so. These infernal Scowrers, this cursed vindictive nest
of criminals--"

"No, no, my good sir," said Holmes. "There is a master hand here. It is
no case of sawed-off shotguns and clumsy six-shooters. You can tell an
old master by the sweep of his brush. I can tell a Moriarty when I see
one. This crime is from London, not from America."

"But for what motive?"

"Because it is done by a man who cannot afford to fail, one whose whole
unique position depends upon the fact that all he does must succeed. A
great brain and a huge organization have been turned to the extinction
of one man. It is crushing the nut with the triphammer--an absurd
extravagance of energy--but the nut is very effectually crushed all the
same."

"How came this man to have anything to do with it?"

"I can only say that the first word that ever came to us of the business
was from one of his lieutenants. These Americans were well advised.
Having an English job to do, they took into partnership, as any foreign
criminal could do, this great consultant in crime. From that moment
their man was doomed. At first he would content himself by using his
machinery in order to find their victim. Then he would indicate how the
matter might be treated. Finally, when he read in the reports of the
failure of this agent, he would step in himself with a master touch. You
heard me warn this man at Birlstone Manor House that the coming danger
was greater than the past. Was I right?"

Barker beat his head with his clenched fist in his impotent anger. "Do
not tell me that we have to sit down under this? Do you say that no one
can ever get level with this king devil?"

"No, I don't say that," said Holmes, and his eyes seemed to be looking
far into the future. "I don't say that he can't be beat. But you must
give me time--you must give me time!"

We all sat in silence for some minutes while those fateful eyes still
strained to pierce the veil.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Valley of Fear, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VALLEY OF FEAR ***

***** This file should be named 3289.txt or 3289.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/8/3289/

Produced by David Brannan

Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.

Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyr