problems (probably not Final)

Whenever I read 'The Final Problem' I feel a gentle throbbing in my brain. There is so much of it that just makes absolutely no sense - and this is on its own, let alone adding the further revelations of 'The Empty House' into the mix. I have to make a conscious adjustment and simply let myself be carried along by the story, leaving any nagging or niggling thoughts for afterwards. Such as:

Why does Holmes give the game away to Moriarty by saying he was to move against him on the Monday?

Why does Holmes endanger Watson's life by leaving the back way?

Why is it a surprise to Holmes that the London police failed to arrest Moriarty when he knows that he (Moriarty) has been following him for the past two days across the continent by rail and boat?

Is Holmes just making all this up? Watson only has Holmes' word that Moriarty even exists...

Even after finishing the story, putting the book down and making a relaxing cup of tea these, and other, questions niggle away at my mind in a way that is quite vexing and I often have to go and lie down.

*

It is much safer, and thus soothing, to speculate on one particular aspect of the story - the content of Colonel James Moriarty's letters to the press, letters which apparently so incensed Dr Watson that he was compelled to write FINA so the 'truth' may be told.

Their general gist can be easily guessed at. They "[defend] the memory of his brother" (i.e Professor Moriarty); they are "an absolute perversion of the facts"; and in clearing the Professor's name they contain "attacks upon [Holmes]". Clearly, then, the letters (I wonder which newspapers printed them?) constitute an attempt at what we would nowadays call a 'whitewash' of the late Professor. Holmes tells Watson that the Prof had to resign his chair at the University due to "dark rumours" - unspecified! - so did these letters begin by first refuting these rumours? This could be quite effectively done - "Are we to sit by and allow rumour and gossip to ruin a man's career and reputation?" etc - after all, nobody wishes to feel a man has been unfairly judged and tried not by the courts but by the press or whispering rival academics.

So far so good. That alone, perhaps with a sprinkling of the Professor's achievements (real or imagined) could stand for the "perversion of the facts" that so fired up Watson. But what of the attacks on Holmes?

Speculation must rest not on the existence of these attacks but their extent. Just how far did the Colonel go? One cannot libel the dead - and both Moriarty and Holmes were believed dead - so any number of claims could be made as to Holmes' character which the Colonel could reasonably expect to get away with. Were these letters sprinkled with 'dark rumours' of his own? A drug-taking fiend? A practicing homosexual (known to live with a male medical friend)? An habitual criminal who had facilitated the Ku Klux Klan, defrauded the Wessex Cup (by concealing the identity of the winning horse Silver Blaze), let the murderers of Paul Kratides escape, etc?

Did he go yet further? Did he accuse Holmes of murder? "It is clear to me that my poor brother, a defenceless old man, was lured to his death by Mr Holmes who expected to extinguish his life at a remote spot where the crime could be easily concealed as an 'accident'... but Holmes himself fell to his death also, my brother evidently giving as good as he got right to the end..."

(or some such)

Holmes' Last Will & Testament has turned up, or at least a document purporting to be it; hope springs eternal that these letters of Colonel Moriarty's may also one day be discovered, a vital but still missing piece to further complete the Reichenbachian puzzle.