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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Times, 1907-08-15, Page 74t+44-4•• •+St++++++4++++++:4, • +4+4+++++++++:44++++++. The Hound of the Saskervilles Another Adventure of Sherlock Holmes. BX A. CONAN DOYLB, Author of "The GreenFlag't and "The Great Boer War' Qapyright (WWQl) by A,.. Octan Aoale, t,+; ikA one Who Is in the last extremity 1 dirt. From crime to crime he saint rot doubt and misery, lower and lower, until it is only the "I was doing, no harm, sir. 1 was hold- 1 mercy o1 God which has' snatched liim Ing a candle to the window." "And why were you holding a. candle to the window?" "Don't ask me, Sir Henry—don't ask me! I give you my word, sir, that it is not my secret, and that I cannot tell it, if it concerned no one but mysen I would not try to keep it front you." A sudden idea occurred to me, and I tool; the candle from the trembling band of the butler, "He must have been holding it as i. signal," said L "Let us see if there 10 any answer." I held it as he had done, and stared out into the darkness of the night, Vaguely I could discern the black bank of the trees and the light- er ight•er expanse of the moor, for the moon was behind the clouds. And then I gave a cry of exultation, for a tiny Pile point of yellow light had . suddenly transfixed the dark veil, and glowed steadily in the centre of the blacl4 .square framed by the window, "There it is!" I cried. "No, no, sir, it is nothing—nothing at all!" the butler broke in; "I assure you, "Move your light across the window, Watson!" cried the baronet. "See, the other moves also! Now, you rascal, do you deny that it Is a signal? Come, speak up! Who is your confederate out yonder, and what is this conspire acy that is going on?" The man's face became openly de' sant. �'C'iey41. "It is my business, and not yours. l "wily God, what's that. Watson 2" will not tell" "Then you leave my employment aright away." "Very good, sir. If I must I must" "And you go in disgrace, By thun- der, you may well be ashamed of your, ;self. Your family has lived with mine for over a hundred years under this roof, and here I and you deep in some dark plot against me." "No, no, sir; no, not against you!" It was a woman's voice, and Mrs. Barry, more, paler and more horrorstruck than her husband, was standing at the door. Her bulky figure in a shawl and skirt might have been comic were it not for the intensity of feeling upon her face. "We have to go, Eliza, This is the end of it. Yom can" pack our things," ..said the butler. "Oh, John, John, have I brought you 'to this? It is my doing, Sir Henry—all ;nine. He has done nothing except for my sake, and because I asked him." "Speak out, then! What does it mean?" "My unhappy brother is starving on the moor. We cannot let him perish • at our very gates. The light is a sig- nal to him that food is ready -for him, and his light out yonder is to show the spot to which to bring it." "Then your brother is—" "The escaped convict, sir—Selden, the criminal," "That's the truth, air," said Barry - more. "I said that it was not my se- cret and that I could not tell it to you. But now you have heard it, and you will see that if there was a plot it was not against you." This, then, was the explanation of 'the stealthy expeditions at night and the light at the window. Sir Henry and tT both stared at the woman in amaze, went. Was it possible that this stolidly respectable person was of the same blood as one of the most notorious :,criminals in the country? "Yes, sir, my name was Selden, and Ase is my younger brother. We humor- ed hitn too much when. he was a lad, and gave him his own way in every- thing until he came to think that the rivorld was made for his pleasure, and that he could do what he liked in it. ;Then, as he grew older, he met wick, ed companions, and the devil entered Into him until be broke eV mother's $tear; and dragged our name in the .DR. FOWLER'S EXTRACT OF 1ILD S TRAWBERRY Summer 'Complaint, Diarrhoea, Dysentery, Colic and Cramps, Cholera Morbus, Cholera Infanturn ANO All Fluxes of the hoWelsr 'It is without doubt the safest and most ateliable remedy in existence. It has been is household remedy for tixty-two years. Its efffete are instantaneous and it ,does not leave the bowels in a constipated +condition. Do not be humbugged into taking toniething the unscrupulous druggist guys is just es good. Hits. Vd. Stringer, lienimingtard, Que., .says : "I have used Dr. li`aWLett'a V;;,rniier or Wan &Rea/EERY with excellent results. 