The Hound of the Baskervilles Part 31 (2/2)
It was evident to us that all pursuit was in vain until the fog had lifted Meanwhile we left Lestrade in possession of the house while Holmes and I went back with the baronet to Baskerville Hall The story of the Stapletons could no longer be withheld from him, but he took the blow bravely when he learned the truth about the woht's adventures had shattered his nerves, and before h fever under the care of Dr Mortiether round the world before Sir Henry had become once more the hale, hearty man that he had been before he became master of that ill-omened estate
And now I coular narrative, in which I have tried to ue suric ahad lifted and ere guided by Mrs Stapleton to the point where they had found a pathway through the bog It helped us to realize the horror of this woerness and joy hich she laid us on her husband's track We left her standing upon the thin peninsula of fir From the end of it a sed froreen-scuer Rank reeds and lush, slimy water-plants sent an odour of decay and a heavy ed usmire, which shook for yards in soft undulations around our feet Its tenacious grip plucked at our heels as alked, and e sank into it it was as if so us down into those obscene depths, so grim and purposeful was the clutch in which it held us Once onlya trace that someone had passed that perilous way before us Frorass which bore it up out of the sli Holmes sank to his waist as he stepped fro hiain He held an old black boot in the air ”Meyers, Toronto,” was printed on the leather inside
”It is worth aboot”
”Thrown there by Stapleton in his flight”
”Exactly He retained it in his hand after using it to set the hound upon the track He fled when he knew the ga it And he hurled it away at this point of his flight We know at least that he came so far in safety”
But h there wasfootsteps in themud oozed swiftly in upon theround beyond the htest sign of them ever met our eyes If the earth told a true story, then Stapleton never reached that island of refuge towards which he struggled through the fog upon that last night Soreat Grie morass which had sucked him in, this cold and cruel-hearted man is forever buried
Many traces we found of hie ally A huge driving-wheel and a shaft half-filled with rubbish showed the position of an abandoned es of the miners, driven away no doubt by the foul reek of the surrounding swanawed bones shohere the anile of brown hair adhering to it lay a!” said Holmes ”By Jove, a curly-haired spaniel Poor Mortiain Well, I do not know that this place contains any secret which we have not already fathomed He could hide his hound, but he could not hush its voice, and hence caht were not pleasant to hear On an eency he could keep the hound in the out-house at Merripit, but it was always a risk, and it was only on the suprearded as the end of all his efforts, that he dared do it This paste in the tin is no doubt the luested, of course, by the story of the fahten old Sir Charles to death No wonder the poor devil of a convict ran and screaht have done, when he saw such a creature bounding through the darkness of thedevice, for, apart fro your victim to his death, what peasant would venture to inquire too closely into such a creature should he get sight of it, as many have done, upon the ain now, that never yet have we helped to hunt down ayonder”--he swept his long ar which stretched away until it ed into the russet slopes of the moor
Chapter 15 A Retrospection
It was the end of Noveht, on either side of a blazing fire in our sitting-rooic upshot of our visit to Devonshi+re he had been engaged in two affairs of the utmost importance, in the first of which he had exposed the atrocious conduct of Colonel Upwood in connection with the famous card scandal of the Nonpareil Club, while in the second he had defended the unfortunate M over her in connection with the death of her step-daughter, Mlle Carere, the young lady who, as it will be remembered, was found six months later alive and married in New York
My friend was in excellent spirits over the success which had attended a succession of difficult and important cases, so that I was able to induce him to discuss the details of the Baskerville mystery I had waited patiently for the opportunity for I are that he would never perical mind would not be drawn from its present work to dwell upon memories of the past Sir Henry and Dr Mortie which had been recommended for the restoration of his shattered nerves They had called upon us that very afternoon, so that it was natural that the subject should come up for discussion
”The whole course of events,” said Holmes, ”from the point of view of the man who called hih to us, who had nothe motives of his actions and could only learn part of the facts, it all appeared exceedingly coe of two conversations with Mrs Stapleton, and the case has now been so entirely cleared up that I a which has remained a secret to us
You will find a few notes upon theB in ive me a sketch of the course of events frouarantee that I carry all the facts in my mind Intenseout what has passed The barrister who has his case at his fingers' ends and is able to argue with an expert upon his own subject finds that a week or two of the courts will drive it all out of his head once more So each of my cases displaces the last, and Mlle Carere has blurred my recollection of Baskerville Hall Tomorrow some other little problem may be submitted to my notice which will in turn dispossess the fair French lady and the infaoes, however, I will give you the course of events as nearly as I can, and you will suggest anything which I otten
”My inquiries show beyond all question that the family portrait did not lie, and that this felloas indeed a Baskerville He was a son of that Rodger Baskerville, the younger brother of Sir Charles, who fled with a sinister reputation to South America, where he was said to have died unmarried He did, as a matter of fact, marry, and had one child, this fellohose real name is the same as his father's He married Beryl Garcia, one of the beauties of Costa Rica, and, having purloined a considerable sued his naland, where he established a school in the east of Yorkshi+re
His reason for atte this special line of business was that he had struck up an acquaintance with a consue home, and that he had used thisa success Fraser, the tutor, died however, and the school which had begun well sank from disrepute into infae their naht the remains of his fortune, his schey to the south of England I learned at the British Museunized authority upon the subject, and that the name of Vandeleur has been permanently attached to a certain moth which he had, in his Yorkshi+re days, been the first to describe
”We now come to that portion of his life which has proved to be of such intense interest to us The fellow had evidently made inquiry and found that only two lives intervened between him and a valuable estate When he went to Devonshi+re his plans were, I believe, exceedingly hazy, but that he meant mischief from the first is evident from the way in which he took his ith hi her as a decoy was clearly already in his h he may not have been certain how the details of his plot were to be arranged He meant in the end to have the estate, and he was ready to use any tool or run any risk for that end His first act was to establish himself as near to his ancestral home as he could, and his second was to cultivate a friendshi+p with Sir Charles Baskerville and with the neighbours
”The baronet himself told him about the family hound, and so prepared the way for his own death Stapleton, as I will continue to call him, knew that the old man's heart eak and that a shock would kill him
So much he had learned from Dr Mortimer He had heard also that Sir Charles was superstitious and had taken this grienious ested a way by which the baronet could be done to death, and yet it would be hardly possible to bring ho conceived the idea he proceeded to carry it out with considerable finesse An ordinary schee hound The use of artificial enius upon his part The dog he bought in London froles, the dealers in Fulhae in their possession He brought it down by the North Devon line and walked a great distance over theany remarks He had already on his insect hunts learned to penetrate the Gri-place for the creature Here he kennelled it and waited his chance
”But it was soentleht Several times Stapleton lurked about with his hound, but without avail It was during these fruitless quests that he, or rather his ally, was seen by peasants, and that the legend of the de received a new confirht lure Sir Charles to his ruin, but here she proved unexpectedly independent She would not endeavour to entangle the old gentleht deliver him over to his enemy
Threats and even, I am sorry to say, blows refused toto do with it, and for a time Stapleton was at a deadlock