The Last Sherlock Holmes Story Read Online Free PDF Page B

he would have posted the letter as soon as it was written, on Tuesday. Why should he delay? But instead he deliberately keeps the letter back until Thursday, and then urges the press not to make it public until he “gets to work again”. That must mean that he knows beyond all doubt that another killing will take place, and within a few days. Then his letter can be published with the maximum effect. This man is waging a campaign of terror, and he understands very well that nothing is so necessary as a fine sense of timing.’
    ‘Come, Holmes!’ I protested. ‘You are surely overlooking the fact that the writer of this letter is a crude and simple fellow. You are making him out a man of intelligence and sophistication, when he is all too evidently a vulgar and illiterate ruffian.’
    ‘You speak more wisely than you know, Watson. “All too evidently”, indeed! Now I dare say I know more vulgar and illiterate ruffians than you, and I can assure you that none of them would perpetrate such a concoction as this. On the contrary, it is a characteristic of that type that, since writing is unnatural to them, they do it unnaturally. Their style is invariably cramped, their diction arch and stiff. But our correspondent who signs himself Jack the Ripper is quite a different sort. He uses his cant and his solecisms to achieve an effect, as though he were writing advertisements for the latest brand of liver pills. To be sure, he wishes the public to picture him as a violent low-class tough, which merely strengthens my conviction that he is in fact a gentleman; well spoken, well dressed, and quite probably eminently respected by a wide circle of acquaintances.’
    Lestrade eyed me silently, and winked. It was only with difficulty that I refrained from returning the gesture. Holmes’s description was so totally contrary to everycurrent opinion – as well as to ordinary common sense – that I could not help wondering if he were indulging himself in a joke at our expense. But his features betrayed no hint of irony. He seemed, indeed, more than usually serious.
    ‘Evidence!’ he cried. ‘That’s what I need – evidence! Not the evidence he chooses to give out in his letter, nor what is left after a horde of the morbidly curious have trampled over the scene of the crime at sixpence a head. No, if our man is successful in carrying out his threat, I must be on the spot.’
    He turned to Lestrade.
    ‘What preventive measures are you contemplating?’
    ‘Measures? Why, every spare man on the force has been drafted into Whitechapel! My only worry is that the killer will see that we’ve made the district too hot to hold him, and go somewhere else. If he was to try his luck in Bethnal Green or Stepney he might go many a mile without seeing a policeman.
    ‘Pshaw! Your fears are quite groundless, Lestrade. All the murderer’s tactics so far have been expressly designed to create a confrontation between himself and the authorities – a confrontation he intends to win. Why else would he alert you to his intentions? To go elsewhere now would be tantamount to admitting defeat. Besides, it is obvious from his letter that he shares the low opinion of the force that is so sadly prevalent these days.’
    ‘He will find a very warm welcome awaiting him if he does come back, I can promise you that,’ Lestrade averred stoutly. ‘Quite apart from our own patrols, and those of the vigilante groups, we have a little surprise up our sleeves. If the killer isn’t very careful, he may well find that he has picked one of my constables to try and assault!’
    ‘One of your constables?’
    ‘That’s what I said, Mr Holmes. This is highly confidential, of course, but you may be interested to learn thateach night a body of our finest men patrol the streets of Whitechapel in female attire as decoys to trap this maniac.’
    A moment of strained silence followed this revelation, and then Holmes and I burst simultaneously into uncontrollable laughter.