The Hound of the Baskervilles Part 14 (1/2)
”I assure you that I am simply here upon a visit to my friend, Sir Henry, and that I need no help of any kind”
”Excellent!” said Stapleton ”You are perfectly right to be wary and discreet I am justly reproved for what I feel was an unjustifiable intrusion, and I proain”
We had corassy path struck off from the road and wound away across the ht which had in bygone days been cut into a granite quarry
The face which was turned towards us for in its niches Froray plus us to Merripit House,”
said he ”Perhaps you will spare an hour that Iyou to ht was that I should be by Sir Henry's side But then I remembered the pile of papers and bills hich his study table was littered It was certain that I could not help with those And Holhbours upon the ether down the path
”It is a wonderful place, thegreen rollers, with crests of jagged granite foaes ”You never tire of the moor You cannot think the wonderful secrets which it contains It is so vast, and so barren, and so mysterious”
”You knoell, then?”
”I have only been here two years The residents would call me a newcomer We came shortly after Sir Charles settled But my tastes led me to explore every part of the country round, and I should think that there are few men who know it better than I do”
”Is it hard to know?”
”Very hard You see, for exareat plain to the north here with the queer hills breaking out of it Do you observe anything reallop”
”You would naturally think so and the thought has cost several their lives before now You notice those bright green spots scattered thickly over it?”
”Yes, they seehed ”That is the great Grimpen Mire,” said he ”A false step yonder means death to man or beast Only yesterday I saw one of the moor ponies wander into it He never ca out of the bog-hole, but it sucked hier to cross it, but after these autumn rains it is an awful place And yet I can find e, there is another of thoseand tossing a neck shot upward and a dreadful cry echoed over the moor It turned me cold with horror, but er than one!” said he ”The mire has hiet in the way of going there in the dry weather and never know the difference until the reat Grimpen Mire”
”And you say you can penetrate it?”
”Yes, there are one or two paths which a very active man can take I have found theo into so horrible a place?”
”Well, you see the hills beyond? They are really islands cut off on all sides by the impassable mire, which has crawled round them in the course of years That is where the rare plants and the butterflies are, if you have the wit to reach them”
”I shall try my luck some day”
He looked at me with a surprised face ”For God's sake put such an idea out of your mind,” said he ”Your blood would be upon my head I assure you that there would not be the least chance of your co certain complex landmarks that I am able to do it”
”Halloa!” I cried ”What is that?”
A long, low moan, indescribably sad, swept over the moor It filled the whole air, and yet it was impossible to say whence it came From a dull murmur it swelled into a deep roar, and then sank back into a ain Stapleton looked at me with a curious expression in his face