set inquiries on foot. Already? Yes, I sent wires from Woking Station to every evening paper in London. This advertisement will appear in each of them. He handed over a sheet torn from a notebook. On it was scribbled in pencil. Ten pounds reward, the number of the cab which dropped a fare at or about the door of the foreign office in Charles Street at quarter to ten in the evening of May 23rd. Apply 221B Baker Street. You are confident that the thief came in a cab? If not, there is no harm done. But if Mr. Phelps is correct in stating that there is no hiding place either in the room or the corridors, then the person must have come from outside. If he came from outside on so early night and yet left no trace of damp upon the linoleum, which was examined within a few minutes of his passing, then it is exceedingly probable that he came in a cab. Yes, I think that we may safely deduce a cab. It sounds plausible. That is one of the clues of which I spoke. It may lead us to something, and then of course there is the bell, which is the most distinctive feature of the case. Why should that bell ring? Was it the thief who did it out of bravado? Or was it someone who was with the thief who did it in order to prevent the crime? Or was it an accident? Or was it— He sank back into the state of intense and silent thought from which he had emerged, but it seemed to me, accustomed as I was to his every mood, that some new possibility had dawned suddenly upon him. It was twenty past three when we reached our terminus, and after a hasty luncheon at the buffet we pushed on at once to Scotland Yard. Holmes had already wired to Forbes and we found him waiting to receive us, a small foxy man with a sharp but by no means amiable expression. He was decidedly frigid in his manner to us, especially when he heard the errand upon which we had come. I have heard of your methods before now, Mr. Holmes, said he tartly. You are ready enough to use all the information that the police can lay at your disposal, and then you try to finish the case yourself and bring discredit on them. On the contrary, said Holmes, out of my last fifty-three cases, my name has only appeared in four, and the police have had all the credit in forty-nine. I don't blame you for not knowing this, for you are young and inexperienced, but if you wish to get on in your new duties you will work with me and not against me. I'd be very glad of a hint or two, said the detective, changing his manner. I've certainly had no credit from the case so far. What steps have you taken? Tangy, the commissioner, has been shadowed. He left the guards with a good character, and we can find nothing against him. His wife is a bad lot, though. I fancy she knows more about this than appears. Have you shadowed her? We have set one of our women on to her. Mrs. Tangy drinks, and our woman has been with her twice when she was well on, but she could get nothing out of her. I understand that they have had brokers in the house. Yes, but they were paid off. Where did that money come from? That was all right. His pension was due. They have not shown any signs of being in funds. What explanation did she give of having answered the bell when Mr. Phelps rang for the coffee? She said that her husband was very tired, and she wished to relieve him. Well, certainly that would agree with his being found a little later asleep in his chair. There is nothing against them then but the woman's character. Did you ask her why she hurried away that night? Her taste attracted the attention of the police constable. She was later than usual and wanted to get home. Did you point out to her that you and Mr. Phelps, who started at least 20 minutes after her, got home before her? She explains that by the difference between a bus and a handsome. Did she make it clear why on reaching her house? She ran into the back kitchen because she had the money there with which to pay off the brokers. She has at least an answer for everything. Did you ask her whether in leaving she met anyone or saw anyone loitering about Charles Street? She saw no one but the constable. Well, you seem to have cross-examined her pretty thoroughly. What else have you done? The clerk Gorot has been shadowed all these nine weeks but without result we can show nothing against him. Anything else? Well, we have nothing else to go upon, no evidence of any kind. Have you formed a theory about how that bell rang? Well, I must confess that it beats me. It was a cool hand, whoever it was, to go and give the alarm like that. Yes, it was a queer thing to do. Many thanks to you for what you've told me. If I can put the man into your hands, you shall hear from me. Come along, Watson. Where are we going now? I asked as we left the office. We are now going to interview Lord Holdhurst, the cabinet minister and future premier of England. We were fortunate in finding that Lord Holdhurst was still in his chambers in Downing Street, and on home sending in his card we were instantly shown up. The statesman received us with that old-fashioned courtesy for which he is remarkable and seated us on the two luxuriant lounges on either side of the fireplace. Standing on the rug between us with his slight tall figure, his sharp features, thoughtful face, and curling hair prematurely tinged with gray, he seemed to represent that not too common type, a nobleman who is in truth noble. Your name is very familiar to me, Mr. Holmes, said he, smiling.  There has only been one occurrence in these offices which could call for your attention, in whose interest are you acting, may I ask? In that of Mr. Percy Phelps, answered Holmes, I am my unfortunate nephew. You can understand that our kinship makes it the more impossible for me to screen him in any way. I fear that the incident must have a very prejudicial effect upon his career. But if the document is found, all that of course would be different. I had one or two questions which I wish to ask you, Lord Holdhurst. I shall be happy to give you any information in my power. Was it in this room that you gave your instructions as to the copying of the document? It was. Then you could hardly have been overheard. It is out of the question. Did you ever mention to anyone that it was your intention to give anyone the treaty to be copied? Never. You are certain of that? Absolutely. Well, since you never said so, and Mr. Phelps never said so, and nobody else knew anything of the matter, then the thief's presence in the room was purely accidental. He saw his chance, and he took it. The statesman smiled. You take me out of my province there, said he. Holmes considered for a moment. There is another very important point which I wish to discuss with you, said he. You feared, as I understand, that very grave results might follow from the details of this treaty being known. A shadow passed over the expressive face of the statesman. Very grave results indeed. And have they occurred? Not yet. If the treaty had reached, let us say, the French or Russian foreign office, you would expect to hear of it. I should, said Lord Holdhurst with a rye face. Since nearly ten weeks have elapsed then, and nothing has been heard, it is not unfair to suppose that for some reason the treaty has not reached them. Lord Holdhurst shrugged his shoulders. We can hardly suppose, Mr. Holmes, that the thief took the treaty in order to frame it and hang it up. Perhaps he is waiting for a better price. If he waits a little longer, he will get no price at all. The treaty will cease to be secret in a few months. That is important, said Holmes. Of course, it is a possible supposition that the thief has had a sudden illness. An attack of brain fever, for example, asked the statesman flashing a swift glance at him. I did not say so, said Holmes imperturbably. And now, Lord Holdhurst, we have already taken up too much of your valuable time, and we shall wish you good day. Every success to your investigation be the criminal who it may, answered the nobleman, and he bowed us out of the door. He is a fine fellow, said Holmes, as we came out into Whitehall. But he has a struggle to keep up his position. He is far from rich and has many calls. You noticed, of course, that his boots had been resold.  I shall do nothing more today, unless I have an answer to my cabin, but I should be extremely obliged to you if you would come down with me to Woking tomorrow by the same train which we took yesterday. I met him accordingly next morning, and we travelled down to Woking together. He had had no answer to his advertisement, he said, and no fresh light had been thrown upon the case. He had, when he so willed it, the utter immobility of countenance of a red Indian, and I could not gather from his appearance whether he was satisfied or not with the position of the case. His conversation, I remember, was about the Bertillon system of measurements. And he expressed his enthusiastic admiration of the French savant. We found our client still under the charge of his devoted nurse, but looking considerably better than before. He rose from the sofa and greeted us without difficulty when we entered. Any news, he asked eagerly. My report, as I expected, is a negative one, said Holmes. I have seen Forbes, and I have seen your uncle, and I have set one or two trains of inquiry upon foot which may lead to something. You have not lost heart, then? By no means. God bless you for saying that, cried Miss Harrison. If we keep our courage and our patience, the truth must come out. We have more to tell you than you have for us, said Phelps, receding himself upon the couch. I hoped you might have something. Yes, we've had an adventure during the night, and one which might have proved to be a serious one. His expression grew very grave as he spoke, and a look of something akin to fear sprang up in his eyes. Do you know, said he, that I begin to believe that I am the unconscious centre of some monstrous conspiracy, and that my life is aimed at as well as my honour. Ah! cried Holmes. It sounds incredible, for I have not, as far as I know, an enemy in the world, yet from last night's experience I can come to no other conclusion. Pray let me hear it. You must know that last night was the very first night that I have ever slept without a nurse in the room. I was so much better than I thought I could dispense with one.  