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 inter-
est some months later, you assert that the wall was sheer. That
was not literally true. A few small footholds presented them-
selves, 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 decep-
tion. 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.
Pages:
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27