I whe Holmes pulled my sleeve and 1 be ignored. It was impossible to re- small brougham waiting close to the P0jntn.d 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 watched the carriage swing and over the points. "There are hm vou see, to our friend's intelligence. _. would have been a coup de maitre had he deduced what I would deduce and acted accordingly." W"And what would ne have done had he overtaken us?" "There cannot be the least doubt that he would have made a murderous attack upoll 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, mov ing 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! be 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 aid think that I had put the game their hands. I think that vou had better return to England, Watson." "Why?" Because you will find me a danger ous companion now. This man's occu pation 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 cer tain lv recommend you to return to your Drscticc It was hardly an appeal to be suc cessful with one who was an old cam paigner as well as an old friend. We sat in the Strasburg salle-a-manger ar guing the question for half an hour, but the same night we had re&umed our .-journey and were well on our way to Geneva. For a charming week we wandered up the valley of the Ehone, and then, branching off at Leuk, we made our way over the Gemmi pass, still deep snow, and so, by way of Iterlaken, 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 lonelv moun tain passes. I could still tell by his quick glancing eves 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 has been dislodged from the ridge upon our right clattered down and roared into the lfcke behind us. In an instant Holmes had raced up on to the ridge, and, standing upon ju lofty pinnacle, craned his neck in very di rection. 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 ne'ver recollect naving seen him in such exuberant spirits. Again and again he recurred to the fact that if he could be assured that society was freed from Professor Moriarty he would cheerfully bring his own career to a conclusion. I think that I may go so far as to say, Watson, that I have not lived wholly in vain," he remarked. "If my record were closed tonight I could still survey it with equanimity. The air of London is the sweeter for my presence. In over a thousand cases I am not aware that I have ever used my powers upon the wrong sidf. Of late I have been tempted to look into the problems furnished by nature rather than those more superfiicial 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 will ingly dwell, and yet I am conscious that a duty devolves upon me to omit no details. 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 Gros venor* 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 Bosenlaui. We had strict in junctions, however, on no account to pass the falls of Eeichenbach, which are about half way up the hill, without making a small detour to see them. It is, indeed, a fearpul place. The torrent, swollen by the melting snow, plunges into a tremendous abyss, from which the spray rolls up like the smoke from a burning house. The shaft into which the river hurls itself is an im mense chasm, lined by glistening coal black rock, and narrowing into a cream ing, 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 apray 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 break ing 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 Wth has been cut half-way round the fair 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 ad dressed to me by the landloard. It appeared that within a very few min utes of our leaving, an English lady had arrived who was in the last stage of consumption. She had wintered at Davos Platz, and was journing 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 Eng lish 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 re fused to see a Swiss physician, and he could not but feel that he was incurring a great responsibility. fuse the request of a fellow-country woman dying in a Strang land. Yet I had my scruples about leaving Holmes. It was finaHy agreed, however, that ho should retain the young Swiss mes senger with him as guide and com panion while I returned to Meiringen. My friend would stay some little tima at the fall, he said, and would then walk slowly over the hill to Bosenlaui* where I was to rejoin him in the eve ning. As I turned away I saw Holmes, with his back against a rock and his afms 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 impos sible, from that position, to see the falL but I could see the curving path which winds over the shoulder of the hill and leads to it. Along this a man was, I remember, walking very rapidly. I could see his black figure clearly outlined against the green behind him. I noted him, and the energy with which he walked, but he passed from my mind again as I hurried on upon my errand. It may have been a little over an hour before I reached Meiringen. Old Steiler was standing at the porch of his hotel. "Well," said I, as I came hurrying up, I trust that she is no worse?" A look of surprise passed over his face, and at the first quiver of his eye brows my heart turned to lead in my breast. "You did not write this?" I said, pullinge theno letterEnglishwomanpocket.thniymmfrok 1 Ther is sic 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 forgone of the land lord'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 Beichen bach once more. There was Holmes' 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 Bosenlaui, 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 over taken him. The young Swiss had gone, too. He had probably been in the pav 1 of Moriarty, and had left the two men together. And then what had hap pened? Who was to tell us what had happened then? I stood for a minute or two to col lect myself, for I was dazed with tha horror of the thing. Then I began to thinkoof Holmes'themn tr3r 3?he appeal was one which could flotiiaowiw 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 foot marks were clearly marked along the farther end^of the path, both leading awayfrfrom *me? There were none re turning. A few yards from the end of the soil waa all plowed 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 onlv that same half-human cry of the fall was borne back to my ears. But I was destined that I should aft er all have a last word of greeting from my friend and comrade. I have said that his Alpine-stock had been left lean ing 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 tock 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 tho it had been written in his study. My dear Watson,'' it said, I write these few "lines thru the courtesy of Mr. Moriarty, who awaits mv convenience for the final discussion of those ques tions which lie between us. He has been giving me a sketch of the methods by which he avoided the English po lice 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, tho I fear that it is at a cost which will give pain to my friends, and especially, my dear Watson, to you. I have al ready explained to you, however, that mv career had in anv 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 con fession to you, I was quite convinced that the letter from Meiringen was a hoax, and I allowed you to depart oil that errand under the persuasion that some development of this sort would follow. Tell Inspector Patterson that the papers which he needs to conviet 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 greeting 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 per sonal contest between the two men ended, as it could hardly fail to end such a situation, in their reeling over, locked in each other's arms. Any attempt at recover ing the bodies was absolutely hopeless, and there* deep down in that dreadful caldron ot swirling water and seething foam, will lie for all time the most dangerous criminal and the fore most champion of the law of their gen eration. The Swiss youth was never found again, and there can be no doubt that he was one of the numerous agents whom Moriarity kept in his employ. As to the gang, it will be within the mem ory of the public how completely the evidence which Holmes had accumu lated 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 inia dicious champions who have endeavored to clear his memory of attacks upon him whom I shall ever regard as the best nd the wisest man whom I have ever ^H_ I ow and to practice imethods reading this 1 i i +m^a^^j*mt^m*tmJ