Might I trouble you for a match?" He drew in the
smoke of his cigarette as if the soothing influence
was grateful to him.
"I must apologize for calling so late," said he, "and
I must further beg you to be so unconventional as to
allow me to leave your house presently by scrambling
over your back garden wall."
"But what does it all mean?" I asked.
He held out his hand, and I saw in the light of the
lamp that two of his knuckles were burst and bleeding.
"It is not an airy nothing, you see," said he,
smiling. "On the contrary, it is solid enough for a
man to break his hand over. Is Mrs. Watson in?"
"She is away upon a visit."
"Indeed! You are alone?"
"Quite."
"Then it makes it the easier for me to propose that
you should come away with me for a week to the
Continent."
"Where?"
"Oh, anywhere. It's all the same to me."
There was something very strange in all this. It was
not Holmes's nature to take an aimless holiday, and
something about his pale, worn face told me that his
nerves were at their highest tension. He saw the
question in my eyes, and, putting his finger-tips
together and his elbows upon his knees, he explained
the situation.
"You have probably never heard of Professor Moriarty?"
said he.
"Never."
"Aye, there's the genius and the wonder of the thing!"
he cried. "The man pervades London, and no one has
heard of him. That's what puts him on a pinnacle in
the records of crime. I tell you, Watson, in all
seriousness, that if I could beat that man, if I could
free society of him, I should feel that my own career
had reached its summit, and I should be prepared to
turn to some more placid line in life. Between
ourselves, the recent cases in which I have been of
assistance to the royal family of Scandinavia, and to
the French republic, have left me in such a position
that I could continue to live in the quiet fashion
which is most congenial to me, and to concentrate my
attention upon my chemical researches. But I could
not rest, Watson, I could not sit quiet in my chair,
if I thought that such a man as Professor Moriarty
were walking the streets of London unchallenged."
"What has he done, then?"
"His career has been an extraordinary one. He is a
man of good birth and excellent education, endowed by
nature with a phenomenal mathematical faculty. At the
age of twenty-one he wrote a treatise upon the
Binomial Theorem, which has had a European vogue. On
the strength of it he won the Mathematical Chair at
one of our smaller universities, and had, to all
appearance, a most brilliant career before him. But
the man had hereditary tendencies of the most
diabolical kind. A criminal strain ran in his blood,
which, instead of being modified, was increased and
rendered infinitely more dangerous by his
extraordinary mental powers. Dark rumors gathered
round him in the university town, and eventually he
was compelled to resign his chair and to come down to
London, where he set up as an army coach. So much is
known to the world, but what I am telling you now is
what I have myself discovered.
"As you are aware, Watson, there is no one who knows
the higher criminal world of London so well as I do.
For years past I have continually been conscious of
some power behind the malefactor, some deep organizing
power which forever stands in the way of the law, and
throws it shield over the wrong-doer. Again and again
in cases of the most varying sorts--forgery cases,
robberies, murders--I have felt the presence of this
force, and I have deduced its action in many of those
undiscovered crimes in which I have not been
personally consulted. For years I have endeavored to
break through the veil which shrouded it, and at last
the time came when I seized my thread and followed it,
until it led me, after a thousand cunning windings, to
ex-Professor Moriarty of mathematical celebrity.
He is the Napoleon of crime, Watson. He is the
organizer of half that is evil and of nearly all that
is undetected in this great city. He is a genius, a
philosopher, an abstract thinker. He has a brain of
the first order. He sits motionless, like a spider in
the center of its web, but that web has a thousand
radiations, and he knows well every quiver of each of
them. He does little himself. He only plans. But
his agents are numerous and splendidly organized. Is
there a crime to be done, a paper to be abstracted, we
will say, a house to be rifled, a man to be
removed--the word is passed to the Professor, the
matter is organized and carried out. The agent may be
caught. In that case money is found for his bail or
his defence. But the central power which uses the
agent is never caught--never so much as suspected.
This was the organization which I deduced, Watson, and
which I devoted my whole energy to exposing and
breaking up.
