The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1902-06-15

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.'Then he did examine the case?'
II imagine there are some records of
1t in the tin box that Watson cherishes.
With your help I daresay we could get
at the Details And then and there was
born the scheme of DR.. Doyle's last fasci-
mating account of the exploits of his
wonderful detective. BY tea time he had
the plot worked out and ere many days,
the author, occasionally accompanied by
Mr.. Robinson, was securing Dartmoor, IN
Devonshire, with all the enthusiasm OF
boy, following strange clues over a wild
tract of land some fifty by thirty miles
Amid all the virgin solitude of the huge
moor, unchanged and untitled by hand OF
man, there is one central point which
most attracts the student of crime. It is
the huge prison of Princetown, an enor-
nous barrack Of criminals. placed in this
lonely situation to make escape more
difficult. The two novelists wandered
round the gaunt building, looking visit
fully at the high brick walls, and know
ing we'll that whatever type Of villain
might be essential to their narrative,
his double would certainly be found with
in that grim enclosure. The yellow
CARRIED gangs who work at reclaiming
the moor, the hard-faced warders with
their loaded rifles, the dark. melancholy
houses, and the sad waste stretching
around them, all left an impression upon
their minds, some reflection OF which is to
be found in the pages OF The Hound OF
the Baskerviles."
One day the two were wandering togeth-
er over the moor when they came upon a
spot where it seemed that only thin
film covered some frightful abyss into
which the careless wayfarer might easily
be precipitated Only by stepping from
clump to clump of rushes could they
keep up and at each move the whole sur
rcur ding ground quivered and shook like
some vast unwholesome jelly. 1t was not
a place to venture on alone Doyle paused
and pointing to particularly dangerous
mole, out of which the green-scummed
water was yelling, said:
THAT is where we will put him."
''Who?"
''The villain
And so the denouenent of the book
was reached. For several days the two
friends tramped the moor. listening to
vera local stories-tales of escaping con-
yicts. who had horribly vanished-tales
OF belated huntsmen, who had bean heard
of no more 1t is not a cheerful place
but it presents vast possibilities to men
whose imagiuations incline to Srimness
Al the end of a brief holiday they re-
turned full OF strange memories, and
Doyle proceeded to cast into shape the
eir.lIHeSSlOnS ana suggestions Will WHICH
he had been literally supplied py MS
sympathetic companion.
So the book was written, and when 1t
was all finished, with the generous APP
preCia ton OF one whose own reputation
is too we'll established to fear aught. he
yercte a detlica ton, in which he thanked
the young man for the ghost stories born
of the rocks and the sea and the fragrant
tobacco and of what had seemed dis
appointing Sunday And Mr.. Robinson
with all his pleasure in his own literary
work, and all his natural pride in the
memory Of . day when he rowed No.
at Henley and played for Cambridge
against oxford and Edinburgh ana Dub
lin-was as pleased as q child that the
great novelist had found it in his heart
so to recognize him.