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Tonight. Please share this episode with a friend. This episode is brought to you by Moral and Clammer. Tonight, we'll read the second half to the final problem written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the first half aired last week. As with all of our Sherlock series, this story contains some darker elements and themes that may not be appropriate for all listeners. In the first episode, Holmes is considering retiring from his private detective work, but learns about a criminal genius named Professor Moriardi, who orchestrates a huge amount of crime that happens in London and in Europe.

Holmes set about gathering evidence to bring down the whole gang. The work of Holmes, though, had not gone unnoticed by Moriarty, who threatened him to back off. Soon, Holmes evades three attempts at his life before meeting up with Watson. it agrees to hide, surreptitiously in Europe, with him while they wait for Holmes' plans for the police to catch the whole enterprise come to fruition in a few days' time. We will start back in the story on the train, where Holmes is in disguise as an elderly Italian man and is narrowly avoided being caught by

Moriarty.

Holmes is now discussing the plan of the woods. That's good cozy. Close your eyes. We'll act your body and of this softness of your bed. Now, take a few deep breaths. Did you recognize your coachman? No. It was my brother, my craft. It is an advantage to get about in such a case without taking a mercenary into your confidence. But we must plan what we are to do about Moriarti now. As this is an express, and as the boat runs in connection with it, I should think we have shaken him off very effectively. My dear Watson, you evidently did not realize my meaning when I said that this man may be taken as being quite on the same intellectual plane as myself. You do not imagine that if I were the pursuer, I should allow myself to be baffled by so slight and obstacle. Why then should you think so mainly of him? What will he do? What should I do? What would you do then engage a special? But it must be late. By no means, this train stops at Canterbury, and there's always at least a quarter of an hour's delay at the boat. He will catch us there. One would think that we were the criminals. Let us have him arrested on his arrival. It would be to ruin the work of three months. We should get the big fish, but the smaller would dart right and left out of the net. On Monday, we should have the mole. No, an arrest is inadmissible. What then? We shall get out at Canterbury. And then? Well, then we must make a cross-country journey to New Haven, and so over to Deyep. Moriarty will again do what I should do. He will get on to Paris, mark down our luggage, and wait for two days at the depot. In the meantime, we shall treat ourselves to a couple of carpet bags, encourage the manufacturers of the countries through which we travel, and make our way at our leisure in the Switzerland, the Aluxenberg in Basel. At Canterbury, therefore, we allighted, only to find out that we should have to wait an hour before we could get a train to New Haven. I was still looking rather roofily after the rapidly disappearing luggage-van which contained my wardrobe when homes pulled my sleeve and pointed up the line. Already you see, said he, far away from among the kentish woods there rose a thin spray of smoke. A minute later a carriage and engine could be seen flying along the open curve which leads to the station.

We had hardly time to take our place behind a pile of luggage when it passed with a rattle and a roar beating a blast of hot air into our faces. There he goes, set homes, as we watched the carriage swing and rock over the points.