"But the Professor was fenced round with safeguards so
cunningly devised that, do what I would, it seemed
impossible to get evidence which would convict in a
court of law. You know my powers, my dear Watson, and
yet at the end of three months I was forced to confess
that I had at last met an antagonist who was my
intellectual equal. My horror at his crimes was lost
in my admiration at his skill. But at last he made a
trip--only a little, little trip--but it was more than
he could afford when I was so close upon him. I had
my chance, and, starting from that point, I have woven
my net round him until now it is all ready to close.
In three days--that is to say, on Monday next--matters
will be ripe, and the Professor, with all the
principal members of his gang, will be in the hands of
the police. Then will come the greatest criminal
trial of the century, the clearing up of over forty
mysteries, and the rope for all of them; but if we
move at all prematurely, you understand, they may slip
out of our hands even at the last moment.
"Now, if I could have done this without the knowledge
of Professor Moriarty, all would have been well. But
he was too wily for that. He saw every step which I
took to draw my toils round him. Again and again he
strove to break away, but I as often headed him off.
I tell you, my friend, that if a detailed account of
that silent contest could be written, it would take
its place as the most brilliant bit of
thrust-and-parry work in the history of detection.
Never have I risen to such a height, and never have I
been so hard pressed by an opponent. He cut deep, and
yet I just undercut him. This morning the last steps
were t
aken, and three days only were wanted to
complete the business. I was sitting in my room
thinking the matter over, when the door opened and
Professor Moriarty stood before me.
"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
thresh-hold. 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 this head. He is clean-shaven, pale, and
ascetic-looking, retaining something of the professor
in his features. His shoulders are rounded from much
study, and his face protrudes forward, and is forever
slowly oscillating from side to side in a curiously
reptilian fashion. He peered at me with great
curiosity in his puckered eyes.
"'You have less frontal development that 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 revolved
from the drawer into my pocket, and was covering him
through the cloth. At his remark I drew the weapon
out and laid it cocked upon the table. He still
smiled and blinked, but there was something about his
eyes which made me feel very glad that I had it there.
"'You evidently don't now 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.
"'Then possibly my answer has crossed yours,' I
replied.
"'You stand fast?'
"'Absolutely.'
"He clapped his hand into his pocket, and I raised the
pistol from the table. But he merely drew out a
memorandum-book in which he had scribbled some dates.
"'You crossed my patch on the 4th of January,' said
he. 'On the 23d you incommoded me; by the middle of
February I was seriously inconvenienced by you; at the
end of March I was absolutely hampered in my plans;
and now, at the close of April, I find myself placed
in such a position through your continual persecution
that I am in positive danger of losing my liberty.
The situation is becoming an impossible one.'
"'Have you any suggestion to make?' I asked.
"'You must drop it, Mr. Holmes,' said he, swaying his
face about. 'You really must, you know.'
"'After Monday,' said I.
"'Tut, tut,' said he. 'I am quite sure that a man of
your intelligence 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. 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,
abut I assure you that it really would.'
"'Danger is part of my trade,' I remarked.
"'That is not danger,' said he. 'It is inevitable
destruction. You stand in the way not merely of an
individual, but of a might organization, the full
extent of which you, with all your cleverness, have
been unable to realize. You must stand clear, Mr.
Holmes, or be trodden under foot.'
"'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 sadly.
"'Well, well,' said he, at last. 'It seems a pity,
but I have done what I could. I know every move of
your game. You can do nothing before Monday. It has
been a duel between you and me, Mr. Holmes. You hope
to place me in the dock. I tell you that I will never
stand in the dock. You hope to beat me. I tell you
that you will never beat me. If you are clever enough
to bring destruction upon me, rest assured that I
shall do as much to you.'
"'You have paid me several compliments, Mr. Moriarty,'
said I. 'Let me pay you one in return when I say that
if I were assured of the former eventuality I would,
in the interests of the public, cheerfully accept the
latter.'
"'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.
"That was my singular interview with Professor
Moriarty. I confess that it left an unpleasant effect
upon my mind. His soft, precise fashion of speech
leaves a conviction of sincerity which a mere bully
could not produce. Of course, you will say: 'Why not
take police precautions against him?' the reason is
that I am well convinced that it is from his agents
the blow will fall. I have the best proofs that it
would be so."
"You have already been assaulted?"
"My dear Watson, Professor Moriarty is not a man who
lets the grass grow under his feet. I went out about
mid-day to transact some business in Oxford Street.
