The Hound of the Baskervilles Part 14 (2/2)
”Queer place, the moor!” said he
”But what is it?”
”The peasants say it is the Hound of the Baskervilles calling for its prey I've heard it once or twice before, but never quite so loud”
I looked round, with a chill of fear in reen patches of rushes Nothing stirred over the vast expanse save a pair of ravens, which croaked loudly from a tor behind us
”You are an educated man You don't believe such nonsense as that?” said I ”What do you think is the cause of so strange a sound?”
”Bogs , or the water rising, or so voice”
”Well, perhaps it was Did you ever hear a bittern boo?”
”No, I never did”
”It's a very rare bird--practically extinct--in England now, but all things are possible upon the moor Yes, I should not be surprised to learn that e have heard is the cry of the last of the bitterns”
”It's the weirdest, strangest thing that ever I heard in ether Look at the hillside yonder What do you ray circular rings of stone, a score of them at least
”What are they? Sheep-pens?”
”No, they are the homes of our worthy ancestors Prehistoric man lived thickly on the moor, and as no one in particular has lived there since, we find all his little arrangeith the roofs off You can even see his hearth and his couch if you have the curiosity to go inside
”But it is quite a town When was it inhabited?”
”Neolithic razed his cattle on these slopes, and he learned to dig for tin when the bronze sword began to supersede the stone axe Look at the great trench in the opposite hill That is his ular points about the moor, Dr Watson Oh, excuse me an instant! It is surely Cyclopides”
A small fly or moth had fluttered across our path, and in an instant Stapleton was rushi+ng with extraordinary energy and speed in pursuit of it To reat mire, andfro in the air His gray clothes and jerky, zigzag, irregular progress ehis pursuit with a mixture of admiration for his extraordinary activity and fear lest he should lose his footing in the treacherousround, found a woman near me upon the path She had come from the direction in which the plume of smoke indicated the position of Merripit House, but the dip of the moor had hid her until she was quite close
I could not doubt that this was the Miss Stapleton of whom I had been told, since ladies of any sort must be few upon the moor, and I re a beauty The woman who approached me was certainly that, and of a reater contrast between brother and sister, for Stapleton was neutral tinted, with light hair and gray eyes, while she was darker than any brunette whoant, and tall She had a proud, finely cut face, so regular that it ht have seemed impassive were it not for the sensitive ure and elegant dress she was, indeed, a strange apparition upon a lonely moorland path Her eyes were on her brother as I turned, and then she quickened her pace towards me I had raised my hat and was about to make sohts into a new channel
”Go back!” she said ”Go straight back to London, instantly”
I could only stare at her in stupid surprise Her eyes blazed at round impatiently with her foot