The Return of Sherlock Holmes | Page 4

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 gray 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 soon 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. That 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 whole, then, it was best that I should risk the climb.
It was not a pleasant business, Watson. The fall roared beneath me. I
am not a fanciful person, but I give you my word that I seemed to hear
Moriarty's voice screaming at me out of the abyss. A mistake would
have been fatal. More than once, as tufts of grass came out in 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 last I reached a ledge several feet
deep and covered with soft green moss, where I could lie unseen, in the
most perfect comfort. There I was stretched, when you, my dear

Watson, and all your following were investigating in the most
sympathetic and inefficient manner the circumstances of my death.
"At last, when you had all formed your inevitable and totally erroneous
conclusions, you departed for the hotel, and I was left alone. I had
imagined that I had reached the end of my adventures, but a very
unexpected occurrence showed me that there were surprises still in
store for me. A huge rock, falling from above, boomed past me, struck
the path, and bounded over into 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 the darkening sky, and another stone struck the very ledge upon