“Come, now,” said Moran. “I do realize that there is more to life than gaming, dining, and wenching. I wouldn’t want my skills, such as they are, to get rusty from disuse. Not entirely, at any rate. And associating with you is, if I may say so, a rare pleasure in its own right.”
Moriarty chuckled. “I’ll keep that in mind,” he said.
Mr. Maws appeared in the office doorway with Colonel Moran’s hat and coat. Moran shrugged into the coat and clapped the bowler firmly on his head. “Well, I’ll be off, then,” he said. “Ta, Professor. Or, as they say, au revoir.”
“Goodbye, my friend,” said Moriarty. “Take care.”
“Oh, I shall, Professor,” said Colonel Moran. “You can count on it.” He started for the front door, and then paused and turned back. “I’m off to spend my nights in Paris,” he said in a bemused voice, “and you’re off to spend yours huddled in a greatcoat and woolen scarf peering through a bloody great telescope in the dank and dreary Moors.” He shook his head. “And they say you’re the genius!”
The sound of Moriarty’s laughter followed Colonel Moran out onto Russell Square as he raised his stick to hail a passing hansom cab.
Table of Contents
P ROLOGUE
1. Calcutta
2. Hide and Go Seek
3. The Schemers
5. The Enigmatic Dr. Pin Dok Low
6. Government House
7. West of Suez
8. The Jadoogar
9. The Phansigar
10. Punctuated Equilibrium
11. The Game’s Afoot
12. The Empress of India
13. The Scorpion Killers
14. Shipmates
16. Bombay
17. All at Sea
18. Stirring and Twitching
19. Elephanta
20. A Number of Things
21. The Lonely Sea
22. Hugger-Mugger
23. The Gathering Storm
24. The Marquis of Queensberry Doesn’t Rule Here
25. Who Is This Man?
27. Altered Patterns
28. Into Thin Air
29. A Pretty Trick
30. The Return
31. The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street