The Hound of the Baskervilles

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I think that I deserve better at your hands, Holmes. My dear fellow, you have been invaluable to me in this as in many other cases, and I beg that you will forgive me if I have seemed to play a trick upon you. In truth, it was partly for your own sake that I did it, and it was my appreciation of the danger which you ran which led me to come down and examine the matter for myself. Had I been with Sir Henry and you, it is confident that my point of view would have been the same as yours, and my presence would have warned our very formidable opponents to be on their guard.

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Exactly. I thought as much, and knowing your admirable tenacity, I was convinced that you were sitting in ambush, a weapon within reach, waiting for the tenant to return. So you actually thought that I was the criminal? I did not know who you were, but I was determined to find out. Excellent, Watson. And how did you localize me? You saw me, perhaps, on the night of the convict hunt when I was so imprudent as to allow the moon to rise behind me.

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I suggest that we put it in one of the huts until we can communicate with the police. Exactly. I have no doubt that you and I could carry it so far. Hello, Watson, what's this? It's the man himself, by all that's wonderful and audacious. Not a word to show your suspicions. Not a word, or my plans crumble to the ground. A figure was approaching us over the moor, and I saw the dull red glow of a cigar.

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"We are going too far," said Holmes. "We dare not take the chance of his being overtaken before he can reach us. At all costs we must hold our ground where we are." He dropped on his knees and clapped his ear to the ground. "Thank God, I think that I hear him coming." A sound of quick steps broke the silence of the moor. Crouching among the stones, we stared intently at the silver-tipped bank in front of us.

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We must send for help, Holmes we cannot carry him all the way to the Hall Good heavens, are you mad? He had uttered a cry and bent over the body Now he was dancing and laughing and wringing my hand Could this be my stern, self-contained friend? These were hidden fires, indeed A beard! a beard! The man has a beard! A beard? It is not the baronet It is why, it is my neighbor, the convict

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A terrible scream, a prolonged yell of horror and anguish, burst out of the silence of the moor. That frightful cry turned the blood to ice in my veins. Oh my God, I gasped. What is it? What does it mean? Holmes had sprung to his feet and I saw his dark athletic outline at the door of the hut, his shoulders stooping, his head thrust forward, his face peering into the darkness.

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He had started running swiftly over the moor, and I had followed at his heels. But now, from somewhere among the broken ground immediately in front of us, there came one last despairing yell, and then a dull, heavy thud. We halted and listened. Not another sound broke the heavy silence of the windless night. I saw Holmes put his hand to his forehead like a man distracted. He stamped his feet upon the ground. He has beaten us, Watson. We are too late.

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I am more to blame than you, Watson. In order to have my case well rounded and complete, I have thrown away the life of my client. It is the greatest blow which has befallen me in my career. But how could I know? How could I know that he would risk his life alone upon the moor in the face of all my warnings? That we should have heard the screams, my God, those screams, and yet have been unable to save him. Where is this brute of a hound which drove him to his death? It may be lurking among those rocks at this instant. And Stapleton, where is he? He shall answer for this deed.

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I heard a sharp intake of his breath, and the cigar fell from his fingers. Who? Who's this? he stammered. It is Selden, the man who escaped from Princetown. Stapleton turned a ghastly face upon us, but by a supreme effort he had overcome his amazement and his disappointment. He looked sharply from Holmes to me. Dear me, what a very shocking affair! How did he die?