1< always keep it in the hour es it is the best cure for Dior moan that can be had. from the scaffold; but to me, sir, he was always the little curlybeaded boy that I had nursed and played with, as an elder sister would. That was why he broke prison, sir. He knew that I was here and that we could not re- fuse to help him, When he dragged himself here one night, weary and starving, with the warders hard at his heels, what could we do? We took him in and fed him and eared for lint. Then you returned, sir, and •ay i>lerc- titer thought he would be safer on the moor than anywhere else until the hue and cry was over, so he lay in hiding there. But every second night we made sure if he was still there by putting a light in the window, and if there was front. There is nothing so deceptive an answer ray husband took out some as the distance of a light upon a pitch - bread and meat to him. Every day we dark night, and sometimes the glimmer hoped that he was gone, but as long seemed to be far away upon the hose as he was there we could not desert zon and sometimes it might have been him. That is the whole truth, as I am within a few yards of us. But at last we an honest Christian woman, and you will see that if there is blame in the platter it does not lie with my hus- band, but with me, for whose sake be has done all that he has." The woman's words came with an intense earnestness which carried con- ' viction with them. TIt WJNGilAR !f`ZM1+ , AUGUST 15, 1907 ed, the whole air throbbliig with lt, ctrl- dent, wild, and menacing. The baronet caught my sleeve and hie face glim- mered white through the darkness. "My God, what's that, Watson?,,. "I don't know. It's a Sound they have on the Moor. X heard it once be- fore," It died away, and an absolute el- lence closed in upon us. We stood straining our ears, but nothing carne. "Watson," said the baronet, "it was the ery of a bound," My blood ran cold In my veins, for there was a break in his voice which told of the sudden horror which had seized Kiran, "What do they call this sound?" he asked. "Who?" "The folk on. the Country -side?" "Oh, they are ignorant people. "Why should yet 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 snout for a few moments, "A hound it was," be said, at last, "but it seemed to come from miles away, over yonder, I think," "It was hard to say whence it came." "It rose and fell with the wind, Isn't that the direction of the great Grim - pen 'Mire?" "Yes, it is." "Well, it was up there. Come sow, Watson, didn't you think yourself that it was the cry of a hound? I am not a child, You need not fear to speak the truth." "Stapleton was with me when I heard it last. He said that it might be the calling of a strange bird." "No, no, it was a hound, My God, can there be some truth in all these stories? Is it possible that I aux really in danger from so dark a cause? You don't believe it, do you, Watson?" "No, no." "And yet it was one thing to laugh about it in London, and it is another to stand out here in the darkness of the moor and to hear suc'h a cry as that. And my uncle! There was the footprint of the bound beside him as he lay. It all fits together. ' I don't think that I am a coward, Watson, but that sound seemed to freeze my very blood. Feel my hand!" It was as cold as a block of marble. "You'll be all right to•morrow." "I don't think I'll get that cry out of my head. What do you advise that we do now?" "Shall we turn back?" "No, by thunder; we have come to get our man, and we will do it We after the convict, and a hell -hound, as likely as not, after us. Come on! We'll see it through if all the fiends of the pit were loose upon the moor." We stumbled slowly along in the darkness, with the black loom of the craggy hills around us, and the yellow speck of light burning steadily in "Is this true, Barrymore?" Yes, Sir Henry, Every word of it." "Well, I cannot blame you for stand- ing by your own wife. Forget what I have said. Go to your room, you two, and we shall talk further about this matter in the morning." When they were gone we looked out of the window again. Sir Henry hid dung it open, and the cold night wind beat in upon our faces. Far away in the black distance there still glowed that one tiny point of yellow light. "I wonder he dares," said Sir Henry. "It may be so placed as to be only visible from here." "Very likely, How far do you think it is?" "Out by the Cleft Tor, I think." "Not more than a mile or two off." "Hardly that." "Well, it cannot be far if Barrymore had to carry out the food to it. And he is waiting, this villain, beside that candle. By thunder, Watson, I am go- ing out to take that man!" The same thought had crossed my own mind. It was not as if the Barry - mores had taken us into their confi- dence. Their secret had been forced from them. The man was a danger to the community, an unmitigated scoun- drel for whom there was neither pity nor excuse. We were only doing our duty in taking this chance of putt; tg him back where he could do no harm. With his brutal and violent nature, others would have to pay the price if we held our hands. Any night, for ex- ample, our neighbors