Well, about two in the morning I had sunk into a light sleep when I was suddenly aroused by a slight noise. It was like the sound which a mouse makes when it is gnawing a plank, and I lay listening to it for some time under the impression that it must come from that cause. Then it grew louder, and suddenly there came from the window a sharp metallic snick. I set up an amazement. There could be no doubt what the sounds were now. The first ones had been caused by someone forcing an instrument through the slit between the sashes, and the second by the catch being pressed back. There was a pause, then, for about ten minutes, as if the person were waiting to see whether the noise had awakened me. Then I heard a gentle creaking as the window was very slowly opened. I could stand it no longer, for my nerves are not what they used to be. I sprang out of bed and flung open the shutters. A man was crouching at the window. I could see little of him, for he was gone like a flash. He was wrapped in some sort of cloak which came across the lower part of his face, one thing only I am sure of, and that is that he had some weapon in his hand. It looked to me like a long knife. I distinctly saw the gleam of it as he turned to run. This is most interesting, said Holmes. Pray, what did you do then? I should have followed him through the open window if I had been stronger. As it was, I rang the bell and roused the house. It took me some little time, for the bell rings in the kitchen and the servants all sleep upstairs. I shouted, however, and that brought Joseph down, and he roused the others. Joseph and the groom found marks on the bed outside the window, but the weather has been so dry lately that they found it hopeless to follow the trail across the grass. There is a place, however, on the wooden fence which skirts the road which shows signs, they tell me, as if someone had got over and had snapped the top of the rail in doing so. I have said nothing to the local police yet, for I thought I had best have your opinion first. This tale of our clients appeared to have an extraordinary effect upon Sherlock Holmes. He rose from his chair and paced about the room in uncontrollable excitement. Miss Fortune's never come single, said Phelps smiling, though it was evident that his adventure had somewhat shaken him. You have certainly had your share, said Holmes. Do you think you could walk around the house with me? Oh yes, I should like a little sunshine. Joseph will come too. And I also, said Miss Harrison. I'm afraid not, said Holmes, shaking his head. I think I must ask you to remain sitting exactly where you are. The young lady resumed her seat with an air of displeasure. Her brother, however, had joined us and we set off all four together. We passed round the lawn to the outside of the young diplomatist's window. There were, as he had said, marks upon the bed, but they were hopelessly blurred and vague. Holmes stopped over them for an instant, and then rose, shrugging his shoulders. I don't think anyone could make much of this, said he. Let us go round the house and see why this particular room was chosen by the burglar. I should have thought those larger windows of the drawing room and dining room would have had more attractions for him. They are more visible from the road, suggested Mr. Joseph Harrison. Ah yes, of course. There is a door here which he might have attempted. What is it for? It is the side entrance for tradespeople. Of course, it is locked at night.  Never, said our client. Do you keep plate in the house or anything to attract burglars? Nothing of value. Holmes strolled round the house with his hands in his pockets, and a negligent air which was unusual with him. By the way, said he to Joseph Harrison, you found some place I understand where the fellow scaled the fence. Let us have a look at that. The plump young man led us to a spot where the top of one of the wooden rails had been cracked. A small fragment of the wood was hanging down. Holmes pulled it off and examined it critically. Do you think that was done last night? It looks rather old, does it not? Well, possibly so. There are no marks of anyone jumping down upon the other side. No, I fancy we shall get no help here. Let us go back to the bedroom and talk the matter over. Percy Phelps was walking very slowly, leaning upon the arm of his future brother-in-law. Holmes walked swiftly across the lawn, and we were at the open window of the bedroom long before the others came up. Ms. Harrison, said Holmes, speaking with the utmost intensity of manner, you must stay where you are all day.  It is of the utmost importance. Certainly if you wish it, Mr. Holmes, said the girl in astonishment. When you go to bed, lock the door of this room on the outside, and keep the key. Promise to do this. But Percy? He will come to London with us. And am I to remain here? It is for his sake. You can serve him quick. Promise. She gave a quick nod of assent, just as the other two came up. Why do you sit moping here, Annie? cried her brother. Come out into the sunshine. No, thank you, Joseph. I have a slight headache, and this room is deliciously cool and soothing. What do you propose now, Mr. Holmes? asked our client. Well, in investigating this minor affair, we must not lose sight of our main inquiry. It would be a very great help to me if you would come up to London with us. At once? Well, as soon as you conveniently can, say in an hour. I feel quite strong enough, if I can really be of any help. The greatest possible. Perhaps you would like me to stay there tonight? I was just going to propose it. Then if my friend of the night comes to revisit me, he will find the bird flown. We are all in your hands, Mr. Holmes, and you must tell us exactly what you would like done. Perhaps you would prefer that Joseph came with us, so as to look after me. Oh no, my friend Watson is a medical man, you know, and he'll look after you. We'll have our lunch here if you will permit us, and then we shall all three set off for town together. It was arranged, as he suggested, though Miss Harrison excused herself from leaving the bedroom in accordance with Holmes' suggestion. What the object of my friend's maneuvers was, I could not conceive unless it were to keep the lady away from Phelps, who rejoiced by his returning health and by the prospect of action, plunged with us in the dining room. Holmes had a still more startling surprise for us, however, for after accompanying us down to the station and seeing us into our carriage, he calmly announced that he had no intention of leaving Woking. There are one or two small points which I should desire to clear up before I go, said he. Your absence, Mr. Phelps, will in some ways rather assist me. Watson, when you reach London, you would oblige me by driving it once to Baker Street with our friend here and remaining with him until I see you again. It is fortunate that you are old school fellows, as you must have much to talk over. Mr. Phelps can have the spare bedroom tonight, and I will be with you in time for breakfast, for there is a train which will take me into Waterloo at eight. But how about our investigation in London? asked Phelps ruefully. We can do that tomorrow. I think that just at present I can be of more immediate use here. You might tell them at Briarbray that I hope to be back tomorrow night, cried Phelps, as we began to move from the platform. I hardly expect to go back to Briarbray, answered Holmes, and waved his hand to us cheerily as we shot out from the station. Phelps and I talked it over on our journey, but neither of us could devise a satisfactory reason for this new development. I suppose he wants to find out some clue as to the burglary last night, if a burglar it was. For myself, I don't believe it was an ordinary thief. What is your own idea then? Upon my word, you might put it down to my weak nerves or not, but I believe there is some deep political intrigue going on around me, and that for some reason that passes my understanding, my life is aimed at by the conspirators. It sounds high-flown and absurd, but consider the facts. Why should a thief try to break in at a bedroom window where there could be no hope of any plunder, and why should he come with a long knife in his hand? You're sure it was not a housebreaker's jimmy? Oh, no, it was a knife. I saw the flash of the blade quite distinctly. But why on earth should you be pursued with such animosity? Ah, that is the question. Well, if Holmes takes the same view, that would account for his action, would it not? Presuming that your theory is correct, if he can lay his hands upon the man who threatened you last night, he will have gone a long way towards finding who took the naval treaty.  