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14 - The Hound of the Baskervilles · Sherlock Holmes

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Speaker 1: Chapter fourteen of The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir
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Speaker 1: Arthur Conan Doyle. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain,
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Speaker 1: Chapter fourteen, The Hound of the Baskervilles. One of Sherlock
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Speaker 1: Holmes's defects, if indeed one may call it a defect,
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Speaker 1: was that he was exceedingly loth to communicate his full
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Speaker 1: plans to any other person until the instant of their fulfillment. Partly,
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Speaker 1: it came, no doubt, from his own masterful nature, which
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Speaker 1: loved to dominate and surprise those who were around him.
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Speaker 1: Partly also from his professional caution, which urged him never
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Speaker 1: to take any chances. The result, however, was very trying
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Speaker 1: for those who were acting as his agents and assistants.
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Speaker 1: I had often suffered under it, but never more so
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Speaker 1: than during that long drive in the darkness. The great
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Speaker 1: Ordeal was in front of us. At last, we were
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Speaker 1: about to make our final effort, and yet Holmes had
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Speaker 1: said nothing, and I could only surmise what his course
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Speaker 1: of action would be. My nerves thrilled with anticipation, when
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Speaker 1: at last, the cold wind upon our faces and the
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Speaker 1: dark void spaces on either side of the narrow road
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Speaker 1: told me that we were back upon the moor once again.
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Speaker 1: Every stride of the horses and every turn of the
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Speaker 1: wheels was taking us nearer to our supreme adventure. Our
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Speaker 1: conversation was hampered by the presence of the driver of
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Speaker 1: the hired wagonette, so that we were forced to talk
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Speaker 1: on trivial matters when our nerves were tense with emotion
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Speaker 1: and anticipation. It was a relief to me after that
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Speaker 1: unnatural restraint, when we were at last passed Franklin's house
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Speaker 1: and knew that we were drawing near to the hall
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Speaker 1: and to the scene of action. We did not drive
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Speaker 1: up to the door, but got down near the gate
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Speaker 1: of the avenue. The wagonette was paid off and ordered
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Speaker 1: to return to Coombe Tracy forthwith while we started to
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Speaker 1: walk to Merripit house. Are you armed, lestrade? The little
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Speaker 1: detective smiled. As long as I have my trousers, I
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Speaker 1: have a hip pocket, and as long as I have
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Speaker 1: my hip pocket, I have something in it. Good. My
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Speaker 1: friend and I are also ready for emergencies. You're mighty
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Speaker 1: close about this affair, mister Olmes. What's the game now?
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Speaker 1: A waiting game? My word, it does not seem a
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Speaker 1: very cheerful place, said the detective, with a shiver, glancing
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Speaker 1: round him, at the gloomy slopes of the hill, and
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Speaker 1: at the huge lake of fog which lay over the
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Speaker 1: grimp and mire. I see the lights of our house,
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Speaker 1: said of us. That is merripit house, and the end
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Speaker 1: of our journey. I must request you to walk on
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Speaker 1: tiptoe and not talk above a whisper. We moved cautiously
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Speaker 1: along the track as if we were bound for the house,
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Speaker 1: but Holmes halted us when we were about two hundred
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Speaker 1: yards from it. This will do, said he. These rocks
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Speaker 1: upon the right make an admirable screen. We're to wait here. Yes,
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Speaker 1: we shall make our little ambush here. Get into this
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Speaker 1: hollow lestrade. You have been inside the house, have you not? Watson?
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Speaker 1: Can you tell the position of the rooms? What are
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Speaker 1: those latticed windows at this end? I think they are
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Speaker 1: the kitchen windows, and the one beyond which shine so brightly,
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Speaker 1: that is certainly the dining room. The blinds are up.
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Speaker 1: You know the lie of the land. Best creep forward
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Speaker 1: quietly and see what they are doing. But for Heaven's sake,
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Speaker 1: don't let them know that they are watched. I tiptoed
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Speaker 1: down the path and stooped behind the low wall which
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Speaker 1: surrounded the stunted orchard, creeping in its shadow. I reached
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Speaker 1: a point whence I could look straight through the uncurtained window.
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Speaker 1: There were only two men in the room, Sir Henry
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Speaker 1: and Stapleton. They sat with their profiles toward me, on
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Speaker 1: either side of the round table. Both of them were
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Speaker 1: smoking cigars, and coffee and wine were in front of them.
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Speaker 1: Stapleton was talking with animation, but the Baronet looked pale
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Speaker 1: and distray. Perhaps the thought of that lonely walk across
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Speaker 1: the ill omened moor was weighing heavily upon his mind.
