"Yes, but I have a peculiar taste in these matters. I chose the placewhere the three fir-trees stand, and behind their screen I got overwithout the least chance of any one in the house being able to see me.I crouched down among the bushes on the other side, and crawled from oneto the other--witness the disreputable state of my trouser knees--untilI had reached the clump of rhododendrons just opposite to your bedroomwindow. There I squatted down and awaited developments.
"The blind was not down in your room, and I could see Miss Harrisonsitting there reading by the table. It was quarter-past ten when sheclosed her book, fastened the shutters, and retired.
"I heard her shut the door, and felt quite sure that she had turned thekey in the lock."
"The key!" ejaculated Phelps.
"Yes; I had given Miss Harrison instructions to lock the door on theoutside and take the key with her when she went to bed. She carried outevery one of my injunctions to the letter, and certainly without hercooperation you would not have that paper in your coat-pocket. Shedeparted then and the lights went out, and I was left squatting in therhododendron-bush.
"The night was fine, but still it was a very weary vigil. Of course ithas the sort of excitement about it that the sportsman feels when helies beside the water-course and waits for the big game. It was verylong, though--almost as long, Watson, as when you and I waited in thatdeadly room when we looked into the little problem of the Speckled Band.There was a church-clock down at Woking which struck the quarters, and Ithought more than once that it had stopped. At last however about twoin the morning, I suddenly heard the gentle sound of a bolt being pushedback and the creaking of a key. A moment later the servants' door wasopened, and Mr. Joseph Harrison stepped out into the moonlight."
"Joseph!" ejaculated Phelps.
"He was bare-headed, but he had a black coat thrown over his shoulder sothat he could conceal his face in an instant if there were any alarm. Hewalked on tiptoe under the shadow of the wall, and when he reached thewindow he worked a long-bladed knife through the sash and pushed backthe catch. Then he flung open the window, and putting his knife throughthe crack in the shutters, he thrust the bar up and swung them open.
"From where I lay I had a perfect view of the inside of the room and ofevery one of his movements. He lit the two candles which stood upon themantelpiece, and then he proceeded to turn back the corner of the carpetin the neighborhood of the door. Presently he stopped and picked out asquare piece of board, such as is usually left to enable plumbers to getat the joints of the gas-pipes. This one covered, as a matter offact, the T joint which gives off the pipe which supplies the kitchenunderneath. Out of this hiding-place he drew that little cylinderof paper, pushed down the board, rearranged the carpet, blew out thecandles, and walked straight into my arms as I stood waiting for himoutside the window.
"Well, he has rather more viciousness than I gave him credit for, hasMaster Joseph. He flew at me with his knife, and I had to grasp himtwice, and got a cut over the knuckles, before I had the upper hand ofhim. He looked murder out of the only eye he could see with when we hadfinished, but he listened to reason and gave up the papers. Havinggot them I let my man go, but I wired full particulars to Forbes thismorning. If he is quick enough to catch his bird, well and good. Butif, as I shrewdly suspect, he finds the nest empty before he gets there,why, all the better for the government. I fancy that Lord Holdhurst forone, and Mr. Percy Phelps for another, would very much rather that theaffair never got as far as a police-court.
"My God!" gasped our client. "Do you tell me that during these long tenweeks of agony the stolen papers were within the very room with me allthe time?"
"So it was."
"And Joseph! Joseph a villain and a thief!"
"Hum! I am afraid Joseph's character is a rather deeper and moredangerous one than one might judge from his appearance. From what Ihave heard from him this morning, I gather that he has lost heavily indabbling with stocks, and that he is ready to do anything on earth tobetter his fortunes. Being an absolutely selfish man, when a chancepresented itself he did not allow either his sister's happiness or yourreputation to hold his hand."
Percy Phelps sank back in his chair. "My head whirls," said he. "Yourwords have dazed me."
"The principal difficulty in your case," remarked Holmes, in hisdidactic fashion, "lay in the fact of there being too much evidence.What was vital was overlaid and hidden by what was irrelevant. Of allthe facts which were presented to us we had to pick just those which wedeemed to be essential, and then piece them together in their order, soas to reconstruct this very remarkable chain of events. I had alreadybegun to suspect Joseph, from the fact that you had intended to travelhome with him that night, and that therefore it was a likely enoughthing that he should call for you, knowing the Foreign Office well, uponhis way. When I heard that some one had been so anxious to get into thebedroom, in which no one but Joseph could have concealed anything--youtold us in your narrative how you had turned Joseph out when you arrivedwith the doctor--my suspicions all changed to certainties, especially asthe attempt was made on the first night upon which the nurse was absent,showing that the intruder was well acquainted with the ways of thehouse."