But Holmes said that he was not going to Briarbray. I've known him for some time, said I, but I never knew him to do anything yet without a very good reason, and with that a conversation drifted off onto other topics. But it was a weary day for me. Phelps was still weak after his long illness, and his misfortune made him querulous and nervous. In vain I endeavored to interest him in Afghanistan, in India, in social questions in anything which might take his mind out of the groove. He would always come back to his lost treaty, wondering, guessing, speculating as to what Holmes was doing, what steps Lord Holt Hearst was taking, what news we should have in the morning. As the evening wore on, his excitement became quite painful. You have implicit faith in Holmes, he asked. I have seen him do some remarkable things. But he never brought light into anything quite so dark as this. Oh yes, I have known him to solve questions which presented fewer clues than yours. But not where such large interests are at stake. I don't know that. To my certain knowledge he's acted on behalf of three of the reigning houses of Europe in very vital matters. But you know him well, Watson. He's such an inscrutable fellow that I never quite know what to make of him. Do you think he is hopeful? Do you think he expects to make a success of it? He said nothing. That is a bad sign. On the contrary, I've noticed that when he is off the trail he generally says so. It is when he is on ascent and is not quite absolutely sure yet that it is the right one, that he is most taciturn. Now, my dear fellow, we can't help matters by making ourselves nervous about them, so let me implore you to go to bed and so be fresh for whatever may await us tomorrow. I was able at last to persuade my companion to take my advice, though I knew from his excited manner that there was not much hope of sleep for him. Indeed, his mood was infectious, for I lay tossing half the night myself, brooding over this strange problem, and inventing a hundred theories each of which was more impossible than the last. Why had Holmes remained at Woking? Why had he asked Miss Harrison to remain in the sick room all day? Why had he been so careful not to inform the people at Briarbray that he intended to remain near them? I cuddled my brains until I fell asleep in the endeavour to find some explanation which would cover all these facts. It was seven o'clock when I woke, and I set off at once for Phelps' room to find him haggard and spent after a sleepless night. His first question was whether Holmes had arrived yet. He'll be here when he promised, said I, and not an instant sooner or later. And my words were true, for shortly after eight a handsome dashed up to the door, and our friend got out of it. Standing in the window we saw that his left hand was swathed in a bandage, and that his face was very grim and pale. He entered the house, but it was some little time before he came upstairs. He looks like a beaten man, tried Phelps. I was forced to confess that he was right. After all, said I, the clue of the matter lies probably here in town. Phelps gave a groan. I don't know how it is, said he, but I had hoped for so much from his return, but surely his hand was not tied up like that yesterday. What can be the matter? You're not wounded, Holmes, I asked as my friend entered the room. Tut, it is only a scratch through my own clumsiness, he answered, nodding his good mornings to us. This case of yours, Mr. Phelps, is certainly one of the darkest which I have ever investigated. I feared that you would find it beyond you. It has been a most remarkable experience. That bandage tells of adventures, said I. Won't you tell us what has happened? After breakfast, my dear Watson, remember that I have breathed 30 miles of surrey air this morning. I suppose that there has been no answer for my cab man advertisement. Well, well, we cannot expect to score every time. The table was all laid, and just as I was about to ring Mrs. Hudson entered with the tea and coffee. A few minutes later she brought in three covers, and we all drew up to the table. Holmes' ravenous eye-curious and Phelps in the gloomiest state of depression. Mrs. Hudson has risen to the occasion, said Holmes, uncovering a dish of curry chicken. Her cuisine is a little limited, but she has as good an idea of breakfast as a scotch woman. What have you here, Watson? Ham and eggs, I answered. Good, what are you going to take, Mr. Phelps? Curried fowl or eggs? Or will you help yourself? Thank you, I can eat nothing, said Phelps.  Thank you, I would really rather not. Well, then, said Holmes with a mischievous twinkle, I suppose that you have no objection to helping me. Phelps raised the cover, and as he did so, he uttered a scream.  Across the center of it was lying a little cylinder of blue-gray paper. He caught it up, devoured it with his eyes, and then danced madly about the room, pressing it to his bosom, and shrieking out in his delight. Then he fell back into an armchair so limp and exhausted from his own emotions, that we had to pour brandy down his throat to keep him from fainting. There, there, said Holmes, soothing, patting him upon the shoulder. It was too bad to spring it on you like this, but Watson here will tell you that I never can resist a touch of the dramatic. Phelps seized his hand and kissed it.  Well, my own was at stake, you know, said Holmes. I assure you it is just as hateful to me to fail in a case, as it can be to you to blunder over a commission. Phelps thrust away the precious document into the innermost pocket of his coat. I have not the heart to interrupt your breakfast any further, and yet I am dying to know how you got it and where it was. Sherlock Holmes swallowed a cup of coffee and turned his attention to the ham and eggs. Then he rose, lit his pipe, and settled himself down into his chair. I'll tell you what I did first, and how I came to do it afterwards, said he. After leaving you at the station, I went for a charming walk through some admirable sorry scenery to a pretty little village called Ripley, where I had my tea at an inn, and took the precaution of filling my flask and of putting a paper of sandwiches in my pocket. There I remained until evening, when I set off for woking again and found myself in the high road outside Briarbray just after sunset. Well, I waited until the road was clear. It is never a very frequented one at any time, I fancy, and then I clambered over the fence into the grounds. Surely the gate was open, ejaculated Phelps. Yes, but I have a peculiar taste in these matters. I chose the place where the three fir trees stand, and behind their screen, I got over without the least chance of anyone in the house being able to see me. I crouched down among the bushes on the other side, and crawled from one to the other, witnessed the disreputable state of my trouser knees, until I had reached the clump of road-edendrons just opposite to your bedroom window. There I squatted down and awaited developments. The blind was not down in your room, and I could see Miss Harrison sitting there reading by the table. It was quarter past ten when she closed her book, fastened the shutters, and retired. I heard her shut the door, and felt quite sure that she had turned the key in the lock. The key, ejaculated Phelps. Yes, I had given Miss Harrison instructions to lock the door on the outside and take the key with her when she went to bed. She carried out every one of my injunctions to the letter, and certainly without her cooperation you would not have that paper in your coat pocket. She departed then, and the lights went out, and I was left squatting in the road-edendron bush. The night was fine, but still it was a very weary vigil. Of course it has the sort of excitement about it that the sportsman feels when he lies beside the water course and waits for the big game. It was very long though, almost as long Watson as when you and I waited in that deadly room when we looked into the little problem of the speckled band. There was a church clocked down at Woking which struck the quarters, and I thought more than once that it had stopped. At last, however, about two in the morning, I suddenly heard the gentle sound of a bolt being pushed back and the creaking of a key. A moment later, the servant's door was opened, 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 so that he could conceal his face in an instant if there were any alarm. He walked on tiptoe under the shadow of the wall, and when he reached the window, he worked a long bladed knife through the sash and pushed back the catch. Then he flung open the window, and putting his knife through the 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 of every one of his movements. He lit the two candles which stood upon the mantelpiece, and then he proceeded to turn back the corner of the carpet in the neighborhood of the door. Presently, he stopped and picked out a square piece of board, such as is usually left to enable plumbers to get at the joints of the gas pipes. This one covered, as a matter of fact, the T-joint which gives off the pipe which supplies the kitchen underneath. Out of this hiding place, he drew that little cylinder of paper, pushed down the board, rearranged