There are limits, you see, to our friends' intelligence. It would have been a master stroke had he deduced what I would deduce and acted accordingly. And what would he have done had he overtaken us? There cannot be the least doubt that he would have set upon me. It is however a game at which two may play. The question now is whether we should take a premature lunch here or run our chance of starving before we reach the buffet at New Haven. We made our way to Brussels that night and spent two days there, moving on upon the third day as far as Strasbourg. On the Monday morning, Holmes had telegraphed to the London 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 grate. I might have known it, in ground, he has escaped. Moriarty? They have secured the whole gang with the exception of him. He has given them the slip. Of course, when I had left the country there was no one to cope with him. But I did think that I had put the game in their hands. I think that you would better return to England Watson. Why? Because you will find me a dangerous companion now. This man's occupation is gone. He is lost if he returns to London. If I read his character right, he will devote his whole energies to avenging himself upon me. He said as much in our short interview, and I fancy that he meant it. I should certainly recommend you to return to your practice. It was hardly an appeal to be successful with one who was an old campaigner as well as an old friend. We sat in the dining room arguing the question for half an hour, but the same night we had resumed our journey and were well on our way to Geneva. For charming week we wandered up the valley of the road, and then branching off at Luke, we made our way over the gimme pass, still deep in snow, and so, by way of interlocking to my ring in, it was a 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 only alpine villages, or in the lonely mountain passes, I could tell by his quick glancing eyes and his sharp scrutiny of every face that passed us, that he was well convinced that, walk where we would, we could not walk ourselves clear of the danger which was dogging our footsteps. Once I remember as we passed over the gimme and walked along the border of the melancholy Davency, a 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 raised up on the ridge, and standing upon a lofty pinnacle, cramed his neck in every direction. It was in vain that our guide assured him that a fall of stones was a common chance in the springtime at that spot. He said nothing, but he smiled at me with the air of a man who seized the fulfillment of that which he expected. And yet, for all his watchfulness, he was never depressed. On the contrary, I can never recollect having seen him in such exuberant spirits. Again and again, he recurred to the fact that if he could be assured that society was freed from Professor Moriarty, he would cheerfully bring his own career to a conclusion. I think that I may go so far as to say Watson, that I have not lived wholly in vain. He remarked, if my record were closed tonight, I could still survey it with equanimity. The air of London is the sweeter for my presence. In over a thousand cases, I am not aware that I have ever used my powers upon the wrong side. Of late, I 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 I crown my career by the capture or extinction of the most dangerous and capable criminal in Europe. I shall be brief, and yet exact, in the little which remains for me to tell, it is not a subject on which I would willingly dwell, and yet I am conscious that a duty devolves upon me to omit no detail. It was on the third of May that we reached the little village of Myringen, where we put up the Englisher Hoth and kept by Peter Steeler the Elder Elder. Our land Lord was an intelligent man and spoke excellent English, having served for three years as waiter at the Grovener Hotel in London. At his advice, on the afternoon of the fourth we set off together, with the intention of crossing the hills,

