“It came about in this way.  The instant that the Professor had disappeared, it struck me what a really extraordinarily lucky chance Fate had placed in my way.  I knew that Moriarty was not the only man who had sworn my death.  There were at least three others whose desire for vengeance upon me would only be increased by the death of their leader.  They were all most dangerous men.  One or other would certainly get me.  On the other hand, if all the world was convinced that I was dead they would take liberties, these men, they would soon lay themselves open, and sooner or later I could destroy them.  Then it would be time for me to announce that I was still in the land of the living.  So rapidly does the brain act that I believe I had thought this all out before Professor Moriarty had reached the bottom of the Reichenbach Fall.

“I stood up and examined the rocky wall behind me.  In your picturesque account of the matter, which I read with great interest some months later, you assert that the wall was sheer.  That was not literally true.  A few small footholds presented themselves, and there was some indication of a ledge.  The cliff is so high that to climb it all was an obvious impossibility, and it was equally impossible to make my way along the wet path without leaving some tracks.  I might, it is true, have reversed my boots, as I have done on similar occasions, but the sight of three sets of tracks in one direction would certainly have suggested a deception.  On the whole, then, it was best that I should risk the climb.  It was not a pleasant business, Watson.  The fall roared beneath me.  I am not a fanciful person, but I give you my word that I seemed to hear Moriarty’s voice screaming at me out of the abyss.  A mistake would have been fatal.  More than once, as tufts of grass came out in my hand or my foot slipped in the wet notches of the rock, I thought that I was gone.  But I struggled upward, and at last I reached a ledge several feet deep and covered with soft green moss, where I could lie unseen, in the most perfect comfort.  There I was stretched, when you, my dear Watson, and all your following were investigating in the most sympathetic and inefficient manner the circumstances of my death.

“At last, when you had all formed your inevitable and totally erroneous conclusions, you departed for the hotel, and I was left alone.  I had imagined that I had reached the end of my adventures, but a very unexpected occurrence showed me that there were surprises still in store for me.  A huge rock, falling from above, boomed past me, struck the path, and bounded over into the chasm.  For an instant I thought that it was an accident, but a moment later, looking up, I saw a man’s head against the darkening sky, and another stone struck the very ledge upon which I was stretched, within a foot of my head.  Of course, the meaning of this was obvious.  Moriarty had not been alone.  A confederate—­and even that one glance had told me how dangerous a man that confederate was—­had kept guard while the Professor had attacked me.  From a distance, unseen by me, he had been a witness of his friend’s death and of my escape.  He had waited, and then making his way round to the top of the cliff, he had endeavoured to succeed where his comrade had failed.