The Hound of the Baskervilles Part 18 (2/2)
”I will coet your revolver and put on your boots The sooner we start the better, as the fellow ht and be off”
In fiveupon our expedition
We hurried through the dark shrubbery, a of the autuht air was heavy with the sain theover the face of the sky, and just as we caht still burned steadily in front
”Are you ar-crop”
”We must close in on him rapidly, for he is said to be a desperate fellow We shall take him by surprise and have him at our mercy before he can resist”
”I say, Watson,” said the baronet, ”ould Holmes say to this? How about that hour of darkness in which the power of evil is exalted?”
As if in answer to his words there rose suddenly out of the vast glooe cry which I had already heard upon the borders of the great Grih the silence of the night, a long, deephowl, and then the sad ain it sounded, the whole air throbbing with it, strident, wild, and lih the darkness
”My God, what's that, Watson?”
”I don't know It's a sound they have on the moor I heard it once before”
It died away, and an absolute silence closed in upon us We stood straining our ears, but nothing came
”Watson,” said the baronet, ”it was the cry of a hound”
My blood ran cold in my veins, for there was a break in his voice which told of the sudden horror which had seized him
”What do they call this sound?” he asked
”Who?”
”The folk on the countryside”
”Oh, they are ignorant people Why should you mind what they call it?”
”Tell me, Watson What do they say of it?”
I hesitated but could not escape the question
”They say it is the cry of the Hound of the Baskervilles”
He groaned and was silent for a few moments
”A hound it was,” he said at last, ”but it seemed to come from miles away, over yonder, I think”
”It was hard to say whence it came”