Holmes and Watson (19 page)

The carriage would then take him to Victoria in time to catch the Continental express, where Holmes would be waiting for him in a reserved first-class carriage, the second from the front.

The plan seemed foolproof. There was small chance that Moriarty would learn of it and send one of his agents to track them down. It cannot have occurred to either of them that Moriarty would take it upon himself to pursue them and personally attempt to carry out his threatened revenge.

Holmes was soon reminded, however, of the continuing danger to his life while he remained in London. Even on his
way to Kensington to lay the plan before Watson, he was attacked by one of Moriarty’s gang, who must have been tailing him that afternoon. With his skill at boxing, Holmes was soon able to knock him down before handing him over to the police. However, there still remained the threat posed by Colonel Moran, Moriarty’s Chief of Staff, an excellent shot, whom Holmes already knew was in possession of an air rifle, specially made by Von Herder, the blind German mechanic, on Moriarty’s orders. Holmes’ first action on arriving at Watson’s house was to close the shutters as a precaution against being shot at by an air gun. It was a perfect assassin’s weapon, powerful and silent, which Moran was to put to deadly use three years later.

Watson was alone on that evening of 24th April when Holmes walked into his consulting-room. Mrs Watson was away on a visit and he had settled down to spend the evening reading. He had not seen Holmes for several months, probably not since the Dying Detective case in November 1890, and may have assumed he was still in France, engaged on the important inquiry for the French government. Holmes’ arrival was therefore totally unexpected. So, too, was his suggestion that Watson accompany him on a week’s visit to the Continent, although, as soon as Holmes explained the reason behind this request, the threat to his life posed by Professor Moriarty, Watson agreed without any hesitation. His practice was quiet and he knew Anstruther, his ‘accommodating neighbour’, would be willing to act as locum in his absence.

‘You have probably never heard of Professor Moriarty?’ Holmes enquires ingenuously. To which Watson replies, ‘Never.’

This professed ignorance of Moriarty’s existence, about which some critics have commented derisively, becomes perfectly explicable when the publication dates of the two accounts,
The Valley of Fear
and ‘The Final Problem’, are examined. ‘The Final Problem’ was first published in
The Strand
and
McClure’s
magazines in December 1893, two years and nine months after the events, whereas
The Valley of Fear
was not printed until much later in
The Strand
, in serial form between September 1914 and May 1915. Therefore at the time ‘The Final Problem’ was published, Watson’s readers knew nothing of either Moriarty or Holmes’ encounter with him in 1888 during the Valley of Fear inquiry.

Watson’s apparent ignorance of Moriarty when Holmes calls on him on that evening of 24th April 1891 is therefore nothing more than a literary device used deliberately by him to convey to his readers necessary information about both the Professor and his criminal activities. As a device, it is admittedly a little clumsy but, given the circumstances, there was not much else Watson as author could do to get round the problem. The only other alternative was for Watson to admit his knowledge of Moriarty but allow Holmes to give his account of the Professor and his career anyway, which would have been even more artificial. Watson has done his best in a difficult literary situation. Certain parts of Holmes’ account
printed in ‘The Final Problem’ therefore belong almost certainly to a much earlier conversation between the two of them which took place during the 1888 Valley of Fear case and which Watson has transferred to the Final Problem inquiry of 1891.

Knowing he had probably been followed to Kensington, Holmes refused to stay the night as it might be dangerous for Watson and, when he left, he took the precaution of scrambling over the back garden wall into Mortimer Street,
*
where he hailed a hansom. It is not known where he went, perhaps to some small hotel or more probably to one of the five small refuges he had set up in different parts of London where he kept some of his disguises. The following morning, when Watson met him in their first-class carriage of the Continental express, he was disguised as an elderly Italian priest. He certainly did not return to Baker Street, where a fire broke out that night in his lodgings, although fortunately not a serious one. Mrs Hudson’s reaction to this arson attack on her home is not recorded.

