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