“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,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 pasthave 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, andhave 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, untilMemoirs of Sherlock Holmes 837
it led me, after a thousand cunning windings, to ex-ProfessorMoriarty of mathematical celebrity.
“He is the Napoleon of crime, Watson. He is the organizer of halfthat is evil and of nearly all that is undetected in this great city. Heis a genius, a philosopher, an abstract thinker. He has a brain of thefirst order. He sits motionless, like a spider in the center of its web,but that web has a thousand radiations, and he knows well everyquiver of each of them. He does little himself. He only plans. Buthis agents are numerous and splendidly organized. Is there a crimeto be done, a paper to be abstracted, we will say, a house to be rifled,a man to be removed—the word is passed to the Professor, thematter is organized and carried out. The agent may be caught. Inthat case money is found for his bail or his defence. But the centralpower which uses the agent is never caught—never so much assuspected. This was the organization which I deduced, Watson, andwhich I devoted my whole energy to exposing and breaking up.
“But the Professor was fenced round with safeguards socunningly devised that, do what I would, it seemed impossibleto get evidence which would convict in a court of law. You knowmy powers, my dear Watson, and yet at the end of three monthsI was forced to confess that I had at last met an antagonist whowas my intellectual equal. My horror at his crimes was lost in myadmiration at his skill. But at last he made a trip—only a little,little trip—but it was more than he could afford when I was so closeupon him. I had my chance, and, starting from that point, I havewoven my net round him until now it is all ready to close. In threedays—that is to say, on Monday next—matters will be ripe, and theProfessor, with all the principal members of his gang, will be in thehands of the police. Then will come the greatest criminal trial ofthe century, the clearing up of over forty mysteries, and the rope forall of them; but if we move at all prematurely, you understand, theymay slip out of our hands even at the last moment.
“Now, if I could have done this without the knowledge ofProfessor Moriarty, all would have been well. But he was too wilyfor that. He saw every step which I took to draw my toils roundhim. Again and again he strove to break away, but I as oftenheaded him off. I tell you, my friend, that if a detailed accountof that silent contest could be written, it would take its place asthe most brilliant bit of thrust-and-parry work in the history ofdetection. Never have I risen to such a height, and never have Ibeen so hard pressed by an opponent. He cut deep, and yet I justundercut him. This morning the last steps were taken, and threedays only were wanted to complete the business. I was sitting inmy room thinking the matter over, when the door opened andProfessor Moriarty stood before me.
838 The Complete Sherlock Holmes
“My nerves are fairly proof, Watson, but I must confess tostart when I saw the very man who had been so much in mythoughts standing there on my threshhold. His appearance wasquite familiar to me. He is extremely tall and thin, his foreheaddomes out in a white curve, and his two eyes are deeply sunken inhis head. He is clean-shaven, pale, and ascetic-looking, retainingsomething of the professor in his features. His shoulders arerounded from much study, and his face protrudes forward, and isforever slowly oscillating from side to side in a curiously reptilianfashion. He peered at me with great curiosity in his puckered eyes.
“ ‘You have less frontal development than I should haveexpected,’ said he, at last. ‘It is a dangerous habit to finger loadedfirearms in the pocket of one’s dressing-gown.’
“The fact is that upon his entrance I had instantly recognizedthe extreme personal danger in which I lay. The only conceivableescape for him lay in silencing my tongue. In an instant I hadslipped the revolver from the drawer into my pocket, and wascovering him through the cloth. At his remark I drew the weaponout and laid it cocked upon the table. He still smiled and blinked,but there was something about his eyes which made me feel veryglad that I had it there.
“ ‘You evidently don’t know me,’ said he.
“ ‘On the contrary,’ I answered, ‘I think it is fairly evident thatdo. Pray take a chair. I can spare you five minutes if you haveanything to say.’
“ ‘All that I have to say has already crossed your mind,’ said he.
“ ‘Then possibly my answer has crossed yours,’ I replied.