In the meantime Watson must have been busy packing for the trip abroad and sending his luggage in advance to Victoria station, as Holmes had instructed. He also had to make arrangements with Anstruther to look after his practice before setting off the following morning after breakfast for Victoria, carrying out Holmes’ instructions
about the journey to the letter, as he is careful to point out.

Despite these precautions, Moriarty discovered their destination, probably through their luggage, the one weak spot in the plan. If one of Moriarty’s agents was watching Watson’s house, it would have been easy enough for him to follow the messenger to Victoria station and then alert Moriarty who, by bribing the porter who loaded their luggage on the train, learnt that it was booked through to Paris. There is no other explanation for Moriarty’s sudden arrival just as the Continental express was drawing out of the station. He was too late to catch the train but not too late to follow them, as Holmes quickly realised. Moriarty, Holmes deduced, would do exactly what he would have done under the circumstances: that is, to engage a special train
*
and set off in pursuit.

Watson’s suggestion, that they should arrange for Moriarty’s arrest, was out of the question. This would alert the rest of Moriarty’s gang who would then escape. Despite the threat he posed, Moriarty must be allowed to remain free. But if they were to elude him, Holmes had to make some last minute changes to his plans. His original destination was Paris. He had probably intended to travel to Dover, where he and Watson would have caught the cross-channel packet to Calais, going on from there by train to the French capital.

Instead, he decided to go via the Newhaven–Ostend route to Brussels. And so, when the train stopped at Canterbury,
*
he and Watson alighted, abandoning their luggage, an inconvenience, although Watson, who liked to think of himself as a seasoned traveller after his Afghan experiences, refused to be too annoyed at this loss. As Holmes pointed out, they could easily acquire a couple of carpet-bags and buy whatever they needed during the tour. He was also sanguine about what action Moriarty would take once he discovered he had been given the slip; over-sanguine as events were to prove. He assumed that Moriarty would travel on to Paris, track down their luggage and wait at the depot for two days for them to arrive to collect it. In fact, as we shall see, Moriarty did no such thing.

Having alighted at Canterbury and watched from behind a pile of luggage as Moriarty’s special train rattled through the station, Holmes and Watson then made their way cross-country to Newhaven, arriving in Brussels that same night, that is 25th April.

Their itinerary from then on can be established in some detail. They spent the following two days, 26th and 27th of April, in Brussels at a hotel, moving on Tuesday morning, 28th April, to Strasburg from where Holmes sent a telegram to Scotland Yard. Although the contents are unknown, he presumably asked for information about the arrest of Moriarty and his gang members which was
due to have taken place the previous day, by which time Holmes must have assumed that Moriarty, having drawn a blank in Paris, would have returned to London. That same evening Holmes received an answer from Scotland Yard, informing him that Moriarty had escaped arrest but the rest of his gang had been rounded up. This latter piece of information was, however, incorrect and is an indication of Inspector Patterson’s incompetence. In fact, three of Moriarty’s gang had escaped, among them Colonel Moran.

Holmes was naturally bitterly angry at this failure on the part of the police and keenly aware of the danger to himself and Watson now that Moriarty was still at large. He tried in vain to persuade Watson to return immediately to England, but although they argued the matter over for half an hour in the hotel dining-room, Watson remained adamant. He refused to leave. Loyalty to Holmes and the promise of excitement proved too strong. That same night, 28th April, they left Strasburg for Geneva, from where they set off on foot along the Rhône valley, branching off at Leuk and crossing the Alps by the still snow-bound Gemmi Pass to Interlaken before finally moving on to Meiringen, accompanied by a guide for at least part of their journey.

Watson thoroughly enjoyed the trip, which took a week. It was probably the first proper holiday he had had since returning to medical practice and, with his love of nature, he appreciated the beauty of the scenery, the green of the spring valleys below contrasting with the white
snow of the mountains. Holmes, too, was in high spirits, although he was also on the alert, conscious of the danger still posed by Moriarty. However, he remained determined that, once Moriarty was arrested, he would retire.

