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 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 upwards,
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 which i was
stretched, within a foot of my head. of course, the
meaning of this was obvious. moriarty had not been alone.
a confederate -- and even that one glance had told me how
dangerous a man that confederate was -- had kept guard
while the professor had attacked me. from a distance,
unseen by me, he had been a witness of his friend's death
and of my escape. he had waited, and then, making his
way round to the top of the cliff, he had endeavoured to
succeed where his comrade had failed.
"i did not take long to think about it, watson. again i
saw that grim face look over the cliff, and i knew that it
was the precursor of another stone. i scrambled down on
to the path. i don't think i could have done it in cold
blood. it was a hundred times more difficult than getting
up. but i had no time to think of the danger, for another
stone sang past me as i hung by my hands from the edge of
the ledge. halfway down i slipped, but by the blessing of
god i landed, torn and bleeding, upon the path. i took to
my heels, did ten miles over the mountains in the darkness,
and a week later i found myself in florence with the
certainty that no one in the world knew what had become of
me.
"i had only one confidant -- my brother mycroft. i owe you
many apologies, my dear watson, but it was all-important
that it should be thought i was dead, and it is quite
certain that you would not have written so convincing an
account of my unhappy end had you not yourself thought that
it was true. several times during the last three years i
have taken up my pen to write to you, but always i feared
lest your a
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