the Stapletons might be attacked by him, and it may have been the thought of this which made Sir Henry so keen upon the ad- venture. "I will come," said I. "Then get your revolver and put on your boots. The sooner we Start the better, as the fellow may put out his light and be off." In five minutes we were outside the door, starting upon our expedition. We hurried through the dark shrubbery, amid the dull moaning of the autumn wind and the rustle of the falling leaves. The night- air was heavy with the smell of Pomp and decay. Now and again the moon peeped out for an instant, but clouds were driving over the face of the sky, and lust as we came out on the moor a thin rain be- gaxi to fall. The light still burned steadily in front. "Are you armed?" 1 asked. "I have a hunting -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, "what would ITolmes 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 gloom of the moor that strange try which I had already heard upon the bo'rders of the great Orirapenthe wind through theiresilence of the earntitight a long, deep mutter, then a rising howl, and then the sad moan in which It died away. Again and, again. it sound - could see whence it came, and then we knew that we were indeed very close. 'A guttering candle was stuck ina crevice of the rocks which flanked it on each side so as to keep the wind from it, and also to prevent it from being visible, save in the direction of Baskerville Hall. A boulder of granite concealed our approach, and crouching behindit we gazed over it at the signal light, It was strange to see this single candle burning there in the n addle of the moor, with no sign of Iife near it— just tjust the one straight yellow flame and the gleam of the rock on each side of it "What shall we do now?" whispered Sir Henry. "Wait here. He must be near his light. Let us see if we can get a glimpse of him." The words were hardly out of my mouth when we both saw him. Over the rocks, in the crevice of which the candle burned, there was thrust, out an evil yellow face, a terrible animal face, all seamed and scored with vile passions. Foul with mire, with a brist- ling beard, and hung with matted hair, it might well have belonged to one of those old savages who dwelt in the burrows on the hillsides. The light be- neath him was reflected in his small, cunning eyes which peered fiercely to right and left through the darkness, like a crafty and savage animal who has heard the steps of the hunters._ Sdmethilig had evidently aroused his suspicions.It may have been that - You have heard of biscuits --and read of biscuits—and eaten biscuits•--• but you don't know biscuits --until you try Mooney's Perfection Cream Sodas. They are everything that the ideal biscuits should be. The air -tight, moisture -proof - package brings them to you fresh, crisp, inviting. Practically every grocer in Canada has MOONEY'S. Yours will get them if you ask. In r le 3 lb. pkgs. SCIATICA InSanimatQry or Irfusculaz ItlnexuuatieM, Lumbago, Neuraigla,they are a i the -acne to a , SO4a$ a S11IteCN#t' aiftt11;S.CANOV. et SYffatrmsa .riiaaa Don't suffer needlessly when you have a positive and guaranteed cure in "131i.Ju.' Money back if they fail. eoc, a box. druggists, or by snail direct from The Clalin Chemical Co., Ltd., Windsor, Ont. At 4 Barrymore had some private signal whiell we had neglected to give, or the fellow may have had some other reason for thinking that all was not well, but I could read his fears upon his wicked face. Any instant he might dash. out the light and vanish in the darkness. I sprang forward there- fore, and Sir Henry did the same. At the same moment the convict scream- ed out a curse at us and hurled a rocet which splintered up against the boul- der which had sheltered us. I caught one glimpse of his short, squat, strong- ly -built figure as he sprang to his feet and turned to rune At the same mo- ment by a lucky chance the moon 'broke through the clouds. We rushed over the brow of the hill, and there was our man running with great speed down the other side, springing over the stones in his way with the activity of a mountain goat. A lucky long shot of my revolver might have crippled him, but I had brought it only to de- fend myself if attacked, and not to shoot an unarmed man who was run- ning away. We were both swift runners and in fairly good training, but we soon found that we had no chance of over- taking him. We saw him for a long time in the moonlight until he was only a small speck moving swiftly among the boulders upon the side of a distant hill. We ran and ran until we were completely blown, but the space between us grew ever wider. Finally we stopped and sat panting on two rocks, while we watched him disap- pearing in the distance. And it was at this moment that there occurred a most strange and unexpect- ed thing. Wo had