In short, my giving that ring to Harry was simply a link in
the chain of circumstances. It just had to be; the PROPHECY would
not have had it otherwise."
Without stopping to explain what he meant by the word "prophecy,"
Watson went on:
"That's what makes it puzzling. I have never been able to
understand how every bit has dovetailed with such exactness. We--
you and I--are certainly not supernatural; and yet, on the other
side of the Spot, the proof is overwhelmingly convincing.
"I was very weak that night. So weak that it is difficult for me
to remember. The last I recollect was my going to the back of the
house; to the kitchen, I think. I had a light in my hands. The
boys were in the front room, waiting. One of them had opened a
door some yards away from where I stood.
"Coming as it did, on the instant, it is difficult to describe.
But I knew it instinctively for what it was: the dot of blue on
the ceiling, and the string of light. Then, a sensation of
falling, like dropping into space itself. It is hard to describe
the horrifying terror of plunging head on from an immense height
to a plain at a vastly lower level.
"And that's all that I remember--from this side." [Footnote:
NOTE.--In justice to Mr. Watson, the present writers have thought
it best at this stage to transpose the story from the first to the
third person. Any narrative, unless it is negative in its
material, is hard to give in the first person; for where the
narrator has played an active, positive part, he must either curb
himself or fall under the slur of braggadocio.
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