My hands shook and I almost dropped the gun. 'It's over, Holmes,' I said. 'I've been to the empty house. I know everything.'
He laughed. 'Dear fellow! Nobody knows everything!'
I seemed to hear voices coming to me from the water, and I could now see two Holmeses- one on the path and one standing on air.
'I've found the jars, Holmes, and the papers. I know you killed them.'
'I killed them? Which? The jars or the papers?'
Nothing seemed real. It was getting harder and harder for me to speak. Holmes watched me, smiling.
'I know you did it, Holmes,' I shouted. 'J watched you cut Mary Kelly to pieces. You killed them! Let me hear you say that you did!'
'What is it you want me to say?' 'Say you killed them!' 'You killed them.'
'I am going to shoot you, Holmes!' I screamed. 'Before you die, tell me that you understand what you have done!'
'You're mad, doctor,' he said. 'And you're talking rubbish.
Go on, shoot me!'
I shot him. I shot again and again, but still he stood there. Finally, I fell to the ground. I could not move. It seemed a long time before I could say, 'Why aren't you dead?'
I stared up at him as he stood above me, calmly inhaling snuff from his snuffbox.
'I took the bullets from your gun and put in blanks,' he said conversationally. 'Tell me, Moriarty, when did you kill Watson? You are very clever. You look almost like him, but I know who you are. When I saw you injecting cocaine three times a day, I knew then for sure that you were not my dear friend. Dr Watson would never, never take drugs. Your cocaine is finished, isn't it? Poor Moriarty! Did you not realize that my snuffbox contains cocaine, not snuff?'
I felt sick and weak. Before my eyes Holmes was changing colour - red, then green, then blue. I shook my head to clear it, but he was still talking.
'And your letter, telling Lestrade that I was the Whitechapel murderer. What rubbish! How Scotland Yard would laugh! But I have the letter here - 1 saw it in your cook's hand and took it from her while you were calling the cab. You have failed, Moriarty. I have enjoyed making you run around Europe with me, but now you must die.'
He took out a long knife.
'Holmes!' I cried. 'I am Watson, your friend, Watson! I have tried to save you - save you from yourself and
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.