and spending the nights at the hamlet of Rosenlawi. We had strict injunctions, however, on no account to pass the falls of Ryshinbok, which are about halfway up the hill, without making a small detour to see them. with tone,, swollen by the melting snow, plunges into a tremendous abyss, from which the spray rolls up like the smoke from a burning house. The shaft into which the river hurls itself is in an immense chasm, lined by glistening cold black rock, and narrowing into a creaming boiling pit of incalculable depths, which brims over and shoots the stream onward over its jagged lip. A long sweep of green water roaring forever down, and the thick flickering curtain of spray hissing forever upward, turn a man giddy with their constant whirl and glamour. We stood near the edge, peering down at the gleam 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 a complete view, but it ends abruptly, and the traveler has to return as he came. We had turned to do so when we saw a Swiss lad come running along with a letter in his hand. It bore the mark of the hotel, which we had just left, and was addressed to me by the landlord. It 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 wintered at Davos Plots and was journeying now to join her friends at Lucerne when a sudden hemorrhage had overtaken her. It was thought that she could hardly live a few hours, but it would be a great consolation to her to see an English doctor, and if I would only return, etc. The Good Stealer assured me in a post script that he would himself look upon my compliance as a very great favor, since the lady absolutely refused to see a Swiss physician, and he could not but feel that he was incurring a great responsibility. The appeal was one which could not be ignored. It was impossible to refuse the request of a fellow-country woman dying in a strange land. Yet I had my scruples about leaving homes. It was finally agreed, however, that he should retain the young Swiss messenger with him as a guide and companion while I returned to my ringin. My friend would stay some little time at the fall, he said, and would then walk slowly over the hills to Rosenlawi, where I was to rejoin him in the evening. As I turned away, I saw homes with his back against a rock, and his arms folded, gazing down at the rush of the waters. It was the last that I was ever destined to see of him in this world. I was near the bottom of the descent I looked back. It was impossible from that position to see the fall, but I could see the curving path which winds over the shoulder of the hill and leads to it. Along this was a man I remember walking very rapidly. I could see his black figure clearly outlined against the green behind him. I noted him, in the energy with which he walked, but he passed from my mind again as I hurried on upon my errand. It may have been a little over an hour before I reached my ringin'. Old Stealer was standing at the porch of his hotel. Well, said I, as I came hurrying up. I'd trust that she is no worse. A look of surprise passed over his face, and at the first quiver of his eyebrows, my heart turned to let in my breast. You did not write this? I said, pulling the letter from my pocket. There is no sick English woman in the hotel. Certainly not. He cried. But it has the hotel mark upon it. Huh, that must have been written by that tall Englishman who came in after you had gone. He said, but I waited for none of the land lord's explanations. It was already running down the village street, and making for the path which I had so lately descended. It had taken me an hour to come down. For all my efforts, two more had passed before I found myself at the fall of Ryshin-Bok once more. There was Holmes, Alpine's stock still leaning against the rock by which I had left him. But there was no sign of him, and it was in vain that I shouted. My only answer was my own voice, reverberating in a rolling echo from the cliffs around me. It was the sight of that alpine stock which turned me cold and sick. He had not gone to Rosenlawi. He had remained on that three foot path with sheer wall on one side and sheer drop on the other until his enemy had overtaken him. The young Swiss had gone too. They had probably been in the pay of Moriarty and had left the two men together. And then what had happened? Who was to tell us what had happened then? I stood for a minute or two to collect myself, for I was dazed with the thing, that I began to think of Holmes' own methods and try to practice them in reading this. It was, alas, only too easy to do. During our conversation we had not gone to the end of the path, and the alpine stock marked the place where we had stood. The blackish soil is kept forever soft by the incessant drift of spray and a bird would leave its tread upon it. Two lines of footmarks were clearly marked along the farther end of the path, both leading away from me. There were none returning. A few yards from the end, the soil was all plowed up into a patch of mud, and the branches and ferns, which fringed to the chasm, were torn, and but dragled. I lay upon my face and peered over with the spray spouting up all around me. It had darkened since I left, and now I could only see here and there the glistening of moisture upon the black walls, and far away down at the end of the shaft, the gleam of the broken water. I shouted, but only the same half human cry of the fall was born back to my ears, but it was distant that I should after all have a last word of greeting from my friend and comrade. I have said that his alpine stock had been left leaning against a rock which jutted onto the path. From the top of this boulder the gleam of something bright caught my eye, and raising my And I found that it came from the silver cigarette case which he used to carry. As I took it up, a small square of paper upon which it had lame fluttering down onto the ground. Unfolding it, I found that it consisted of three pages torn from his notebook and addressed to me. It was characteristic of the man that the direction was a precise and the writing is firm and clear as though it had been written in his study. My // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // I'm sorry. He has been giving me a sketch of the methods of which he avoided the English police and kept himself informed of our movements. They certainly confirm the very high opinion which I had formed of his abilities. I am pleased to think that I shall be able to free society from any further effects of his presence,

though I fear that it is at a cost which will give pain to my friends, and especially my dear Watson

to you. I have already explained to you however that my career had in any case reached its crisis, and that no possible conclusion to it could be more congenial to me than this. Indeed, if I may make a full confession to you, I was quite convinced that the letter from my ringin' a hoax, and I allowed you to depart on that errand under the persuasion that some development of this sort would follow. Tell Inspector Patterson that the papers which he needs to convict the gang are in Pitch. M. Done up in a blue envelope, an inscribed, morey-arty. I made every disposition of my property before leaving England, and handed it to my brother, my craft. Pray. Give my greetings to Mrs. Watson. And believe me to be my dear fellow, very sincerely yours. Sherlock Holmes. A few words may suffice to tell the little that remains. An examination by experts sleeves little doubt that a personal contest between the two men ended as it could hardly

fail. An examination by experts leaves little doubt that a personal contest between the two men

ended as it could hardly fail to end in such a situation, and their reeling over locked in each other's arms, deep down in that cauldron of swirling water and seething foam. lie for all time the most dangerous criminal and the foremost champion of the law of their generation. This was youth was never found again and there can be no doubt that he was one of the numerous agents whom Mori already kept in his employ. As to the gang, it will be within the memory of the public how completely the evidence which Holmes had accumulated exposed their organization and how heavily his hand weighed upon them. Of their chief few details came out during the proceedings, and if I have now been compelled to make a clear statement of his career, it is due to those in judicious champions who have endeavored to clear his memory by charges upon him whom I shall ever regard as

the best and the wisest man whom I have ever known. you you