risen from our rocks anal were turning to go home, having abandoned the hopeless chase. The moon was low,upon the right, and the jagged pinnacle of a granite 'tor stood up against the Iower curve of its sit• ver disc. There, outlined as black as an ebony statue on that shining back- ground, I saw the figure of a man upon the tor. Do not think that it was a de- lusion, Holmes. I assure you that I have never in my life seen anything more clearly, As far as I could judge, the figure was that of a tall, thin man. He stood with his legs a little separat- ed, his arms folded, his head bowed, as if he were brooding over that enor- mous wilderness of peat and granite which lay before him. He might have been the very spirit trit of that terrible place. It was not the convict. This man was far from the place where the latter had disappeared. Besides, he was a muck taller man. With a cry of surprise I pointed him out to the baronet, but in the instant during which I had turned to grasp his arm the man was gone. There was the sharp pinnacle of granite still cutting the lower edge of the moon, batt its peak bore no trace of that silent and motionless figure. I wished to go in that direction and to search the tor, but it was some dis- tance away The baronet's nerves were still quivering from that cry, which the .distant boulders gleaming where the light strikes upon. their wet faces, It is melancholy outside and in. The baronet Is in a black reaction (after the excitements of the night. I axn con- serous myself of a weight at my heart awl a feeling of impending danger ever present danger, which is the more terrible because I amu unable to define it. And have I not cause for such a feeling? Consider the long sequence of incidents which have all pointed to some sinister influence which is at work around us. There is the death of the last occupant of the Hall fulfilling so exactly the conditions of the fam- ily legend, and there are the repeated reports from peasants of the appear- ance of a strange creature upon the moor. Twice I have with my own ears beards the sound which resembled the distant baying of a hound. It is in- credible, impossible, that it should really be outside the ordinary laws of nature. A spectral hound which leaves material footmarks .anti fills the air with its howling is surely not to be thought of. Stapleton may fall in, with such a superstition, and Mortimer al- so; but if I have one quality upon earth it is common-sense, and nothing will persuade nue to believe in such a thing. To do so would be to descend to the level of these poor peasants, who are not content with a mere fiend dog, but must needs describe him with hell -fire shooting from his mouth and eyes. Holmes would not listen to such fancies, and I ani his agent. But facts are facts, and I have twice heard this crying upon the moor. Suppose that there were really some huge hound loose upon it; that would go far to explain everything. But where mould such a hound he concealed, where did it get its food, where did it come from, how was it that no one saw it by day? It must be confessed that the natural explanation offers almost as many difficulties as the other. And always, apart from the hound, there is the fact of the human agency in London, the man in the cab, and the Ietter which warned Sir Henry against the moor. This at least was real, but it might have been the work of a pro- tecting friend as easily as of an enemy.. Where is that friend or enemy now? Has he remained in London, or has he followed us down here? Could he— be the stranger whom I saw upon the Tor? It is true that I have had only the one glance at bins, and yet there are some things to which I am ready to swear. He is no one whom I have seen down here, and I have now met all the neighbors. The figure was far tall- er than that of Stapleton, far thinner than that of Frankland. Barrymore it might possibly have been, but we had left him behind us, and I am certain that he could not have foIiowed us. A stranger then is still dogging us, just as a stranger dogged us in London. We have never shaken him off. If I could lay my hands upon that man, then at last we might find ourselves at the end of alI our difficulties. To this one purpose I must now devote all my energies. My first impulse was to tell Sir Henry all my plans. My second and wisest one is to play my own game and speak as little as possible to anyone. He is silent and distrait. His neves have been strangely shaken by that sound upon the moor. I will say no- thing to add to his anxieties, but I will take my own steps to attain my own end. We had a small scene this morning after breakfast. Barrymore asked leave to speak with Sir Henry, and they were closeted in his study some little time. Sitting in the billiard -room I more than once heard the sound of voices raised, and I had •a