whatever was to happen, happen. Once Orloff knew where we had ended up, he moved in with the reinforcements.'
'And waited for the appearance of one of Chu's men before rushing the building.'
'Exactly. There were holes in the plan, but it was the best I could come up with. Obviously, you felt I was courting capture, Watson, and you were right. Chu had to be disposed of in some manner. That he went by his own hand proved convenient.'
I did not choose to comment on this. The Oriental had fallen on the remnants of the sword and had been skewed by it, but I had heard the sound of Orloff's reinforced hat when it hit the man. Possibly he was dead before he reached the floor. But such conjecture served no purpose and I dismissed it from my mind.
'Then it's back to London?' asked Orloff.
'By way of Berlin,' replied Holmes, to my astonishment. 'I have a little duty to perform there, and Gray is giving me a hand.'
Holmes had risen from his chair and was looking out the window towards the street and the star-studded Egyptian sky just now tinted with the first rosy hue of the coming day.
While I was digesting this new idea, Orloff returned to a subject he had mentioned previously.
'There's liable to be another offer of knighthood. Will you accept this time?'
'Little chance. I rather fancy I ruffled some feelings with my first refusal. In any case, I have already been amply rewarded for this singular adventure.'
I was about to question Holmes regarding this when he turned towards Orloff and me suddenly.
'You know, it was the scheme of a Mad Hatter, but it would have worked.'
'Oh come now, Holmes,' I remonstrated automatically.
'You have been too close to it, ol' fellow. Never mind your thoughts. What of the dockworker in London, the tailor in Paris, the German baker and their cousins everywhere? They read of the discovery of an unknown tomb, the first of its kind ever revealed to the eyes of modern man. The seals on the inner door are as they were when the crypt was closed over three thousand years ago, and inside are the golden tablets with a new concept of the first prophet of Allah.'
'How would Chu have worked that?' asked Orloff shrewdly.
'The inner door was of stone. Chu could have effected an opening and slid the tablets through into the interior of the tomb. I imagine that such an opening, not large enough for a man, could have been concealed readily enough. I tell you it would have shaken the foundations of more religions than that of Islam. You forget the spell that this strange land can weave. What of the man you mentioned, Watson, Charles Piazzi Smythe of our century, not without impressive credentials? He was Astronomer Royal of Scotland, you know, and was absolutely convinced, and convinced untold others, that the measurements of the inside of the Great Pyramid foretold the entire history of the human race.'
I suppressed a yawn and rose to my feet.
'Come now, Holmes, you've solved this problem, so let us not spend good time on might-have-beens. This adventure is over.'
A Retrospection
I was wrong, for Holmes's adventures seldom end swiftly. Conclusions take a while, as they did in the tragic Birlstone matter and others that I could mention. Holmes and I did return to Baker Street by way of Berlin. In the German capital, the sleuth returned the two golden tablets to their legal owner, Herr Mannheim, the great collector. The industrialist got them back in their original form since Holmes, aided by Gray, had convinced Memory Max that he had best obliterate his forgeries and return the original secret writings to their surface. Holmes can be very persuasive when he's of a mind. Herr Mannheim decided to drop his charges against the misguided Heinrich Hublein and some six months later, due to the great influence of the steel tycoon, young Hublein was released from jail. As to whether he became reconciled with his father, Shadow Schadie, I do not know. Sometimes, in the dark of night, I shudder at the thought that Holmes and I might have loosed two men who could walk up walls on an unsuspecting public. But it did seem like the sporting thing to do at the time.
The final resolution to the case came round the time of Hublein's release. I was looking for our checkbook and, without thinking, opened the upper-left-hand drawer of the desk, which was usually locked for Holmes kept private papers within.
Right on the top was a sheet of notepaper carefully mounted between two pieces of glass. I observed that it was resting on what I assumed was the letter from Irene Adler. I had no intention of viewing Holmes's confidential mementos, but I could not fail to recognize the paper and the ink-scrawled words upon it, for I knew them by heart.
Now I knew what Holmes meant when he said he had been amply rewarded for our singular adventure.
