The Valley of Fear | Page 4

untasted breakfast before him, and he
stared at the slip of paper which he had just drawn from its envelope. Then he took the
envelope itself, held it up to the light, and very carefully studied both the exterior and the
flap.
"It is Porlock's writing," said he thoughtfully. "I can hardly doubt that it is Porlock's
writing, though I have seen it only twice before. The Greek e with the peculiar top
flourish is distinctive. But if it is Porlock, then it must be something of the very first
importance."
He was speaking to himself rather than to me; but my vexation disappeared in the interest
which the words awakened.
"Who then is Porlock?" I asked.
"Porlock, Watson, is a nom-de-plume, a mere identification mark; but behind it lies a
shifty and evasive personality. In a former letter he frankly informed me that the name
was not his own, and defied me ever to trace him among the teeming millions of this
great city. Porlock is important, not for himself, but for the great man with whom he is in
touch. Picture to yourself the pilot fish with the shark, the jackal with the lion--anything
that is insignificant in companionship with what is formidable: not only formidable,
Watson, but sinister--in the highest degree sinister. That is where he comes within my
purview. You have heard me speak of Professor Moriarty?"
"The famous scientific criminal, as famous among crooks as--"
"My blushes, Watson!" Holmes murmured in a deprecating voice.
"I was about to say, as he is unknown to the public."
"A touch! A distinct touch!" cried Holmes. "You are developing a certain unexpected
vein of pawky humour, Watson, against which I must learn to guard myself. But in
calling Moriarty a criminal you are uttering libel in the eyes of the law--and there lie the
glory and the wonder of it! The greatest schemer of all time, the organizer of every
deviltry, the controlling brain of the underworld, a brain which might have made or
marred the destiny of nations--that's the man! But so aloof is he from general suspicion,
so immune from criticism, so admirable in his management and self-effacement, that for
those very words that you have uttered he could hale you to a court and emerge with your
year's pension as a solatium for his wounded character. Is he not the celebrated author of
The Dynamics of an Asteroid, a book which ascends to such rarefied heights of pure
mathematics that it is said that there was no man in the scientific press capable of
criticizing it? Is this a man to traduce? Foul-mouthed doctor and slandered
professor--such would be your respective roles! That's genius, Watson. But if I am spared
by lesser men, our day will surely come."

"May I be there to see!" I exclaimed devoutly. "But you were speaking of this man
Porlock."
"Ah, yes--the so-called Porlock is a link in the chain some little way from its great
attachment. Porlock is not quite a sound link--between ourselves. He is the only flaw in
that chain so far as I have been able to test it."
"But no chain is stronger than its weakest link."
"Exactly, my dear Watson! Hence the extreme importance of Porlock. Led on by some
rudimentary aspirations towards right, and encouraged by the judicious stimulation of an
occasional ten-pound note sent to him by devious methods, he has once or twice given
me advance information which has been of value--that highest value which anticipates
and prevents rather than avenges crime. I cannot doubt that, if we had the cipher, we
should find that this communication is of the nature that I indicate."
Again Holmes flattened out the paper upon his unused plate. I rose and, leaning over him,
stared down at the curious inscription, which ran as follows:
534 C2 13 127 36 31 4 17 21 41 DOUGLAS 109 293 5 37 BIRLSTONE 26
BIRLSTONE 9 47 171
"What do you make of it, Holmes?"
"It is obviously an attempt to convey secret information."
"But what is the use of a cipher message without the cipher?"
"In this instance, none at all."
"Why do you say 'in this instance'?"
"Because there are many ciphers which I would read as easily as I do the apocrypha of
the agony column: such crude devices amuse the intelligence without fatiguing it. But
this is different. It is clearly a reference to the words in a page of some book. Until I am
told which page and which book I am powerless."
"But why 'Douglas' and 'Birlstone'?"
"Clearly because those are words which were not contained in the page in question."
"Then why has he not indicated the book?"
"Your native shrewdness, my dear Watson, that innate cunning which is the delight of