the carpet, blew out the candles, and walked straight into my arms as I stood waiting for him outside the window. Well, he has rather more viciousness than I gave him credit for, has Master Joseph. He flew at me with his knife, and I had to grasp him twice and got a cut over the knuckles before I had the upper hand of him. He looked murder out of the only eye he could see with when we had finished, but he listened to reason and gave up the papers. Having got them, I let my man go, but I wired full particulars to Forbes this morning, if he is quick enough to catch his bird well and good. But if, as I shrewdly expect, he finds the nest empty before he gets there, why all the better for the government? I fancy that Lord Holdhurst for one and Mr. Percy Phelps for another would very much rather that affair never got as far as a police court. My God, gasped our client, do you tell me that during these long ten weeks of agony, the stolen papers were within the very room with me all the time? So it was. And Joseph, Joseph a villain and a thief. Hmm, I'm afraid Joseph's character is a rather deeper and more dangerous one than one might judge from his appearance. From what I have heard from him this morning, I gather that he has lost heavily in dabbling with stocks and that he is ready to do anything on earth to better his fortunes. Being an absolutely selfish man when a chance presented itself, he did not allow either his sister's happiness or your reputation to hold his hand. Percy Phelps sank back in his chair. My head whirls, said he. Your words have dazed me. The principal difficulty in your case, remarked Holmes in his didactic fashion, lay in the fact of there being too much evidence. What was vital was overlaid and hidden by what was irrelevant. Of all the facts which were presented to us, we had to pick just those which we deem to be essential, and then piece them together in their order, so as to reconstruct this very remarkable chain of events. I had already begun to suspect Joseph from the fact that you had intended to travel home with him that night, and that therefore it was a likely enough thing that he should call for you, knowing the foreign office well upon his way. When I heard that someone had been so anxious to get into the bedroom, in which no one but Joseph could have concealed anything, you told us in your narrative how you had turned Joseph out when you arrived with the doctor. My suspicions all changed to certainties, especially as the attempt was made on the first night upon which the nurse was absent, showing that the intruder was well acquainted with the ways of the house. How blind I've been. The facts of the case, as far as I've 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 after you left it. Finding no one there, he promptly rang the bell, and at the 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 of immense value, and in an instant he had thrust it into his pocket and was gone. A few minutes elapsed, as you remember, before the sleepy commissionaire drew your attention to the bell, and those were just enough to give the thief time to make his escape. He had made his way to Woking by the first train, and having examined his booty and assured himself that it really was of immense value, he had concealed it in what he thought was a very safe place, with the intention of taking it out again in a day or two and carrying it to the French Embassy or wherever he thought that a long price was to be had. Then came your sudden return. He, without a moment's warning, was bundled out of his room, and from that time onward there were always at least two of you there to prevent him from regaining his treasure. The situation to him must have been a maddening one, but at last he thought he saw his chance. He tried to steal in, but was baffled by your wakefulness. You remember that you did not take your usual draft that night. I remember.  Of course I understood that he would repeat the attempt whenever it could be done with safety.  I kept Miss 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 as I have described. I already knew that the papers were probably in the room, but I had no desire to rip up all the planking and skirting in search of them. I let him take them, therefore, from the hiding place, and so saved myself an infinity of trouble. Is there any other point which I can make clear? Why did he try the window on the first occasion, I asked, when he might have entered by the door. In reaching the door he would have to pass seven bedrooms. On the other hand he could get out on the lawn with ease. Anything else? Do you 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 only say for certain that Mr. Joseph Harrison is a gentleman to whose mercy I should be extremely unwilling to trust. End of Adventure 10 The Naval Treaty Chapter 11 Of the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Adventure 11 The Final Problem It is with a heavy heart that I take up my pen to write these last words in which I shall ever record the singular gifts by which my friend Mr. Sherlock Holmes was distinguished. In an incoherent and, as I deeply feel, an entirely inadequate fashion, I have endeavored to give some account of my strange experiences in his company from the chance which first brought us together at the period of the study in Scarlet, up to the time of his interference in the matter of the Naval Treaty, an interference which had the unquestionable effect of preventing a serious international complication. It was my intention to have stopped there and to have said nothing of the event which has created a void in my life which the lapse of two years has done little to fill. My hand has been forced, however, by the recent letters in which Colonel James Moriarty defends the memory of his brother, and I have no choice but to lay the facts before the public exactly as they occurred. I alone know the absolute truth of the matter, and I am satisfied that the time has come when no good purpose is to be served by its suppression. As far as I know, there have been only three accounts in the public press, that in the journal de Genève on May 6, 1891, the Reuters dispatch in the English papers on May 7, and finally the recent letter to which I have alluded. Of these, the first and second were extremely condensed, while the 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 place between Professor Moriarty and Mr. Sherlock Holmes. It may be remembered that after my marriage and my subsequent start in private practice, the very intimate relations which had existed between Holmes and myself, became to some extent modified. He still came to me from time to time when he desired a companion in his investigation, but these occasions grew more and more seldom, until I find that in the year 1890 there were only three cases of which I retain any record. During the winter of that year, and the early spring of 1891, I saw in the papers that he had been engaged by the French government upon a matter of supreme importance, and I received two notes from Holmes, dated from Narbonne and from Nîmes, from which I gathered that his stay in France was likely to be a long one. It was with some surprise, therefore, that I saw him walk into my consulting room upon the evening of April 24. It struck me that he was looking even paler and thinner than usual. Yes, I've been using up myself rather too freely, he remarked in answer to my look rather than to my words. I've been a little pressed of late. Have you any objection to my closing your shutters? The only light in the room came from the lamp upon the table, at which I had been reading. Holmes edged his way around the wall, and flinging the shutters together, he bolted them securely. You are afraid of something, I asked. Well, I am. Of what? Of air-guns. My dear Holmes, what do you mean? I think that you know me well enough, Watson, to understand that I am by no means a nervous man.  Might I trouble you for a match? He drew in the smoke of his cigarette as if the soothing influence was grateful to him. I must apologize for calling so late, said he, and I must further beg you to be so unconventional as to allow me to leave your house presently by scrambling over your back garden wall. But what does it all mean? I asked. He held out his hand, and I saw in the light of the lamp that two of his knuckles were burst and bleeding. It is not an airy nothing, you see, said he, smiling. On the contrary, it is solid enough for a man to break his hand over. Is Mrs. Watson in? She is away upon a visit. Indeed, you're alone. Quite. Then it makes it the easier for me to propose that you should come away with me for a week to the Continent. Where? Oh, anywhere. It's all the same to me. There was something very strange in all this. It was not Holmes' nature to take an aimless holiday, and something about his pale, worn face told me that his nerves were at their highest tension. He saw the question in my eyes, and putting his fingertips together and his elbows upon his knees, he explained the situation. You have probably never heard of Professor Moriarty, said he. Never. I, there's the genius and the wonder of the thing, he cried. The man pervades London, and no one has heard of him. That's what puts him on a pinnacle in the records of crime. I tell you, Watson, in all seriousness, that if I could beat that man, if I could free society of him, I should feel that my own career had