It may be remembered that after my marriage, and mysubsequent start in private practice, the very intimate relationswhich had existed between Holmes and myself became to someextent modified. He still came to me from time to time whenhe desired a companion in his investigation, but these occasionsgrew more and more seldom, until I find that in the year 1890there were only three cases of which I retain any record. Duringthe winter of that year and the early spring of 1891, I saw in thepapers that he had been engaged by the French government upona matter of supreme importance, and I received two notes fromHolmes, dated from Narbonne and from Nimes, from which Igathered that his stay in France was likely to be a long one. Itwas with some surprise, therefore, that I saw him walk into myconsulting-room upon the evening of April 24th. It struck me thathe was looking even paler and thinner than usual.
“Yes, I have been using myself up rather too freely,” heremarked, in answer to my look rather than to my words; “I havebeen a little pressed of late. Have you any objection to my closingyour shutters?”
The only light in the room came from the lamp upon the tableat which I had been reading. Holmes edged his way round the walland flinging the shutters together, he bolted them securely.
“You are afraid of something?” I asked.
“Well, I am.”
“Of what?”
“Of air-guns.”
“My dear Holmes, what do you mean?”
“I think that you know me well enough, Watson, to understandthat I am by no means a nervous man. At the same time, it isstupidity rather than courage to refuse to recognize danger whenit is close upon you. Might I trouble you for a match?” He drew inthe smoke of his cigarette as if the soothing influence was gratefulto him.
“I must apologize for calling so late,” said he, “and I mustfurther beg you to be so unconventional as to allow me to leaveyour house presently by scrambling over your back garden wall.”
“But what does it all mean?” I asked.
He held out his hand, and I saw in the light of the lamp thattwo of his knuckles were burst and bleeding.
“It is not an airy nothing, you see,” said he, smiling. “On thecontrary, it is solid enough for a man to break his hand over. IsMrs. Watson in?”
“She is away upon a visit.”
“Indeed! You are alone?”
“Quite.”
“Then it makes it the easier for me to propose that you shouldcome away with me for a week to the Continent.”
“Where?”
“Oh, anywhere. It’s all the same to me.”
There was something very strange in all this. It was notHolmes’s nature to take an aimless holiday, and something abouthis pale, worn face told me that his nerves were at their highesttension. He saw the question in my eyes, and, putting his finger-tipstogether and his elbows upon his knees, he explained the situation.
“You have probably never heard of Professor Moriarty?” said he.
“Never.”
“Ay, there’s the genius and the wonder of the thing!” he cried.
“The man pervades London, and no one has heard of him. That’swhat puts him on a pinnacle in the records of crime. I tell youWatson, in all seriousness, that if I could beat that man, if I couldfree society of him, I should feel that my own career had reachedits summit, and I should be prepared to turn to some more placidline in life. Between ourselves, the recent cases in which I havebeen of assistance to the royal family of Scandinavia, and to theFrench republic, have left me in such a position that I couldcontinue to live in the quiet fashion which is most congenialto me, and to concentrate my attention upon my chemicalresearches. But I could not rest, Watson, I could not sit quiet inmy chair, if I thought that such a man as Professor Moriarty werewalking the streets of London unchallenged.”
“What has he done, then?”
“His career has been an extraordinary one. He is a man ofgood birth and excellent education, endowed by nature with aphenomenal mathematical faculty. At the age of twenty-one hewrote a treatise upon the Binomial Theorem, which has had aEuropean vogue. On the strength of it he won the MathematicalChair at one of our smaller universities, and had, to all appearances,a most brilliant career before him. But the man had hereditarytendencies of the most diabolical kind. A criminal strain ran in hisblood, which, instead of being modified, was increased and renderedinfinitely more dangerous by his extraordinary mental powers. Darkrumors gathered round him in the university town, and eventuallyhe was compelled to resign his chair and to come down to London,where he set up as an army coach. So much is known to the world,but what I am telling you now is what I have myself discovered.
“As you are aware, Watson, there is no one who knows thehigher criminal world of London so well as I do. For years pastI have continually been conscious of some power behind themalefactor, some deep organizing power which forever standsin the way of the law, and throws its shield over the wrong-doer.
Again and again in cases of the most varying sorts—forgery cases,robberies, murders—I have felt the presence of this force, andI have deduced its action in many of those undiscovered crimesin which I have not been personally consulted. For years I haveendeavored to break through the veil which shrouded it, and atlast the time came when I seized my thread and followed it, untilit led me, after a thousand cunning windings, to ex-ProfessorMoriarty of mathematical celebrity.