"I happen to know who is the first link in his chain--a chain
with this Napoleon-gone-wrong at one end, and a hundred broken
fighting men, pickpockets, blackmailers, and card sharpers at the
other, with every sort of crime in between. His chief of staff
is Colonel Sebastian Moran, as aloof and guarded and inaccessible
to the law as himself. What do you think he pays him?"

"I'd like to hear."

"Six thousand a year. That's paying for brains, you see--the
American business principle. I learned that detail quite by
chance. It's more than the Prime Minister gets. That gives you
an idea of Moriarty's gains and of the scale on which he works.
Another point: I made it my business to hunt down some of
Moriarty's checks lately--just common innocent checks that he
pays his household bills with. They were drawn on six different
banks. Does that make any impression on your mind?"

"Queer, certainly! But what do you gather from it?"

"That he wanted no gossip about his wealth. No single man should
know what he had. I have no doubt that he has twenty banking
accounts; the bulk of his fortune abroad in the Deutsche Bank or
the Credit Lyonnais as likely as not. Sometime when you have a
year or two to spare I commend to you the study of Professor
Moriarty."

Inspector MacDonald had grown steadily more impressed as the
conversation proceeded. He had lost himself in his interest.