reached its summit, and I should be prepared to turn to some more placid line in life. Between ourselves, the recent cases in which I have been of assistance to the royal family of Scandinavia and to the French Republic, have left me in such a position that I could continue to live in the quiet fashion, which is most congenial to me, and to concentrate my attention upon my chemical researches. But I could not rest, Watson. I could not sit quiet in my chair, if I thought that such a man as Professor Moriarty were walking the streets of London unchallenged. What has he done then? His career has been an extraordinary one. He is a man of good birth and excellent education, endowed by nature with a phenomenal mathematical 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 had, to all appearances, a most brilliant career before him. But the man had hereditary tendencies of the most diabolical kind. A criminal strain ran in his blood, which instead of being modified, was increased and rendered infinitely more dangerous by his extraordinary mental 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 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 the higher criminal world of London so well as I do. For years past I have continually been conscious of some power behind the mouth factor, some deep organizing power which forever stands in the way of the law, and throws its shield over the wrongdoer. Again and again in cases of the most varying sorts, forgery cases, robberies, murders, I have felt the presence of this force, and I have deduced its action in many of those undiscovered crimes in which I have not been personally consulted. For years I have endeavored to break through the veil which shrouded it, and at last the time came when I seized my thread and followed it, until it led me, after a thousand cunning windings, to ex-professor Moriarty of mathematical celebrity. He is the Napoleon of crime, Watson. He is the organizer of half that is evil and of nearly all that is undetected in this great city. He is a genius, a philosopher, an abstract thinker. He has a brain of the first order, but sits motionless like a spider in the centre of its web, but that web has a thousand radiations, and he knows well every quiver at each of them. He does little himself, he only plans. But his agents are numerous and splendidly organised. Is there a crime to 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, the matter is organised 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 organisation which I deduced, Watson, and which I devoted my whole energy to exposing and breaking up. But the professor was fenced round with safeguard so cunningly devised that, do what I would, it 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 I had at last met an antagonist who was my intellectual equal. My horror at his crimes was lost in my admiration 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 close upon him. I had my chance and starting from that point, I have woven my net round him, until now it is all ready to close. In three days, that is to say on Monday next, matters will be ripe, and the professor, with all the principal members of his gang, will be in the hands of the police. Then will come the greatest criminal trial of the century, the clearing up of over forty mysteries, and the rope for all of them, but if we move it all prematurely, you understand, they may slip out of our hands, even at the last moment. Now, if I could have done this without the knowledge of Professor Moriarty, all would have been well, but he was too wily for that. He saw every step which I took to draw my toils round him, again and again he strove to break away, but I as often headed him off. I tell you my friend, that if a detailed account of that silent contest could be written, it would take its place as the most brilliant bit of thrust and parry work in the history of detection.  He cut deep, and yet I just undercut him. This morning the last steps were taken, and three days only were wanted to complete this business. I was sitting in my room thinking the matter over, when the door opened, and Professor Moriarty stood before me. My nerves are fairly proof, Watson, but I must confess to a start when I saw the very man, who had been so much in my thoughts, standing there on my threshold. His appearance was quite familiar to me.  He is clean-shaven, pale and ascetic-looking, retaining something of the Professor in his features. His shoulders are rounded for much study, and his face protrudes forward, and is forever slowly oscillating from side to side, in a curiously reptilian fashion. He peered at me with great curiosity in his puckered eyes. You have less frontal development than I should have expected, said he at last. It is a dangerous habit to finger-loaded firearms in the pocket of one's dressing gown. The fact is that upon his entrance I had instantly recognized the extreme personal danger in which I lay. The only conceivable escape for him lay in silencing my tongue. In an instant I had slipped the revolver from the drawer into my pocket, and was covering him through the cloth. At his remark I drew the weapon out, and laid it cocked upon the table. He still smiled and blinked, but there was something about his eyes which made me feel very glad that I had it there. You evidently don't know me, said he. On the contrary, I answered, I think it is fairly evident that I do. Pray, take a chair. I can spare you five minutes if you have anything to say. All that I have to say has already crossed your mind, said he. Then possibly my answer has crossed yours, I replied. You stand fast. Absolutely. He clapped his hand into his pocket, and I raised the pistol from the table. But he merely drew out a memorandum book in which he had scribbled some dates. You crossed my path on the 4th of January, said he. On the 23rd you incommoded me. By the middle of February I was seriously inconvenienced by you. At the end of March I was absolutely hampered in my plans, and now at the close of April I find myself placed in such a position through your continual persecution that I am in positive danger of losing my liberty. The situation is becoming an impossible one. Have you any suggestion to make, I asked? You must drop it, Mr. Holmes, said he, swaying his face about. You really must, you know. After Monday, said I. Top-Tet, said he, I am quite sure that a man of your intelligence will see that there can be but one outcome to this affair. It is necessary that you should withdraw. You have worked things in such a fashion that we have only one resource left. It has been an intellectual treat to me to see the way in which you have grappled with this affair, and I say, unaffectedly, that it would be a grief to me to be forced to take any extreme measure. You smile, sir, but I assure you that it really would. Danger is part of my trade, I remarked. That is not danger, said he. It is inevitable destruction. You stand in the way not merely of an individual, but of a mighty organization, the full extent of which you, with all your cleverness, have been unable to realize. You must stand clear, Mr. Holmes, or be trodden underfoot. I am afraid, said I, rising, that in the pleasure of this conversation I am neglecting business of importance which awaits me elsewhere. He rose also and looked at me in silence, shaking his head sadly. Well, well, said he at last, it seems a pity, but I have done what I could. I know every move of your game. You can do nothing before Monday. It has been a duel between you and me, Mr. Holmes. You hope to place me in the dock? I tell you that I will never stand in the dock. You hope to beat me? I tell you that you will never beat me.  You have paid me several compliments, Mr. Moriarty, said I. Let me pay you one in return, when I say that if I were assured of the former eventuality I would, in the interests of the public, cheerfully accept the latter. I can promise you the one, but not the other, he snarled, and so turned his rounded back upon me, and went peering and blinking out of the room. That was my singular interview with Professor Moriarty. I confess that it left an unpleasant effect upon my mind. His soft, precise fashion of speech leaves a conviction of sincerity which a mere bully cannot produce. Of course you will say why not take police precautions against him. The reason is that I am well convinced that it is from his agents the blow will fall. I have the best proofs that it would be so. You've already been assaulted? My dear Watson, Professor Moriarty, is not a man who lets the grass grow under his feet. I went out about midday to transact some business in Oxford Street, as I passed the corner which leads from Benton Street onto the Wellbeck Street crossing, a two-horse van furiously driven whizzed round and was on me like a flash. I sprang for the footpath and saved myself by the fraction of a second. The van dashed round by Merrillbone Lane and was gone in an instant. I kept to the pavement after that, Watson, but as I walked down Veer Street a brick came down from the roof of one of the houses and was shattered to fragments at my feet. I called the police and had the place examined. There were slates and bricks piled up on the roof preparatory to some repairs, and they would have me believe that the wind had toppled over one of these. Of course, I knew better, but I could prove nothing. I took a cab after that and reached my brother's rooms in Paul Mall, where I spent the day. Now I've come round to you, and on my way I was attacked by a rough with a bludgeon.  