Please burn the cipher message, which can now be of no use to you.
FRED PORLOCK."
Holmes sat for some little time twisting this letter between his fingers, and frowning, as he stared into the fire.
"After all," he said at last, "there may be nothing in it. It may be only his guilty conscience. Knowing himself to be a traitor, he may have read the accusation in the other's eyes."
"The other being, I presume, Professor Moriarty."
"No less! When any of that party talk about 'He' you know whom they mean. There is one predominant 'He' for all of them."
"But what can he do?"
"Hum! That's a large question.
When you have one of the first brains of Europe up against you, and all the powers of darkness at his back, there are infinite possibilities.
Anyhow, Friend Porlock is evidently scared out of his senses-kindly compare the writing in the note to that upon its envelope; which was done, he tells us, before this ill-omened visit.