Still groggy, I protested, ‘Holmes, would it be too much to ask why you have summoned me at - ’ I consulted my pocket watch. ‘Good Lord! It’s half past four in the morning!’
‘Clearly our use of substitute names failed to work, Watson.’
He held up two telegrams. ‘These were brought straight to me.’
One was addressed to ‘Mr. Sherlock Holmes or Dr. John Watson’. It read:
Dear Mr. Holmes, I told no one of your whereabouts. The London newspapers have revealed your presence. Ten reporters came to my door in the middle of the night. I was obliged to quit the house by a hind-window into the yard like you and Dr. Watson do when necessary. If you need me you can get me at my sister’s. Kind regards, M. Hudson.
‘Now read this second telegram,’ Holmes ordered. It was from the Victoria.
From the Captain. Arabia Sea. Urgent. Attention Messrs. Hewitt & Learson. Today’s English newspapers telegraphed to the ship contain details of Honour conferred on Sherlock Holmes by the University of Berne and his return to Meiringen. Subsequently passenger referred to in earlier communication composed a telegram to London in code (below). Two words are not encoded: ‘Reichenbach Falls’.
The message was followed by a page covered by a series of three numbers separated by full-stops.
It was clear Colonel Moran had issued an order from the Arabian Sea to his footpads at the murderous Lower Rung Club. I felt dizzy with shock. We would need to abandon all thought of continuing with our photographic enterprise.
‘Holmes,’ I began, ‘we must at once - ’
He interrupted me.‘ Watson, this code is based on Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England. I myself have used it on several occasions. Each word is described by three numbers, giving page, line and position of the word in that line.’
Holmes’s bony finger jabbed at the middle of the page. ‘If I recall correctly, this set, namely 22.9.14, stands for “Arrival”.’His finger drifted back along the lines of numerals.
‘And 102.8.26,’ he continued.
‘Stands for?’
‘“Essential”,’ came the reply. ‘As to the rest, without Blackstone’s I have reached my limit. I lodge my copy of Blackstone’s with Mycroft. He keeps it at No. 10 Downing Street where it looks perfectly in place. We must telegraph the coded message to my brother immediately with instructions to wake him from his slumber. I suggest we get a couple of hours’ more sleep. The moment I receive Mycroft’s reply I shall share it with you.’
Dawn was breaking when we reassembled on the terrace. The response from Mycroft arrived with a pot of coffee. My comrade pondered for a few seconds before flicking the page across the broad table.
‘Mycroft has deciphered Moran’s telegram.’
The decoded message was shorter than I had anticipated from the jumble of numbers. It read:
Aboard the Victoria. Essential you do not proceed to the Reichenbach Falls. Rather, cover quarry’s arrival at likely Channel ports, not least Continental boat trains between Newhaven and London. SM.
‘You will note even our greatest living adversary forgets himself in his excitement,’ Holmes remarked with a slight smile. ‘To his minions Sebastian Moran has signed himself with his true initials, yet aboard the Victoria he will be known by the quite different nomme de guerre he supplied to us.’
A surge of relief burst through me.
‘Holmes,’ I exclaimed, ‘it seems we are safe! Moran says explicitly ‘do not proceed to the Reichenbach Falls’. We shall be able to take the photograph after all.’
Holmes’s fingers unwrapped themselves from along cherry-wood pipe. In a serious tone he resumed.
‘I must inform you, my dear Watson, that your conclusions are erroneous. We are in the utmost danger and must quit this hotel with all due speed.’
I stared in bewilderment at my companion.
‘You have not reached the end of the message,’ Holmes continued. ‘It tells us that if the Channel is calm the first of Moran’s assassins should arrive here in a matter of hours. My brother is a cryptographer of great merit and intuition. Moran’s telegram has made him suspicious in the extreme.534 C2 13 127 - followed by 36 31 4 17 21 etc. Those numerals and the letter C were added by Mycroft. As children he and I communicated using a code based on the old Whitaker’s Almanac our father revered. We used that particular warning frequently enough to fix it firmly in my memory. It means danger may come very soon.’
I responded, ‘In his telegram Moran orders his band of assassins to waylay us at the Channel, not here in the middle of Switzerland.’
Holmes looked again at the telegram.
‘Colonel Moran moves up in my estimation,’ he said. ‘Something of Moriarty has rubbed off on him. It was genius on Moran’s part. Leaving the words Reichenbach Falls uncoded means he has worked out the Victoria’s Captain is in communication with us. Moran knew I would come quickly to the realisation he was using Blackstone’s, ergo he wanted us to break his code. He must have read my monograph on codes where I recommend Blackstone’s. If Colonel Moran anticipated we would break the code, it can mean only one thing: he has a long-standing arrangement with the recipients, that they will do precisely the opposite. ‘Wait for us at the Channel ports’? No -it means they are not to wait for us at the Channel ports. ‘Do not proceed to the Reichenbach Falls’ - do proceed. Hardly shall we have peddled furiously from here than they will be taking up their hiding-places on the slopes above us.’
‘If you are correct in your deduction, Holmes, then we must slip away at once,’ I said. ‘One shot from a rifle as powerful as those Moran would provide for his acolytes would shatter our skulls into splinters.’
‘We must adjust our plans in light of this new information,’ Holmes responded. ‘I shall be infinitely obliged if you will find a hotel servant and order him to bring us a further pot of coffee while I change to a new pipe. If we are to relinquish limb or life in carrying out your commission, this may be the last quiet talk that we shall ever have.’
I got to my feet. ‘If your deduction is correct, Holmes,’ I responded, ‘rather than a pot of coffee and a fireside chat we must abandon the photograph and make our way back to England without a moment’s delay.’
My companion looked at me calmly. ‘Tell me, Watson, where had you thought to secure the photograph for the Strand?’
‘The exact spot where you tossed Moriarty to his death - where else?’ I replied.
‘At the very same cliff edge?’ Holmes pursued.
‘Preferably, yes,’ I replied.
‘And how long will the photograph take?’
‘At least the quarter hour. My instructions are to get your face in sharp detail, with a determined look on it, the torrent in soft focus at your back,’ I explained. ‘But surely that is entirely academic. We - ’
‘So we would be en plein air and in good light long enough for the worst marksmen in the world to loose at least a hundred shots at us,’ Holmes interrupted.
‘Let me ask you a question, Watson. There are seventy-two waterfalls in the Bernese Oberland. Of your countless readers, how many will have visited each of them in person?’
I attempted a smile. ‘A handful at most. I’ve heard the expression that when you have seen one Alp you have seen them all. I believe much the same applies to Alpine falls.’
I ordered the pot of coffee and instructed the waiter to take the pot together with the hotel bill to the terrace. I sped to my room to pack my few belongings. When I rejoined Holmes on the otherwise empty terrace he was staring at the guide-book. All seemed tranquil. The sun was by now high over a fine mountain peak. Our bicycles awaited us. At my arrival he looked up and swept a hand across the landscape.