You will not wonder, Watson, that my first act on entering your rooms was to close your shutters and that I've been compelled to ask your permission to leave the house by some less conspicuous exit than the front door. I'd often admired my friend's courage, but never more than now, as he sat quietly checking off a series of incidents which must have combined to make up a day of horror. You'll spend the night here, I said. No, my friend, you might find me a dangerous guest. I have my plans laid and all will be well. Matters have gone so far now that they can move without my help as far as the arrest goes, though my presence is necessary for a conviction. It is obvious, therefore, that I cannot do better than get away for the few days which remain before the police are at liberty to act. It would be a great pleasure to me, therefore, if you could come on to the continent with me. The practice is quiet, said I, and I have an accommodating neighbour. I should be glad to come. And to start tomorrow morning, if necessary. Oh yes, it is most necessary. Then these are your instructions, and I beg my dear Watson that you will obey them to the letter, for you are now playing a double-handed game with me against the cleverest rogue and the most powerful syndicate of criminals in Europe. Now listen. You will dispatch whatever luggage you intend to take by a trusty messenger unaddressed to Victoria tonight. In the morning, you will send for a handsome, desiring your man to take neither the first nor the second which may present itself, into this handsome you'll jump, and you will drive to the strand end of the Lothar Arcade, handing the address to the cab man upon a slip of paper, with a request that he will not throw it away. Have your fare ready, and the instant that your cab stops, dash through the arcade, timing yourself to reach the other side at a quarter past nine.  Into this you will step, and you will reach Victoria in time for the continental express. Where shall I meet you? At the station, the second first-class carriage from the front will be reserved for us. The carriage is our rendezvous then? Yes. It was in vain that I asked Holmes to remain for the evening. It was evident to me that he thought he might bring trouble to the roof he was under, and that that was the motive which impaled him to go. With a few hurried words as to our plans for the morrow, he rose and came out with me into the garden, clambering over the wall which leads into Mortimer Street, and immediately whistling for a handsome, in which I heard him drive away. In the morning I obeyed Holmes' injunctions to the letter. A handsome was procured with such precaution as would prevent its being one which was placed ready for us, and I drove immediately after breakfast to the Lothar Arcade, through which I hurried at the top of my speed. A brawn was waiting, with a very massive driver wrapped in a dark cloak, who the instant that I had stepped in whipped up the horse and rattled off to Victoria Station. On my alighting there, he turned the carriage and dashed away again without so much as a look in my direction. So far, all had gone admirably. My luggage was waiting for me, and I had no difficulty in finding the carriage which Holmes had indicated, the less so as it was the only one in the train which was marked engaged. My only source of anxiety now was the non-appearance of Holmes. The station clock marked only seven minutes from the time when we were due to start. In vain I searched among the groups of travellers, and leave-takers for the life figure of my friend. There was no sign of him. I spent a few minutes in assisting a venerable Italian priest who was endeavouring to make a porter understand, in his broken English, that his luggage was to be booked through to Paris. Then, having taken another look around, I returned to my carriage, where I found that the porter, in spite of the ticket, had given me my decrepit Italian friend as a travelling companion. It was useless for me to explain to him that his presence was an intrusion, for my Italian was even more limited than his English, so I shrugged my shoulders resoundly and continued to look out anxiously for my friend. A chill of fear had come over me, as I thought that his absence might mean that some blow had fallen during the night.  I turned in uncontrollable astonishment. The aged ecclesiastic had turned his face towards me. For an instant the wrinkles were smoothed away, the nose drew away from the chin, the lower lip ceased to protrude, and the mouth to mumble. The dull eyes regained their fire, the drooping figure expanded. The next, the whole frame collapsed again, and Holmes had gone as quickly as he had come. Good heavens, I cried! How you startled me! Every precaution is still necessary, he whispered. I have reason to think that they are hot upon our trail. Ah, there's Moriarty himself. The train had already begun to move as Holmes spoke. Glancing back, I saw a tall man pushing his way furiously through the crowd, and waving his hand as if he desired to have the train stopped. It was too late, however, for we were rapidly gathering momentum, and an instant later had shot clear of the station. With all our precautions you see that we have cut it rather fine, said Holmes, laughing. He rose and throwing off the black cassock and hat which had formed his disguise. He packed them away in a handbag. Have you seen the morning paper, Watson? No. You haven't seen about Baker Street, then? Baker Street. They set fire to our rooms last night. No great harm was done. Good heavens, Holmes! This is intolerable. They must have lost my track completely after their bludgeon man was arrested, otherwise they could not have imagined that I had returned him at rooms. They have evidently taken the precaution of watching you, however, and that is what has brought Moriarty to Victoria. You could not have made any slip incoming. I did exactly what you advised. Did you find your brawn? Yes, it was waiting. Did you recognize your coachman? No. It was my brother Mycroft. 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 Moriarty 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 an obstacle. Why then should you think so meanly of him? What will he do? What I should do? What would you do then? Engage a special. But it must be late. By no means. This train stops at Canterbury, and there is 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 them all. 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 Dieppe. 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 Dieppe. 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 into Switzerland via Luxembourg and Basel. At Canterbury, therefore, we alighted, and only defined that we should have to wait an hour before we could get a train to New Haven. I was still looking rather ruefully after the rapid disappearing luggage van, which contained my wardrobe, when Holmes 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, said Holmes, as we watched the carriage swing and rock over the points. There are limits, you see, to our friend's intelligence. It would have been a coup de maître 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 made a murderous attack upon me. It is, however, a game at which too 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 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, he groaned. He has escaped. Moriarty? They have secured the whole gang with the exception of him. He's 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 had 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 Strasbourg sale à manger 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 a charming week we wandered up the valley of the Rhône, and then branching off at Luc, we made our way over the Gemmi Pass, still deep in snow, and so by way of interlocking to Myringen. 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 homely 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 Gemmi, and walked along the border of the melancholy delbinzee, 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 raced up onto the bridge, and standing upon a lofty pinnacle, craned 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 had 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 a little village of Myringen, where we put up at the Englisher Hoth, then kept by Peter Styler the Elder. Our landlord was an intelligent man and spoke excellent English, having served for three years as waiter at the Grossfiner 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 night at the Hamlet of Rosenlauwe. We had strict injunctions, however, on no account to pass the falls of Reichenbach, which are about halfway up the hill without making a small detour to see them. It is indeed a fearful place. The torrent swallowed by the melting snow plunges into a tremendous abyss from which the spray rolls up like the smoke of a burning house. The shaft into which the river hurls itself is an immense chasm, lined by glistening coal-black rock and narrowing into a creaming, boiling pit of incalculable depth, which brims over and shoots the stream onward over its jagged lip. The 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 clamor. 