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Page 137
"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 malefactor, some deep organizing
power which forever stands in the way of the law, and
throws its shield over the wrong-doer. Again and again
in cases of the most varying sorts--forgery cases,
robberies, murders--I have felt the presence of this
force, 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. He sits motionless, like a spider in
the center of its web, but that web has a thousand
radiations, and he knows well every quiver of each of
them. He does little himself. He only plans. But
his agents are numerous and splendidly organized. 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 organized 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 organization which I deduced, Watson, and
which I devoted my whole energy to exposing and
breaking up.
"But the Professor was fenced round with safeguards 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 at 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.
Never have I risen to such a height, and never have I
been so hard pressed by an opponent. He cut deep, and
yet I just undercut him. This morning the last steps
were taken, and three days only were wanted to
complete the business. I was sitting in my room
thinking the matter over, when the door opened and
Professor Moriarty stood before me.
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