On 3rd May, they arrived at Meiringen, a picturesque Swiss village perched nearly two thousand feet up in the Bernese Oberland in the Hasli valley. There they stayed the night at the Englischer Hof owned by Peter Steiler, who spoke excellent English, having spent three years as a waiter at the Grosvenor Hotel in London.

Although the route taken by Holmes and Watson can be established in detail, Moriarty’s movements cannot be so easily traced. Presumably, on arriving at Dover on the special train and discovering neither man was on the Calais packet, Moriarty must have realised they had got off the train at Canterbury and had made their way to Newhaven. It must also have been evident to him that it was highly unlikely they would follow their luggage to Paris. But if not Paris, where else might they have gone? Brussels seemed a possible alternative. It was a capital city with a choice of routes fanning out across Europe. Holmes was not the only person intelligent enough to put himself in another man’s shoes.

There was in fact no need for Moriarty himself to make the journey to Brussels. As his organisation was international, he had merely to telegraph an agent in Brussels instructing him to make enquiries while he, Moriarty, waited in Dover for the reply. It may have been then that he also sent for Colonel Moran to join him.
The evidence suggests that Moriarty was alone when he arrived at Victoria station. Holmes only mentions Moriarty while Watson saw only a tall man trying to push his way through the crowds.

The enquiries in Brussels need not have taken long. Both Holmes and Watson were apparently travelling under their own names; there is nothing in the canon to suggest otherwise. There would also have been a limited number of hotels in Brussels where they were likely to stay. In addition, they remained in the city for two whole days, which would have given Moriarty’s agent enough time to track them down and discover their plans to move on to Strasburg and then to Geneva. He may even have booked into their Strasburg hotel and eavesdropped on their conversations. As we have seen, they discussed the matter of Watson’s return to England openly in the hotel dining-room. Once their plans were discovered, it was simply a matter of telegraphing the information to Moriarty.

It is not known if Moriarty and Colonel Moran themselves travelled to Geneva and followed the two men on their ramble through the Rhône valley. Both were conspicuous figures, the Colonel with his huge, grizzled moustache and Moriarty, tall and thin with his professorial air. It is more likely that Moriarty employed a confederate, possibly the same Swiss youth who was to play such an important role in subsequent events, to stalk his quarry, while he and the Colonel remained at some convenient centre, awaiting further information on
Holmes’ and Watson’s movements and following by road in a hired vehicle.

Holmes himself was aware of the danger. During the cross-country tour, he was constantly on the alert for any sign that he and Watson were being followed, scrutinising the faces of everyone they encountered and once racing up to a ridge to look about him when a rock had fallen nearby. What is certain is that by the afternoon of 4th May, Moriarty and Colonel Moran had arrived in Meiringen or its vicinity and had been joined by a Swiss youth, one of Moriarty’s agents, probably at a pre-arranged meeting.

That same afternoon, 4th May, on Herr Steiler’s advice, Holmes and Watson set off to walk across the mountains to the small hamlet of Rosenlaui. It was clearly their intention to continue their walking tour. It was also on their landlord’s advice that they made a small detour from their route to visit the Reichenbach Falls, a tourist attraction.

Watson has left a vivid description of the falls. The water, swollen by melting snow, plunged down into a deep, rocky ravine, hurling up spray as it fell. He has caught, too, the roar of the water and the sensation of vertigo both he and Holmes felt as, having followed the path which led to the top of the falls, they peered down into the chasm below. The path itself came to a dead-end. Once they had reached the head of the waterfall, there was no way out except to return the way they had come.

It was while they were standing there that a Swiss lad came running up to them with a letter ostensibly from Herr Steiler, asking Watson to return to the hotel to
tend to an English lady who had only just arrived and who was dying of consumption. It was an artful appeal directed at Watson’s compassion both as a doctor and a fellow compatriot, although he was uneasy about leaving Holmes. However, it was agreed the Swiss lad would act as Holmes’ companion and guide and that the two men would meet later that evening at Rosenlaui.

As Watson set off, he glanced back. Holmes was standing with his back against a rock and his arms folded, gazing down at the rushing water.

‘It was the last that I was ever destined to see of him in this world,’ Watson adds.