know me well enough, Watson, to understand that I am
by no means a nervous man. At the same time, it is stupidity rather than
courage to refuse to recognize danger when it is close upon you. 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 are 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's 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 finger-tips together and his elbows upon his
knees, he explained the situation.

"You have probably never heard of Professor Moriarty?" said he.

"Never."

"Aye, 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, endowe