"This is the end for you, Mr. Holmes",
remarked professor Moriaty, his face protruding forward and slowly
oscillating from side to side in a curiously reptilian fashion.
"There is nothing behind you but a long fall to the
bottom of the Reichenbach Fall."
"Danger is part of my trade", Holmes remarked.
"True", agreed Moriarty. He hefted his alpenstock.
"However -"
Swiftly, unexpectedly, he advanced on Holmes and dealt him a
resounding blow to the side of the head. Holmes staggered backwards, and
then, with a supreme effort of will and muscles, regained his footing
and applied his knowledge of the Japanese system of wrestling to free
himself of the Napoleon of crime.
"Be damned to you!" hissed Moriarty. He rushed at
Holmes and threw his long arms around him. Once more, Holmes cast him
off and stood back. I could see his black figure clearly outlined
against the green behind him. Then suddenly, as once more on Dartmoor, I
saw the two rivals with other vision. A crouching, snake-like shape,
scarcely more than the shadow of a living thing. a creature now fully
ruined and defeated, yet filled with hideous lust and rage; and before
it stood stern, untouchable now by pity, a figure robed in white, but at
its breast it held a magnifying-glass of fire. Out of the fire there
spoke a commanding voice.
"Begone, and trouble me no more! If you touch me ever again,
you shall be cast yourself into the Reichenbach Fall."
Öjevind Lång
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