The Final Problem
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
It
is
with
a
he
heart
th
I
take
up
my
pen
to
write
these
the
la
words
in
which
I
shall
ever
rec
the
singular
gifts
by
wh
my
friend
Mr.
Sh
Ho
was
disti
In
an
in
and,
as
I
deeply
fe
an
entirely
inadequate
fash
I
ha
endeavored
to
gi
so
acco
of
my
stra
ex
in
his
company
from
the
chance
which
first
broug
us
together
at
the
period
of
the
"Stu
in
Scarlet,"
up
to
the
ti
of
his
interference
in
the
matter
of
the
"Nav
Treaty"—and
interference
which
had
the
unquestionable
effect
of
preventing
a
serious
international
complication.
It
was
my
inte
to
have
st
th
and
to
ha
sa
nothing
of
that
ev
which
has
created
a
vo
in
my
life
whi
the
lapse
of
two
years
has
done
little
to
fi
My
ha
has
been
forced,
however,
by
the
rec
letters
in
which
Colonel
James
Mo
defends
the
memory
of
his
brother,
and
I
have
no
choice
but
to
lay
the
fac
before
the
publ
exactly
as
they
occ
I
alone
know
the
absolute
truth
of
the
matter,
and
I
am
satisfied
th
the
time
has
come
when
on
good
purpose
is
to
be
served
by
its
suppression.
As
far
as
I
know,
there
have
been
only
thr
accounts
in
the
public
press:
that
in
the
Journal
de
Genè
on
May
6th,
1891,
the
Reuters
disp
in
the
English
papers
on
May
7th,
and
finally
the
recent
lett
to
whi
I
have
alluded.
Of
these
the
fi
and
second
were
extremely
condensed,
while
the
last
is,
as
I
shall
now
show,
an
absolute
perversion
of
the
facts.
It
lies
with
me
to
tell
for
the
first
ti
what
really
took
pl
between
Professor
Moriarty
and
Mr.
Sher
Holm
It
may
be
remembered
that
after
my
marriage,
and
my
subsequent
start
in
private
pract
the
very
intima
relations
which
had
existed
between
Holmes
and
myself
beca
to
some
extent
modifi
He
still
came
to
me
from
time
to
time
when
he
des
a
companion
in
his
investigatio
but
these
occasions
grew
more
and
more
seldom,
until
I
find
that
in
the
ye
1890
the
we
only
three
cases
of
which
I
retain
any
record.
Du
the
winter
of
that
ye
and
the
early
spring
of
1891,
I
saw
in
the
papers
that
he
had
been
engaged
by
the
French
government
up
a
mat
of
su
importance,
and
I
received
two
no
from
Ho
dated
from
Narbo
and
from
Nimes,
fr
which
I
gathered
that
his
stay
in
France
was
likely
to
be
a
lo
one.
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