As I passed the corner which leads from Bentinck
Street on to the Welbeck Street crossing a two-horse
van furiously driven whizzed round and was on me like
a flash. I sprang for the foot-path and saved myself
by the fraction of a second. The van dashed round by
Marylebone Lane and was gone in an instant. I kept to
the pavement after that, Watson, but as I walked down
Vere Street a brick came down from the roof of one of
the houses, and was shattered to fragments at my feet.
I called the police and had the place examined. There
were slates and bricks piled up on the roof
preparatory to some repairs, and they would have me
believe that the wind had toppled over one of these.
Of course I knew better, but I could prove nothing. I
took a cab after that and reached my brother's rooms
in Pall Mall, where I spent the day. Now I have come
round to you, and on my way I was attacked by a rough
with a bludgeon. I knocked him down, and the police
have him in custody; but I can tell you with the most
absolute confidence that no possible connection will
ever be traced between the gentleman upon whose front
teeth I have barked my knuckles and the retiring
mathematical coach, who is, I dare say, working out
problems upon a black-board ten miles away. You will
not wonder, Watson, that my first act on entering your
rooms was to close your shutters, and that I have been
compelled to ask your
permission to leave the house by
some less conspicuous exit than the front door."
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, though my presence is
necessary for a conviction. It is obvious, therefore,
that I cannot do better than get away for the few days
which remain before the police are at liberty to act.
It would be a great pleasure to me, therefore, if you
could come on to the Continent with me."
"The practice is quiet," said I, "and I have an
accommodating neighbor. I should be glad to come."
"And to start to-morrow morning?"
"If necessary."
"Oh yes, it is most necessary. Then these are your
instructions, and 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 despatch whatever
luggage you intend to take by a trusty messenger
unaddressed to Victoria to-night. In the morning you
will send for a hansom, desiring your man to take
neither the first nor the second which may present
itself. Into this hansom you will jump, and you will
drive to the Strand end of the Lowther Arcade,
handling the address to the cabman upon a slip of
paper, with a request that he will not throw it away.
Have your fare ready, and the instant that your cab
stops, dash through the Arcade, timing yourself to
reach the other side at a quarter-past nine. You will
find a small brougham waiting close to the curb,
driven by a fellow with a heavy black cloak tipped at
the collar with red. Into this you will step, and you
will reach Victoria in time for the Continental
express."
"Where shall I meet you?"
"At the station. The second first-class carriage from
the front will be reserved for us."
"The carriage is our rendezvous, then?"
"Yes."
It was in vain that I asked Holmes to remain for the
evening. It was evident to me that he though he might
bring trouble to the roof he was under, and that that
was the motive which impelled him to go. With a few
hurried words as to our plans for the morrow he rose
and came out with me into the garden, clambering over
the wall which leads into Mortimer Street, and
immediately whistling for a hansom, in which I heard
him drive away.
In the morning I obeyed Holmes's injunctions to the
letter. A hansom was procured with such precaution as
would prevent its being one which was placed ready for
us, and I drove immediately after breakfast to the
Lowther Arcade, through which I hurried at the top of
my speed. A brougham was waiting with a very massive
driver wrapped in a dark cloak, who, the instant that
I had stepped in, whipped up the horse and rattled off
to Victoria Station. On my alighting there he turned
the carriage, and dashed away again without so much as
a look in my direction.
So far all had gone admirably. My luggage was waiting
for me, and I had no difficulty in finding the
carriage which Holmes had indicated, the less so as it
was the only one in the train which was marked
"Engaged." My only source of anxiety now was the
non-appearance of Holmes. The station clock marked
only seven minutes from the time when we were due to
start. In vain I searched among the groups of
travellers and leave-takers for the little figure of
my friend. There was no sign of him. I spent a few
minutes in assisting a venerable Italian priest, who
was endeavoring to make a porter understand, in his
broken English, that his luggage was to be booked
through to Paris. Then, having taken another look
round, I returned to my carriage, where I found that
the porter, in spite of the ticket, had given me my
decrepit Italian friend as a traveling companion. It
was useless for me to explain to him that his presence
was an intrusion, for my Italian was even more limited