from the police!' He held up the knife and stepped
towards me.
'If you kill me,' I screamed, 'Moriarty will win! That is
what he wants! Kill your only friend, and Moriarty has
won!'
I closed my eyes and waited for the pain and the
darkness. It did not come. I opened my eyes and
saw that Holmes was looking at me. He had put the
knife down. The look in his eyes was sadder than
anything that I had ever seen. He seemed to see far
into both the past and the future, and to find them
sad beyond words.
'Never fear, old fellow,' he said. 'I shall not let him hurt
you.' Then he stepped backwards off the path. 1 saw
his body hit the rocks far below.
Conclusion
Two days later I woke up. I was in bed at the hotel.
Someone had found me on the edge of the path,
high above the Reichenbach Falls.
After a week I returned to London. I went
immediately to the empty house, where I burned the
papers and destroyed the jars. I wanted to be sure
that nobody would ever know the evil things that
Holmes had done. I wanted only the good that was
in my friend to live on after his death.
I was lucky. ACD had been busy writing more stories
about Holmes. These stories were an immediate
success. ACD became a famous writer, and people
who had never met Holmes the man, knew Holmes
the story-book detective. As the years passed,
people began to forget that Sherlock Holmes had
ever been a real person.
After Holmes's death my life was difficult for a long
time. It was two years before I could live without
cocaine. I could not work, and my wife and I had
little money.
My story is at an end. Since Holmes's death I have
lived quietly. But sometimes, as I sit by the fire in the
evening, I think of that day at the Reichenbach Falls.
I hear again the gentleness of Holmes's last words,
and see the light of understanding in his eyes during
those last moments, when he seemed once again
the best and wisest man I have ever known.