He sat opposite to me, and lit a cigarette in his old, nonchalantmanner. He was dressed in the seedy frockcoat of the bookmerchant, but the rest of that individual lay in a pile of white hairand old books upon the table. Holmes looked even thinner andkeener than of old, but there was a dead-white tinge in his aquilineface which told me that his life recently had not been a healthyone.
“I am glad to stretch myself, Watson,” said he. “It is no jokewhen a tall man has to take a foot off his stature for several hourson end. Now, my dear fellow, in the matter of these explanations,we have, if I may ask for your cooperation, a hard and dangerousnight’s work in front of us. Perhaps it would be better if I gave youan account of the whole situation when that work is finished.”
“I am full of curiosity. I should much prefer to hear now.”
“You’ll come with me to-night?”
“When you like and where you like.”
“This is, indeed, like the old days. We shall have time for amouthful of dinner before we need go. Well, then, about thatchasm. I had no serious difficulty in getting out of it, for the verysimple reason that I never was in it.”
“You never were in it?”
“No, Watson, I never was in it. My note to you was absolutelygenuine. I had little doubt that I had come to the end of mycareer when I perceived the somewhat sinister figure of the lateProfessor Moriarty standing upon the narrow pathway whichled to safety. I read an inexorable purpose in his gray eyes. Iexchanged some remarks with him, therefore, and obtained hiscourteous permission to write the short note which you afterwardsreceived. I left it with my cigarette-box and my stick, and I walkedalong the pathway, Moriarty still at my heels. When I reached theend I stood at bay. He drew no weapon, but he rushed at me andthrew his long arms around me. He knew that his own game wasup, and was only anxious to revenge himself upon me. We totteredtogether upon the brink of the fall. I have some knowledge,however, of baritsu, or the Japanese system of wrestling, which hasmore than once been very useful to me. I slipped through his grip,and he with a horrible scream kicked madly for a few seconds,and clawed the air with both his hands. But for all his efforts hecould not get his balance, and over he went. With my face overthe brink, I saw him fall for a long way. Then he struck a rock,bounded off, and splashed into the water.”
I listened with amazement to this explanation, which Holmesdelivered between the puffs of his cigarette.
“But the tracks!” I cried. “I saw, with my own eyes, that twowent down the path and none returned.”
“It came about in this way. The instant that the Professor haddisappeared, it struck me what a really extraordinarily luckychance Fate had placed in my way. I knew that Moriarty wasnot the only man who had sworn my death. There were at leastthree others whose desire for vengeance upon me would onlybe increased by the death of their leader. They were all mostdangerous men. One or other would certainly get me. On theother hand, if all the world was convinced that I was dead theywould take liberties, these men, they would soon lay themselvesopen, and sooner or later I could destroy them. Then it would betime for me to announce that I was still in the land of the living.
So rapidly does the brain act that I believe I had thought thisall out before Professor Moriarty had reached the bottom of theReichenbach Fall.
“I stood up and examined the rocky wall behind me. In yourpicturesque account of the matter, which I read with great interestsome months later, you assert that the wall was sheer. That wasnot literally true. A few small footholds presented themselves,and there was some indication of a ledge. The cliff is so high thatto climb it all was an obvious impossibility, and it was equallyimpossible to make my way along the wet path without leavingsome tracks. I might, it is true, have reversed my boots, as I havedone on similar occasions, but the sight of three sets of tracksin one direction would certainly have suggested a deception. Onthe whole, then, it was best that I should risk the climb. It wasnot a pleasant business, Watson. The fall roared beneath me. Iam not a fanciful person, but I give you my word that I seemed tohear Moriarty’s voice screaming at me out of the abyss. A mistakewould have been fatal. More than once, as tufts of grass came outin my hand or my foot slipped in the wet notches of the rock,I thought that I was gone. But I struggled upward, and at lastI reached a ledge several feet deep and covered with soft greenmoss, where I could lie unseen, in the most perfect comfort. ThereI was stretched, when you, my dear Watson, and all your followingwere investigating in the most sympathetic and inefficient mannerthe circumstances of my death.
“At last, when you had all formed your inevitable and totallyerroneous conclusions, you departed for the hotel, and I wasleft alone. I had imagined that I had reached the end of myadventures, but a very unexpected occurrence showed me thatthere were surprises still in store for me. A huge rock, fallingfrom above, boomed past me, struck the path, and bounded overinto the chasm. For an instant I thought that it was an accident,but a moment later, looking up, I saw a man’s head against thedarkening sky, and another stone struck the very ledge upon whichI was stretched, within a foot of my head. Of course, the meaningof this was obvious. Moriarty had not been alone. A confederate—and even that one glance had told me how dangerous a man thatconfederate was—had kept guard while the Professor had attackedme. From a distance, unseen by me, he had been a witness of hisfriend’s death and of my escape. He had waited, and then makinghis way round to the top of the cliff, he had endeavoured tosucceed where his comrade had failed.
