The Hound of the Baskervilles Part 12 (2/2)
”Welcome, Sir Henry! Welcome to Baskerville Hall!”
A tall man had stepped froonette The figure of a woht of the hall She cas
”You don't ht ho me”
”Surely you will stay and have soo I shall probably find so me I would stay to show you over the house, but Barryuide than I Good-bye, and never hesitate night or day to send for me if I can be of service”
The wheels died away down the drive while Sir Henry and I turned into the hall, and the door clanged heavily behind us It was a fine aparte, lofty, and heavily raftered with huge baulks of age-blackened oak In the great old-fashi+oned fireplace behind the high iron dogs a log-fire crackled and snapped Sir Henry and I held out our hands to it, for ere nuh, thinof old stained glass, the oak panelling, the stags' heads, the coats of arht of the central lained it,” said Sir Henry ”Is it not the very picture of an old family home? To think that this should be the same hall in which for five hundred years my people have lived It strikes me solemn to think of it”
I saw his dark face lit up with a boyish enthusiasht beat upon hi shadows trailed down the walls and hung like a black canopy above hie to our rooms He stood in front of us noith the subduedman, tall, handsouished features
”Would you wish dinner to be served at once, sir?”
”Is it ready?”
”In a very few minutes, sir You will find hot water in your rooms My wife and I will be happy, Sir Henry, to stay with you until you have ements, but you will understand that under the new conditions this house will require a considerable staff”
”What new conditions?”
”I only meant, sir, that Sir Charles led a very retired life, and ere able to look after his wants You would, naturally, wish to have es in your household”
”Do you mean that your wife and you wish to leave?”
”Only when it is quite convenient to you, sir”
”But your faenerations, have they not? I should be sorry to beginan old fans of emotion upon the butler's white face
”I feel that also, sir, and so does my wife But to tell the truth, sir, ere both very ave us a shock and s very painful to us I fear that we shall never again be easy in our minds at Baskerville Hall”
”But what do you intend to do?”
”I have no doubt, sir, that we shall succeed in establishi+ng ourselves in soiven us the means to do so And now, sir, perhaps I had best show you to your rooallery ran round the top of the old hall, approached by a double stair Fro corridors extended the whole length of the building, fro as Baskerville's and almost next door to it These rooms appeared to be much ht paper and nu to remove the sombre impression which our arrival had left upon -rooloo the dais where the family sat from the lower portion reserved for their dependents
At one end a allery overlooked it Black bea beyond theht it up, and the colour and rude hilarity of an old-tiht have softened; but nohen two black-clothed gentleht thrown by a shaded lamp, one's voice became hushed and one's spirit subdued A dim line of ancestors, in every variety of dress, froency, stared down upon us and daunted us by their silent colad when the meal was over and ere able to retire into the arette
”My word, it isn't a very cheerful place,” said Sir Henry ”I suppose one can tone down to it, but I feel a bit out of the picture at present
I don't wonder that ot a little jumpy if he lived all alone in such a house as this However, if it suits you, ill retire early tonight, and perhaps things ”
I drew aside my curtains before I went to bed and looked out frorassy space which lay in front of the hall door Beyond, two copses of trees h the rifts of racing clouds In its cold light I saw beyond the trees a broken fringe of rocks, and the long, low curve of thethatwith the rest
And yet it was not quite the last I foundrestlessly fro for the sleep which would not co clock struck out the quarters of the hours, but otherwise a deathly silence lay upon the old house And then suddenly, in the very dead of the night, there came a sound to my ears, clear, resonant, and unling gasp of one who is torn by an uncontrollable sorrow
I sat up in bed and listened intently The noise could not have been far away and was certainly in the house For half an hour I waited with every nerve on the alert, but there ca clock and the rustle of the ivy on the wall