pretty good idea what the point was which was un- der discussion. After a time the baron- et opened his door and called for me. "Barrymore considers that he has a grievance," he said. "He thinks that it was unfair on our part to hunt his brother-in-law down when he, of his own free will, had told us the secret." The butler was standing very pale but very collected before us. "I may have spoken too warmly, sir," said he, "and if I have I am sure recalled the dark story of his family, that I beg your pardon. At the same and he was not in the mood for fresh time, I was very much surprised when adventures. He had not seen this lone- I heard you two gentlemen come back ly man upon the tor and could not feel this morning end learned that you had the thrill which his strange presence ,been chasing Selden. The poor fellow and his commanding attitude had ,has enough to fight against without given to me. "A warder, no doubt," my putting more upon his track." said he. "The moor has been thick If you had told us of your own free with them since this fellow escaped." win it would have been a different Well, perhaps his explanation may be thing," said the baronet, "you only the right one, but I should like to have told us, or rather your wife only told we us, when it was forced from you and some further proof of it. To -day mean to communicate to the Prince- you could not help yourself." "I didn't think town people where they should look advantage would have taken for their missing man, but it is hard advantage of it, Sir Henry—indeed 1 Lines that we have not actually had the didn't" triumph of bringing him back as our "The man is a public danger. There own prisoner. Such are the advea- are lonely houses scattered over the tures of last night, and you must ae- moor, and he is a fellow who would knowledge, my dear Holmes, that 1 stick at nothing. You only want to get have done you very well in the natter a glimpse of his face to see that, Look example, s of a report. Much of what I tell you at Mr. Staliletons house, for xa ple is no doubt quite irrelevant, but still with no one but himself to defend it, 1 feel that it is best that I should let There's no safety for anyone until he you have all the facts and leave you to is under lock and key." select for yourself those which will be "He'll break into no house, sir. 1 of some service to you ift helping you give you my solemn word upon that. sier's. We are certainly But he will never trouble anyone in to your conclu making some progress. So far as the this country again. I assure you, Sir Barrymores go we have found the mo Henry, that its a very few days the tive of .their actions, and that has necessary arrangements will have cleared up the situation very much, been made and he will be on his way But the moor with its mysteries and to South America. For God's sake, sir, its strange inhabitants remains as in - that beg of you not to let the police know in fly next that he is still on the moor. They scrutable as ever. Perhaps E may be able to throw some light have given up the chase there, and he upon this also. Best of all would it be can lie quiet until the ship is ready for him. You if you could come down to us. In anycan't tell on him withers; case you will hear from me agate in getting my wife and me into trouble. the course of the next few days. 1• beg you, sir, to say nothing' to the police." CHAPTER, X. "What do you say, Watson?" I shrugged my shoulders. "If he So far I have been able to quote were safely out of the eortntry it would from the reports which 1 have for- relieve the tax -payer of a burden." warded during these early days to "But how about the chance of his Slterlocl: Holmes. Now, however, I holding someone up before he goes?" have arrived at a point in my terra - sir. would not do anything so mad, tive where. I sun compelled to abandon sir• We have provided hist with SII. this method and to trust once niore to that he can want. To Commit a crime my recollections aided by the diary would be to show where he was which I kept ate the time. A few ex- hiding." tracts from. the latter will tarry me „ 'y That is true,"said Sir Henry... on to those scenes which are indelibly Well, Barramorf fixed_ proceed, then, from the morning in every detail upon my mein —" "Gad bless you, sir, and thank you, ory. I frons my heart! It would have Milled whiell. followed our abortivo chase df My poor wife had he been ;Site;. the convict and our ether strange ex- again." perieneas upon the moor. Watson? guess, we are aiding and abetting October lGth,- -A dull and 'foggy day a felony, Ent, after what we with a drizzle of rain. The house is have heard, I don't feel as if I could banked in with rolling clouds, which the man up, so there is an end of rise now and then to show the dreary it. 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