The Savannah morning news., 1902-09-21

way into the Grimpen Mire tonight.
She laughed and clapped her hands.
Her eyes and teeth cleaned with fierce
| nerriment.
He may find his way in. but never
out" she cried. How can he see the
guiding wands tonight? We planted
/ them together. he and I. to mark me
pathway through the mire. Oh. if l
! could only have plucked them out to
day. Then indeed you would have had
him at Your mercy"
1t was evident to us that all pursuit
was in vain until the fog had lifted.
! Meanwhile we left Lestrade in posses
4 sion of the house while Holmes and l
| went hack with the baronet to Bas-
/ kerville Hall. The story of the STABLE
| tons could no longer be withheld from
| him. but he took the blow bravely
/ when he learned the truth about the
| woman whom he had loved. But The
| shock of the nights adventures had
| shattered his nerves. and before morn
| ing he lay delirious in high fever, IN
| der the care of DR.. Mortimer. The two
! of them were destined to travel to-
| gether round the world before Sir
| Henry had become once more the
| hale, hearty man that he had beel be-
fore he became master of that i'll
| omened estate.
And now l come rapidly to the con-
| clusion of this singular narrative. in
which have tried to make the reader
| share those fears and vague sur
misses which clouded our lives so long.
| and ended in so tragic a manner. on
| the morning after the death of the
| hound the fog had lifted and we were
| guided by Mrs. Stapleton to the point
/ where they had found a pathway
through the bog. 1t helped us 10 re-
| alize the horror of this woman's life
| when we saw the eagerness and joy
| with which she laid US on her nus
| bands track. We left her standing
upon the thin peninsula or firm. peaty
soil which tapered out into the wide
spread bog. From the end of it small
| wand planted here and there showed
| where the path zig-zagged from tuft
| to tuft of rushes among those green
scummed pits and foul quagmiras
! which barred the way to the stranger.
Rank reeds and lush. Shiny water
| plants sent an odor of decay and a
heavy miasmatic vapor into
our faces. while false
| step plunged us more than
once thigh-deep into the dark, CULVER
ing mire, which shook for yards in soft
| undulations around our feet, Its tena-
cious grip plucked at our heels as we
| walked, and when we sank into ii it
! was as if some malignant hand was
| tugging us down into those obscene
depths, so grim and purposeful was
! the clutch in which ii held us. Once
| only we saw a trace that someone had
passed that perilous way before US.
| From amid a tuft of cotton-grass
which bore it up out of the slime some
dark thing was projecting. Holmes
sank to his waist as he stepped from
the path to seize 1t, and had we not
been there to drag him out he could
never have set his foot upon firm land
l q a n In
the air. Meyers, Toronto" was print
ed on the leather inside.
ut Is worth a mud BATH" said he
1T is our friend Sir Henry's missing
boot"
Thrown there by Stapleton in his
flight"
Exactly. He retained 1t in his hand
after using 1t to set the hound upon
the track. He fed when he knew the
game was up, still clutching it. And he
hurled it away at this point of his
flight We know at least that he came
so far in safety"
But more than that we were never
destined to know, though there was
much which we might surmise. There
was no chance of finding footsteps ir
the mire. for the rising mud oozeC
swiftly in upon them, but as we at las
reached firmer ground beyond the mo
ras we all looked eagerly for them
. But no slightest sign of them ever me
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 tina
, last night. Somewhere in the hear
/, of the great Grimpen Mire, down il
: the foul slime of the huge moras
which had sucked him in, this cold ant
cruel-hearted man is for ever buried
Many traces we found of him in tn
49, a,.k ILL u 4
: savage ally. A huge driving-wh
! and a shaft half-filled with rubbish
= showed the position of an abandoned
. mine. Beside 1t were the clumblinj
! remains of the cottages of the miners
! driven away no doubt by the foul reel
of the surrounding swamp. In one o
!, these a staple and chain with a quaint
! ty of knawed bones showed where tn
animal had been confined. A skele
ton with a tangle of brown hair ad
herring to It lay among the debris.
"A dogi" said Holmes. by Jove,
= curly-haired spaniel. Poor Mortime
! will never see his pet again. Well,
5 do not know that this place contain
any secret which we have not alread
5 fathomed. He could hide his hound
but he could not hush its voice, an
e hence came those cries which even i
; daylight We're not pleasant to hear. O
: an emergency he could keep the houn
s. in the clubhouse at Merripit, but 1t wa
: always a risk, and it was only on tn
: supreme day, which he regarded a
L the end of all his efforts, that he dare
n do 1t.
Il This paste in the tin is no doubt tn
luminous mixture with which tn
= creature was daubed. 1t was suggest
{ ed, of course, by the story of the fam
n lily hell-hound, and by the desire
brighten old Sir Charles to death. N
wonder the poor devil of a conviC
e ran and screamed, even as our frien
did, and as we ourselves might hav
done, when he saw such a creatur
: bounding through the darkness of til
moor upon his track. 1t was a cur
ming device, for, apart from the chanc
of driving your victim to his dealt
what peasant would venture to inuuir
: too closely into such a creature shout
he get sight of 1t, as many have dom
IS upon the moor? l said it in Londol
Watson. and ! say it again now, tha
It down more dangerous man than h
s. who is lying yonder"-he swept h
is long arm towards the huge mottle
= expanse of green-splotched bog whic
II stretched away until II merged int
y the russell slopes of the moor.
a XIV
A RETROSPECTION.
- II was the end OF November. an
p Holmes and / sat. upon a raw an
j. foggy night, on either side OF a bla7