The Return of Sherlock Holmes | Page 6

I. "My dear chap, I
am overjoyed to see you. Sit down and tell me how you came alive out
of that dreadful chasm."
He sat opposite to me and lit a cigarette in his old nonchalant manner.
He was dressed in the seedy frock-coat of the book merchant, but the

rest of that individual lay in a pile of white hair and old books upon the
table. Holmes looked even thinner and keener than of old, but there was
a dead-white tinge in his aquiline face which told me that his life
recently had not been a healthy one.
"I am glad to stretch myself, Watson," said he. "It is no joke when a tall
man has to take a foot off his stature for several hours on end. Now, my
dear fellow, in the matter of these explanations we have, if I may ask
for your co-operation, a hard and dangerous night's work in front of us.
Perhaps it would be better if I gave you an 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 a mouthful of
dinner before we need go. Well, then, about that chasm. I had no
serious difficulty in getting out of it, for the very simple reason that I
never was in it."
"You never were in it?"
"No, Watson, I never was in it. My note to you was absolutely genuine.
I had little doubt that I had come to the end of my career when I
perceived the somewhat sinister figure of the late Professor Moriarty
standing upon the narrow pathway which led to safety. I read an
inexorable purpose in his grey eyes. I exchanged some remarks with
him, therefore, and obtained his courteous permission to write the short
note which you afterwards received. I left it with my cigarette-box and
my stick and I walked along the pathway, Moriarty still at my heels.
When I reached the end I stood at bay. He drew no weapon, but he
rushed at me and threw his long arms around me. He knew that his own
game was up, and was only anxious to revenge himself upon me. We
tottered together upon the brink of the fall. I have some knowledge,
however, of baritsu, or the Japanese system of wrestling, which has
more 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 he could not get his
balance, and over he went. With my face over the 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 Holmes delivered
between the puffs of his cigarette.
"But the tracks!" I cried. "I saw with my own eyes that two went down
the path and none returned."
"It came about in this way. The instant that the Professor had
disappeared it struck me what a really extraordinarily lucky chance
Fate had placed in my way. I knew that Moriarty was not the only man
who had sworn my death. There were at least three others whose desire
for vengeance upon me would only be increased by the death of their
leader. They were all most dangerous men. One or other would
certainly get me. On the other hand, if all the world was convinced that
I was dead they would take liberties, these men, they would lay
themselves open, and sooner or later I could destroy them. Then it
would be time 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 this all
out before Professor Moriarty had reached the bottom of the
Reichenbach Fall.
"I stood up and examined the rocky wall behind me. In your
picturesque account of the matter, which I read with great interest some
months later, you assert that the wall was sheer. This was not literally
true. A few small footholds presented themselves, and there was some
indication of a ledge. The cliff is so high that to climb it all was an
obvious impossibility, and it was equally impossible to make my way
along the wet path without leaving some tracks. I might, it is true, have
reversed my boots, as I have done on similar occasions, but the sight of
three sets of tracks in one direction would certainly have suggested a
deception. On the