"How blind I have been!"
"The facts of the case, as far as I have worked them out, are these:this Joseph Harrison entered the office through the Charles Street door,and knowing his way he walked straight into your room the instant afteryou left it. Finding no one there he promptly rang the bell, and atthe instant that he did so his eyes caught the paper upon the table.A glance showed him that chance had put in his way a State document ofimmense value, and in an instant he had thrust it into his pocket andwas gone. A few minutes elapsed, as you remember, before the sleepycommissionnaire drew your attention to the bell, and those were justenough to give the thief time to make his escape.
"He made hi
s way to Woking by the first train, and having examined hisbooty and assured himself that it really was of immense value, hehad concealed it in what he thought was a very safe place, with theintention of taking it out again in a day or two, and carrying it to theFrench embassy, or wherever he thought that a long price was to behad. Then came your sudden return. He, without a moment's warning, wasbundled out of his room, and from that time onward there were always atleast two of you there to prevent him from regaining his treasure. Thesituation to him must have been a maddening one. But at last he thoughthe saw his chance. He tried to steal in, but was baffled by yourwakefulness. You remember that you did not take your usual draught thatnight."
"I remember."
"I fancy that he had taken steps to make that draught efficacious,and that he quite relied upon your being unconscious. Of course, Iunderstood that he would repeat the attempt whenever it could be donewith safety. Your leaving the room gave him the chance he wanted. I keptMiss Harrison in it all day so that he might not anticipate us. Then,having given him the idea that the coast was clear, I kept guard asI have described. I already knew that the papers were probably in theroom, but I had no desire to rip up all the planking and skirting insearch of them. I let him take them, therefore, from the hiding-place,and so saved myself an infinity of trouble. Is there any other pointwhich I can make clear?"
"Why did he try the window on the first occasion," I asked, "when hemight have entered by the door?"
"In reaching the door he would have to pass seven bedrooms. On the otherhand, he could get out on to the lawn with ease. Anything else?"
"You do not think," asked Phelps, "that he had any murderous intention?The knife was only meant as a tool."
"It may be so," answered Holmes, shrugging his shoulders. "I can onlysay for certain that Mr. Joseph Harrison is a gentleman to whose mercy Ishould be extremely unwilling to trust."
Adventure XI. The Final Problem
It is with a heavy heart that I take up my pen to write these the lastwords in which I shall ever record the singular gifts by which my friendMr. Sherlock Holmes was distinguished. In an incoherent and, as I deeplyfeel, an entirely inadequate fashion, I have endeavored to give someaccount of my strange experiences in his company from the chance whichfirst brought us together at the period of the "Study in Scarlet," upto the time of his interference in the matter of the "Naval Treaty"--aninterference which had the unquestionable effect of preventing a seriousinternational complication. It was my intention to have stopped there,and to have said nothing of that event which has created a void in mylife which the lapse of two years has done little to fill. My handhas been forced, however, by the recent letters in which Colonel JamesMoriarty defends the memory of his brother, and I have no choice but tolay the facts before the public exactly as they occurred. I alone knowthe absolute truth of the matter, and I am satisfied that the time hascome when no good purpose is to be served by its suppression. As far asI know, there have been only three accounts in the public press: thatin the Journal de Geneve on May 6th, 1891, the Reuter's despatch in theEnglish papers on May 7th, and finally the recent letter to which I havealluded. Of these the first and second were extremely condensed, whilethe last is, as I shall now show, an absolute perversion of the facts.It lies with me to tell for the first time what really took placebetween Professor Moriarty and Mr. Sherlock Holmes.
It may be remembered that after my marriage, and my subsequent start inprivate practice, the very intimate relations which had existed betweenHolmes and myself became to some extent modified. He still came to mefrom time to time when he desired a companion in his investigation, butthese occasions grew more and more seldom, until I find that in the year1890 there were only three cases of which I retain any record. Duringthe winter of that year and the early spring of 1891, I saw in thepapers that he had been engaged by the French government upon a matterof supreme importance, and I received two notes from Holmes, dated fromNarbonne and from Nimes, from which I gathered that his stay in Francewas likely to be a long one. It was with some surprise, therefore, thatI saw him walk into my consulting-room upon the evening of April 24th.It struck me that he was looking even paler and thinner than usual.
"Yes, I have been using myself up rather too freely," he remarked, inanswer to my look rather than to my words; "I have been a little pressedof late. Have you any objection to my closing your shutters?"