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 around the fall to afford a complete view, but it ends abruptly, and the traveller has to return as he came. We had turned to do so when we saw a swiss lad come running along it 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 Davosplatz and was journeying now to join her friend 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 styler assured me in a postscript that he would himself look upon my compliance as a very great favour, 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 countrywoman, dying in a strange land, yet I had my scruples about leaving Holmes. It was finally agreed, however, that he should retain the young swiss messenger with him as guide and companion while I returned to Myringen. My friend would stay some little time at the fall, he said, and would then walk slowly over the hill to Rosenlaue, where I had to rejoin him in the evening. As I turned away, I saw Holmes 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. When 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 a man was, I remember, walking very rapidly. I could see his black figure clearly outlined against the green behind him. I noted him and 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 Myringen. Old Styler was standing at the porch of his hotel. Well, said I as I came hurrying up, I 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 lead 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.  He said, but I waited for none of the landlord's explanations. In a tingle of fear I 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 Reichenbach once more. There was Holmes alpine stalk 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 clips around me. It was the sight at that alpine stalk which turned me cold and sick. He had not gone to Rosenlauwe then. 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. He 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 horror of the thing. Then I began to think of Holmes' own methods and to try to practice them in reading this tragedy. It was, alas, only too easy to do. During our conversation we had not gone to the end of the path, and the alpine stalk 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 the chasm were torn and bedraggled.  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 destined that I should after all have a last word of greeting from my friend and comrade. I have said that his alpine stalk had been left leaning against a rock which jutted on to the path. From the top of this boulder the gleam of something bright caught my eye, and raising my hand 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 been lain fluttered 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 as precise and the writing as firm and clear as though it had been written in his study. My dear Watson it said, I write these few lines through the courtesy of Mr. Moriarty, who awaits my convenience for the final discussion of those questions which lie between us. He's been giving me a sketch of the methods by which he avoided the English police and kept himself informed of our movements. They certainly confirmed 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 Myringen was 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 pigeonhole M, done up in a blue envelope, and inscribed Moriarty. I made every disposition of my property before leaving England and handed it to my brother Mycroft. 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 of that remains. 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, in their reeling over locked in each other's arms. Any attempt at recovering the bodies was absolutely hopeless, and there deep down in that dreadful cauldron of swirling water and seething foam will lie for all time the most dangerous criminal and the foremost champion of the law of their generation. The Swiss youth was never found again, and there can be no doubt that he was one of the numerous agents whom Moriarty 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 the hand of the dead man weighed upon them. Of their terrible 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 injudicious champions who have endeavored to clear his memory by attacks upon him, whom I shall ever regard as the best and the wisest man whom I have ever known. End of Adventure 11, The Final Problem, and End of the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Read by Eric Leitch, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.


Hello everyone. It's great to be here. I'm Yoko, co-founder and CEO of Ledgy. At Ledgy, we help companies manage their equity, so everything from cap tables to employee participation plans to funding rounds planning. And I co-founded Ledgy around five years ago with my two co-founders and today I want to tell you the story of how our co-founder relationships evolved over the years and a couple of lessons learned along the way. And in fact, the last time I was up so far up north on the globe was even before we started Ledgy. So I met originally my two co-founders Ben and Timo while studying physics in Zurich. And we were studying together and at some point we decided to have a break and to go on a trip, as you can see here. Personally, I am half Swiss, half Japanese, and I've always wanted to go from Japan to Switzerland without taking an airplane. So and Ben and Timo were very motivated by that as well.  We took the boat from Japan to Russia and took the Transylvanian Railway from Vladivostok to Moscow. And as you can imagine, we had a lot of time. And so back then when she started to read some books about startups, I think the first one was the lean startup.  No idea about what a startup even was. And so we discovered about that concept and we found that really to be a fantastic way to, you know, have an impact on society. And it would bring so many a lot of ideas, a lot of problems we could solve on that trip. Now we came back to Zurich because we still had our masters to finish. But when we came back, it was different. We, in parallel to our studies, you can see us here studying for exams back then. In parallel to our studies, we started to work on an idea, which was not yet ledgy. But that really was the first time we transitioned from the world of physics to entrepreneurship. And back then we were in Zurich and we started to, you know, talk with our first investors, first angel investors. We got connected with other founders in the Zurich ecosystem. And we learned for the first time, what is a cap table? What are employee participation plans all about? Because we had to learn this for ourselves, for our company. And we met with other founders who actually taught us about this. And one particular founder was the founder of View Eyewear. I don't know if some of you know the company, it's a Swiss company. And this person in particular you can see in the middle picture is still a good friend today. And he's the co-founder and CEO of View. And back then he had a team of 300 people based in Switzerland and in Germany. And Peter back then, you know, showed us the way he was managing the ownership of his company. And we see together, I still remember, in Zurich. And he was showing us, well, look, it's simple. Here you can manage your cap table in this way and your employee participation plans in this way. And he basically shows us a massive Excel sheet. In his case, he had on every single line of his Excel sheet, he had one share of his company sitting on that sheet. And he was giving equity to everyone in his team, a lot of people.  It was a huge chaos. Now what we realized back then is Peter's case was a bit of, you know, an extreme case. But in fact, everywhere we talked around us, everywhere we looked around, there was just no way for startups to manage their equity. And their teams were not understanding at all what equity was all about. So back then, we decided to solve that problem. We thought, well, we would never want to have such a setup as Peter when our company gets larger. And so we thought, well, we can make a software for this. So that was the first reason. The second reason is we saw how important the topic of equity is for a startup ecosystem. Because to build strong and enduring companies, equity is absolutely key. To give ownership to the entire team is absolutely key. And so this is really the reason why back then, you know, we had a concrete problem we could build a software for. And second, we had this possibility to have an impact on entrepreneurship in Europe. So that's why we started. Now, fast forward to today, we are a team of 75 people based across London, Zurich, and Berlin. And we've just raised our Series B. Now, it has been quite a journey. And I want to quickly look back on that journey and, you know, deconstruct how this went from a co-founder team perspective. So first of all, what makes a good founding team? I still remember actually one of our very earliest angel investor, Mike. When he invested in Legi, I remember he told me whenever I look for a founding team I want to back, I look for two things. One is shared values. The second is complementary skills. I have to be honest, when he told me this back in the days, it was super abstract for me. I was like, well, that sounds great. You know, what is even a value? You know, to me, it's only like values are things that companies put on their website to kind of sound great. So very, very abstract to me. But in retrospect, and when I was actually also preparing for this talk today, this really