The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-08-03
THE HOUND OF
THE BASKERVILLES
ANOTHER ADVENTURE OF
SHERLOCK HOLMES
BY A. CONAN DOYLE
Continued from Last Sunday.
rEADTED IrT rro,+;,,aa


Outside. beyond the low. white fence.
a wagonette with a pair of cobs was
waiting. Our coming was evidently a
great event, for stationmaster and
porters clustered round US to carry out
our luggage. 1t was a sweet, simple
country spot, but 1 was surpriser to
observe that by the gate there stood
two soldierly men in dark uniforms.
who leaned upon their short rifles and
glanced keenly at us as we passed.
The coachman, a hard-faced. gnarled
little fellow, saluted Sir Henry Bas-
kerville. and in a few minutes we
were flying swiftly down the broad.
white road. Rolling pasture lands
curved upwards on either side of us,
and old gabled houses peeped out from
amid the thick green foliage, but be-
hind the peaceful and sunlit country
side there rose ever, dark against the
evening sky, the long, gloomy curve of
the moor, broken by the jagged and
sinister hills
The wagonette swung round into
side road, and we curved upwards
through deep lanes worn by centuries
of wheels. high banks on either side,
heavy with dripping moss and fieshy
hart 's-tonEue ferns. Bronzing bracken
and notified bramble CLEANED in the
light of the sinking sun. SAN stead
ily rising. we passed over a narrow
granite bridge, and skirted a noisy
stream which gushed swiftly down.
foaming and roaring amid the grey
boulders. Both road and stream wound
up through a valley dense with scrub
oak and fir. At every turning Bas-
kerville gave an exclamation of de-
light, looking eagerly about him and
asking countless questions To his
eyes all seemed beautiful. but to me
a tinge of melancholy lay upon the
country side, which bore so clearly the
mark Of the waning year. Yellow
lelVes carpeted the lanes and fiuttered
down upon us as we passed. The rat
tie of our wheels died away as we
drove through drifts of rotting vege-
tation-sad gifts, as it seemed to ne,
for Nature to throw before the car
riage of the returning heir of the Bas
kervilles.
"Halloa," cried DR.. Mortimer, what
is this. -
A steep curve of heath-clad land, an
outlying spur of the moor. lay in front
of us. On the summit hard and clear
like an equestrian statue upon its pc
destai was a mounted soldier, dark
and stern, his rifle poised ready over
his forearm. He was watching the
road along which we travelled.
What is this, Perkins?" asked DR..
Mortimer.
Our driver half turned in his seat.
There's a convict escaped from
Princetown, sir. He's been out three
days now. and the warders watch
every road and every station, but
they've had no .ght of him yet. The
farmers about here don't like it, sir,
and that's a fact"
We'll, 1 understand that they get
five pounds if they can give informa-
ton
Yes, sir, but the chance of five
pounds is but poor thing compared to
the chance of having your throat cut.
You see, it isn't like any ordinary con-
Wet. This is a man that would stick
at nothing"
Who is he. them"
1T is Selden, the Noting Hill muir
derer."
l remembered the case well, for 1t
was one in which Holmes had taken
an interest on account of the peculiar
ferocity of the crime and the wanton
brutality which had marked all the ac-
tons OF the assassin. The commuta-
ton of his death sentence had been due
to some doubts as TO his complete san
ity, so atrocious was his conduct. Our
wagonette had topped a rise and in
front of us rose the huge eXpanse of
the moor. notified with gnared and
craggy cairns and tors. A cold wind
swept down from it and set us shiv-
ering. Somewhere there, on that desc
70 niain lnrliacr 81,
man, hiding in a burrow like a wild
beast, his heart full of malignancy
against the whole race which had cast
him out. 1t needed but this to COM
plete the grim suggestiveness of the
barren waste, the chilling wind, and
the darkling sky. Even Baskerville fell
silent and pulled his overcoat more
closely around him.
We had left the fertile country be-
hind and beneath US. We looked back
on ii now, the slanting rays of low
sun turning the streams to threads OF
gold and glowing on the red earth new
turned by the plough ard the broad
tangle of the woodlands. The road ir
front of US grew bleaker and wilder
over huge russell and olive slopes
sprinkled with giant boulders. Now anc
then we passed a moorland cottage
walled and rooted with stone, with M
denly we looked down into a cup-lik,
depression, patched with stunted oak.
and frs which had been twisted ant
bent by the fury of years of storm
Two high. narrow towers rose over the
trees. The driver pointed with hi.
whip.
baskerville Hail." said he.
It's master had risen and was starinl
with flushed checks and shining eyes
A few minutes later we had reached
the lodge-gates, a maze of fan
tastic tracery in wrought
iron, with weather bitten pillar
on either side. blotched with lichens
and surmounted by the boars, head:
of the Baskervilles. The lodge was
ruin of black granite and barec
ribs of rafters, but facing it was &
new building, half constructed. the
first fruit of Sir Charles South Afri
can gold.
Through the gateway we passed int
the avenue, where the wheels wer,
again hushed amid the leaves, and tn,
old trees shot their branches in {
sombre tunnel over our heads Bias
kerville shuddered as he looked up tn,
long, dark drive to where the hous,
glimmered like a ghost at the farthe
end.
WAS it here?" he asked, in a low
voice.
mo, no. the Yew Alley is on tn,
other side
The young heir glanced round will
a gloomy face.
Its no wonder my uncle felt as 1
trouble were coming on him in sucl
place as this" said he. It's enough