The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-10-01
Adventures Of Sherlock
Holmes.
Continued from Page Two.)

ing on upon the third day as far as
Strasburg. On the Monday morning
Holmes had telegraphed to the Lon
don police, and in the evening we
found a reply waiting for us at our
hotel. Holmes tore it open, and then
with a bitter curse hurled it into the
crate.
II might have known it," he
groaned. He has escaped"
"Moriarty?"
They have secured the whole gang
with the exception of him. He has
given them the slip. OF course, when
/ had left the country there was no
one to cope with him. But / did think
that 1 had put the game in their
hands. 1 think that you had better
return to England, Watson"
why
Because you will find me a dan
gerous companion now. This mans
occupation is gone. He is lost if he
returns to London. If / read his char
acter right he will devote his whole
energies to revenging himself upon
me. He said as much in our short
interview, and | fancy that he meant
you to return to your practice"
1t was hardly an appeal to be sue
cessful with one who was an old cam
paigner as well as an old friend. We
sat in the Strasburg salle-a-man2cr
arguing the question for half an hour,
but the same night we had resumed
our journey and were we'll on our way
to Geneva.
For a charming week we wandered
up the Valley of the Rhone, and then,
branching off at Leuk, we made our
way over the Gemmi Pass, still deep
in snow. and so, by way of Interlaken,
to Meiringen. 1t was lovely trip,
the dainty green of the spring below,
the virgin white of the winter above;
but it was clear to me- that never for
one instant did Holmes forget the
shadow which lay across him. In the
homely Alpine villages or in the lone
ly mountain passes, | could still tell
by his quick CHANGING eyes and his
sharp scrutiny of every face that
passed us, that he was we'll convinced
that walk where we would we could
not walk ourselves clear of the danger
which was lodging our footsteps.
Once, | remember, as we passed
over the Gemmi, and walked along
the border of the melancholy Dau
bensee, large rock which had been
dislodged from the ridge upon our
right clattered down and roared into
the lake behind us. In an instant
Holmes had raced up on to the ridge.
and, standing upon lofty pinnacle.
craned his neck in every direction. 1t
was i'm vain that our guide assured
him that a fail of tsoneS was a COM
mon chance in the Spring-time at
that spot. He said nothing but he
smiled at me with the air of a man
who secs the fulfillment of that which
he had expected.
And yet for all his watchfulness he
was never depressed. On the con-
trary, | can never recollect having
seen him in such exuberant spirits.
Again and again he required to the
fact that If he could be assured that
society was freed from Professor Mo-
riarty he would cheerfully bring his
own career to a conclusion.
81 think that / may go SO far as to
say. Watson. that l have not lived
wholly in vain, he remarked. If
my record were closed tonight l could
still survey it with equanimity. The
air of London is the sweeter for my
presence. In over a thousand cases
l am not aware that l have ever used
my powers upon the wrong side. OF
late | have been tempted to look into
the problems furnished by nature
rather than those more superficial
ones for which our artificial state of
society is responsible Your memoirs
will draw to an end, Watson, upon
the day that / crown my career by the
capture or extinction of the most dam
gerous and capable criminal in Eu-
rope
l shall be brief, and yet exact, in
the little which remains for me to
tell. 1t is not a subject on which |
would willingly dwell and yet l am
conscious that duty devolves upon
me to omit no detail.
1t was on the 3rd of May that we
reached the little village of Meringen,
where we put up at the Englischer
Hof, then kept by Peter Steiler the
elder Our landlord was an intelli-
gent man, and spoke excellent English
having served for three years as wait
err at the Grosvenor Hotel in London.
At his advice, OH the afternoon Of
the 4th we set off together. With the
intention of crossing the hills and
spending the night at the hamlet of
Rosenlaui. We had strict injunctions,
however on no account to pass the
falls of Reichenbach. which are about
halfway up the hill. without making
a small detour to sec them.
1t is, indeed, fearful place. The
torrent. swollen by the melting snow,
plunges into tremendous abyss, from
which the spray rolls up like the
smoke from a burning house. The
shaft into which the river hurls itself
ing coal-black rock, and narrowing
into a Dreaming boiling pit of incalcu-
liable depths. which brims over and
shoots the stream onward over its
jagged lip. The long sweep of green
water roaring forever down, and the
thick pickering curtain of spray hiss
ing forever upward. turn man gid
dy with their constant whirl and clam
or. We stood near the edge peering
down at the CLEAN of the breaking
water far below us against the black
rocks. and listening to the half-human
shout which came BOOMING up with
the spray out of the abyss.
The path has been cut halfway
round the fall to afford complete
view. but it ends abruptly. and the
traveller has to return as he came. We
had turned to do So when we saw
Swiss lad come running along it with
a letter in his hand. 1t bore the
mark of the hotel which we had just
left. and was addressed to me by the
landlord. 1t appeared that within a
very few minutes of our leaving an
English lady had arrived who was in
the last stage of conSumption She had