The Hound of the Baskervilles Part 31 (1/2)
”We must leave you now,” said Holmes ”The rest of our work must be done, and every moment is of importance We have our case, and noe only want ourhim at the house,” he continued as we retraced our steps swiftly down the path ”Those shots a may have deadened them”
”He followed the hound to call hione by this time! But we'll search the house and make sure”
The front door was open, so we rushed in and hurried fro old ht save in the dining-rooht up the lan could we see of theOn the upper floor, however, one of the bedroom doors was locked
”There's someone in here,” cried Lestrade ”I can hear acame from within Holmes struck the door just over the lock with the flat of his foot and it flew open Pistol in hand, we all three rushed into the roon within it of that desperate and defiant villain e expected to see Instead ere faced by an object so strange and so unexpected that we stood for aat it in amazement
The room had been fashi+oned into a slass-topped cases full of that collection of butterflies and moths the formation of which had been the relaxation of this coerous ht beam, which had been placed at some period as a support for the old worm-eaten baulk of tiure was tied, so swathed and muffled in the sheets which had been used to secure it that one could not for the moment tell whether it was that of a man or a woman One towel passed round the throat and was secured at the back of the pillar Another covered the lower part of the face, and over it two dark eyes--eyes full of grief and sha--stared back at us In a , unswathed the bonds, and Mrs Stapleton sank upon the floor in front of us As her beautiful head fell upon her chest I saw the clear red weal of a whiplash across her neck
”The brute!” cried Holmes ”Here, Lestrade, your brandy-bottle! Put her in the chair! She has fainted froain
”Is he safe?” she asked ”Has he escaped?”
”He cannot escape us, madam”
”No, no, I did not mean my husband Sir Henry? Is he safe?”
”Yes”
”And the hound?”
”It is dead”
She gave a long sigh of satisfaction
”Thank God! Thank God! Oh, this villain! See how he has treated me!”
She shot her arms out from her sleeves, and ith horror that they were all ! It is my mind and soul that he has tortured and defiled I could endure it all, ill-usage, solitude, a life of deception, everything, as long as I could still cling to the hope that I had his love, but now I know that in this also I have been his dupe and his tool” She broke into passionate sobbing as she spoke
”You bear hiood will, madam,” said Holmes ”Tell us then where we shall find him If you have ever aided him in evil, help us now and so atone”
”There is but one place where he can have fled,” she answered ”There is an old tin mine on an island in the heart of the mire It was there that he kept his hound and there also he had e That is where he would fly”
The fog-bank lay like white wool against theHolmes held the lamp towards it
”See,” said he ”No one could find his way into the Grihed and clapped her hands Her eyes and teeth gleamed with fierce merriment
”He may find his way in, but never out,” she cried ”How can he see the guiding wands tonight? We planted theh the mire Oh, if I could only have plucked them out today Then indeed you would have had him at your mercy!”