stuck with me. And I think it's really true in retrospect. And it's not only true for founding teams, but also for as you expand the team, as you grow the team as well. So let me dive a bit into this. First of all, as I said, at the very beginning of Legi, for me, values were something very, very abstract. I was like, well, how do you even come up with values for your company? And so I want to deconstruct this a little bit for the audience here about how we actually came up with those. At the very beginning, we were a team of three. We hired our first employees and we went about it very pragmatically. We basically asked everyone what are things you really like in a company, in your work environment, but also privately. And then we assembled that and we distilled our four curve values, which are humility, aspiration, transparency and impact. Now, why do these values actually matter? I'll just give you one quick example. In 2019, we were in a situation where we had to hire engineers very quickly. We were just about to grow the team. We had just raised our seed round and really wanted you to hire first engineers. And it was really, really hard to find women engineers. We were really struggling to do that. And especially the fact was that we all cared deeply about diversity and impact. And so we absolutely wanted to have a diverse engineering team. And so actually back then our co-founder Timo and CTO came up with a bet. He basically said, well, I bet you that I will be able to, or we will be able to hire and train unexperienced people to become engineers faster than finding experienced women engineers. So we decided to take on that bet, to hire experienced people, train them, and we launched our women in web traineeship back then. And today I'm happy to say it was a huge success. Actually, Xiao, who you can see here, is still a wonderful engineer of our team today. And the interesting thing is that this had actually a snowball effect. So the fact that our engineering team was diverse at the beginning meant that more women engineers wanted to join the team later on. And in fact, as of today, we have 50% women in our engineering team, which I think is quite a rare fact in the industry and which we're quite proud of. Now, I think the key point here is that it was quite a hard decision. We were in a rush. We really had desperately needed engineers. And so we could have made that choice of simply go and hire whoever just was fitting. But I think it really helped us to be aligning in this value as a founding team and really make that hard choice, which I think really paid off in the future. But that's why it's an example of how important it is to have shared values in these tough moments. Now, a last part I want to say that I mentioned before as well is shared values is important in my opinion, not just for founding teams, but in fact, it becomes more and more important as you scale the team as well. So one thing I'm so happy that we did is that, you know, I think a year ago, roughly a year ago, summer 2021, we were a team of 15 people, one five at LG. And we had just raised our series A and we hired a lot of people. We were about to hire a lot of people because today we're 75. And I'm so happy that we did one thing. That thing was that we introduced a culture interview, a systematic culture interview for everyone we were hiring in the team. And what is that culture interview? Well, as I mentioned, we have four core values at LG. And what we do is that we actually test systematically if those four core values resonate and are a fit with whoever is interested in joining the team. I'll give you just one example. One of our values is aspiration. And a question I typically ask, and that will help you if you ever apply to LG, the question I ask is what is the thing you feel proud of in your career so far and why? And I think that really tells a lot about the person's ambition, the person's aspiration. And so it's really all about asking the questions that will reveal what the values of the person are and if those are a fit with the company. Now, the second part that you might be really keen in our co-founding team is having complementary skills. And actually, looking back at the beginning of LG, I never really thought we were complementary because we were all physicists, so it's not very diverse. But looking back, it became clear that we were actually very, very complementary. So, Ben is more the creative people person. Timo is sort of this technical genius and the bold ideas person. And people say I'm more the disciplined, focused person. So in retrospect, we have very complementary skills. And one thing that often people ask me is, well, before starting a company, how do you actually find those people, co-founders who are complementary to you, who have complementary skills to you? And my personal advice and my personal answer from my experience is that you should look back, think back in your past about people with whom you felt that your personal best when you were working with them, where you felt it's going so well, it's so much fun, it's in a flow working with those people. And go back and ask those people if they would like to join you on your journey. Because in my view, that's really the way you can notice if a team is working well together or not. So that was the case for me and that was what gave me confidence back in the days to start Legi with my two co-founders. It was really that even before Legi, we had these experiences working together. It wasn't physics, but still, we worked together that I knew that it was great and we could do this together. So that's my advice. Think about the people you used to work well with and go ask them. You might be surprised about the answer they will tell you. Now the last point I want to, the third point I want to share today is around how roles and responsibilities can evolve and change. I think the key word here is flexibility and reinventing yourself constantly. So at the very beginning of Legi, we did not have any titles. We were all co-founders. We were all coding. We were all talking to customers. And at some point we decided, well, we probably need to have titles, have our own area of expertise to really go deep and also externally, that's much better. So we decided to have our areas of focus. As you can see here, I originally was CPO, so P for product. Ben was the CO and Timo was the CTO. How did we decide this? Well, for Timo it was extremely clear. He used to code since he was a child basically. So he was a CTO very clear. Now for Ben and I, it was not as clear. And as crazy as it sounds, the reason why we decided to have these roles back in the days was that our home market was Germany. And Ben was a native German speaker. And so we thought, well, for an external facing role, that might work better. So that was the reason why we decided this. Now as we went along, I think a few months after we had these titles, we started to notice that Ben and I were doing things that were actually in the area of the rather the other person. So Ben was constantly tweaking things in the product. I was thinking about expansion, talking to investors who would tell me, well, why are you talking to me? You're not the CEO. And so we noticed, well, we might... How about we switch? And that's exactly what we did. So we basically switched our roles. That is where we are today. It works very well for us. And also I think it's because we... I think it's very personal and unique to every team, but in our case, we see ourselves more as managing partners as a real team more than a very strong hierarchical team. So that worked well for us. And I think the key here is that... The lesson learned here, I think, that would apply to everyone, in my view, is that it's super key in a startup to remain flexible and to constantly think what is actually the best for the company? What are the roles that will really allow the company to move forward in the best way? I think that mindset really helped us to make that decision at that time. And the last point as well is that as you scale the team, again, this type of mindset will... This type of flexibility and company-first mindset will help you tremendously as you grow. Because as you grow, what you do as a founder is in fact you're constantly putting yourself out of your job, right? So for example, you used to do finance because no one was doing finance, and then you hire a head of finance, and now suddenly you don't have that job anymore. So you need to reinvent yourself. So I think it's a process that you need to be prepared for and open to do. And it requires a lot of, again, team-first thinking, company-first thinking to constantly, you know, pick the areas that currently need you or let the areas that don't need you go. Now, so in conclusion, as you can see, there are many, many things that change along the journey of a company. And in my personal opinion, I think it's key to make sure you have shared values and complementary skills, not just with your co-founding team, but also with everyone who joins your company. And the last thing is to be flexible and constantly reinvent yourself. So that's all for me today. Thank you so much for listening. And at Letgy, we support startups. So if you are one of those, you can try out Letgy right here. And otherwise, I'm always super happy to help. So please reach out to me anytime. It's yourco-at-letgy.com. Thank you.