The farmer and mechanic., 1911-10-17

to take an aimless holiday. and some
thing about his pale, worn face told
me that his nerves were at their
highest tension. He saw the ques-
ton in my eyes, and, putting his
finger-tips together and his elbows
upon his knees, he explained the
situation.
You have probably never heard
of Professor Moriarty said he.
Never
Aye, there's the genius and the
wonder Of the thing" ne cried. The
man pervades London, and no one
has heard of him That's what puts
crime. I tell you, Watson, in all
seriousness, that if | could beat that
man, if / could free society Of him,
I should feel that my own career had
reached its summit and | should pc
prepared to turn to some more placid
line in life. Between ourselves, the
recent cases in which l have been Of
assistance to the royal family OF
Scandinavia, and to the French re-
public, have left me in such po-
sition that / could continue to live
in the quiet fashion which is most
my attention upon nv chemical re-
searches But I could not rest, Wat
son, | could not sit quiet in my chair,
if / thought that such man as Pro-
lessor MOT1dIIy were WANING lii6
streets of London unchallenged.'
lenged."
What has he done, then?''
His career has been an extraor-
dinary one. He is a man of good birth
and excellent education, endowed by
tical faculty. At the age of twenty
one he wrote a treatise upon the
Binomial Theorem, which has had a
European vogue. On the strength OF
it he won the Mathematical Chair at
one of our smaller universities, and
liant career before him. But the
man had hereditary tendencies Of
the most diabolical kind. A criminal
strain ran in his blood. which, In
stead Of being modified, was tn
creased and rendered infinitely more
tai powers. Dark rumors gathered
round him in the university town,
and eventually he 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
now is what have myself discovered.
"As you are aware, Watson, there
is no one who knows the higher
criminal world Of London SO we'll as
I do. For years past l have con-
tinually been conscious Of some pow
organizing power Which forever
stands in the way Of the law, and
throws It's 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, and l have
deduced its action in many of those
undiscovered crimes in Which l have
not been personally consulted. For
years | have endeavored to brea K
and at last the time came when |
seized my thread and followed it,
until it led me, after a thousand cum
ming Wlndings, to ex-PrOfeSSOr Nj O.
riarty of mathematical celebrity.
He is the Napoleon Of crime, Wat
son. He is the organizer of half that
is evil and Of nearly all that is un-
detected in this great city. He is a
genius, a philosopher an abstract
thinker. He has a brain of the first
| order He sits motionless, like a
spider in the centre Of its web, but
! that web has 8 thousand radiations,
and he knows we'll every culver of
each of them. He does little him
self. He only plans. But his agents
are numerous and splendidly organ
I lied. Is there a crime to be done,
a paper to be distracted we will say,
a house to be rif1ed. a man to be re-
moved-the word is passed to the
Professor, the matter is organized and
carried out. The agent may be
caught. In that case money is found
for his bail or his defence But the
central power which uses the agent
is never caught-never SO much as
suspected. This was the organiza- :
tion which I deduced Watson, and
which l devoted my whole energy to
exposing and breaking up.
But the Professor was fenced
round with safeguards so cunningly
devised that, do what I would il
seemed impossible to get evidence
which would convict in a court OF
law. You know my powers, my dear
Watson. and yet at the end Of three
months I was forced to confess that
] had at last met an antagonist who
/ was my intellectual equal. Ny hor-
ror at his crimes was lost in my ad-
miration at his skill. But at last he
made trip-only a little, little trip
but It was more than he could af-
! tOrd. When / MaS ca clnca ,1nnr hin,