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Speaker 1: As I watched them, Stapleton rose and left the room,
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Speaker 1: while Sir Henry filled his glass again and leaned back
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Speaker 1: in his chair, puffing at his cigar. I heard the
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Speaker 1: creak of a door and the crisp sound of boots
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Speaker 1: upon the gravel. The steps passed along the path on
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Speaker 1: the other side of the wall under which I crouched.
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Speaker 1: Looking over, I saw the naturalist pause at the door
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Speaker 1: of an outhouse in the corner of the orchard. A
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Speaker 1: key turned in a lock, and as he passed in
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Speaker 1: there was a curious scuffling noise from within. He was
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Speaker 1: only a minute or so inside, and then I heard
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Speaker 1: the key turn once more, and he passed me and
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Speaker 1: re entered the house. I saw him rejoin his guest,
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Speaker 1: and I crept quietly back to where my companions were
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Speaker 1: waiting to tell them what I had seen. You say, Watson,
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Speaker 1: that the lady is not there, Holmes asked, when I
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Speaker 1: had finished my report. No where can she be? Since
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Speaker 1: there is no light in any other room except the kitchen,
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Speaker 1: I cannot think where she is. I have said that
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Speaker 1: over the great grimp and Meire there hung a dense
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Speaker 1: white fog. It was drifting slowly in our direction and
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Speaker 1: banked itself up like a war on that side of us,
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Speaker 1: low but thickened, well defined. The moon shone on it,
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Speaker 1: and it looked like a great shimmering ice field, with
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Speaker 1: the heads of the distant tours as rocks borne upon
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Speaker 1: its surface. Holmes's face was turned towards it, and he
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Speaker 1: muttered impatiently as he watched its sluggish drift, its move
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Speaker 1: moving towards us. Watson, is that serious? Very serious? Indeed?
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Speaker 1: The one thing upon earth which could have disarranged my plans?
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Speaker 1: He can't be very long. Now it is already ten o'clock.
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Speaker 1: Our success and even his life, may depend upon his
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Speaker 1: coming out before the fog is over the path. The
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Speaker 1: night was clear and fine. Above us, the stars shone
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Speaker 1: cold and bright, while the half moon bade the whole
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Speaker 1: scene in a soft, uncertain light. Before us lay the
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Speaker 1: dark bulk of the house, its serrated roof and bristling chimneys,
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Speaker 1: hard outlined against the silver spangled sky. Broad bars of
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Speaker 1: golden light from the lower windows stretched across the orchard
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Speaker 1: and the moor. One of them was suddenly shut off.
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Speaker 1: The servants had left the kitchen. There only remained the
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Speaker 1: lamp in the dining room, where the two men, the
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Speaker 1: murderous host and the unconscious guest, still chatted over their cigars.
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Speaker 1: Every minute, that white wooly plain, which covered one half
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Speaker 1: of the moor, was drifting closer and closer to the house.
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Speaker 1: Already the first thin wisps of it were curling across
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Speaker 1: the golden square of the lighted window. The farther wall
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Speaker 1: of the orchard was already invisible, and the trees were
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Speaker 1: standing out of a swirl of a white vapor. As
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Speaker 1: we watched it, the fog wreaths came crawling round both
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Speaker 1: corners of the house and rolled slowly into one dense bank,
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Speaker 1: on which the upper floor and the roof floated like
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Speaker 1: a strange ship upon a shadowy sea. Holmes struck his
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Speaker 1: hand passionately upon the rock in front of us, and
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Speaker 1: stamped his feet in his impatience. If he isn't out
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Speaker 1: in a quarter of an hour, the path will be
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Speaker 1: covered in half an hour. We won't be able to
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Speaker 1: see our hands in front of us. Shall we move
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Speaker 1: further back upon high ground? Yes, I think it would
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Speaker 1: be as well. So as the fog bank flowed onward,
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Speaker 1: we fell back before it until we were half a
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Speaker 1: mile from the house, and still that dense white sea,
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Speaker 1: with the moon silvering its upper edge, swept slowly and
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Speaker 1: inexorably on. We are going too far, said Holmes. We
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Speaker 1: dare not take the chance of his being overtaken before
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Speaker 1: he can reach us. At all costs, we must hold
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Speaker 1: our ground where we are. He dropped on his knees
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Speaker 1: and clapped his ear to the ground. Thank God, I
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Speaker 1: think that I hear him coming. A sound of quick
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Speaker 1: steps broke the silence of the moor. Crouching among the stones.
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Speaker 1: We stared intently at the silver tipped bank in front
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Speaker 1: of us. The steps grew louder, and through the fog
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Speaker 1: as through a curtain, there stepped the man whom we
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Speaker 1: were awaiting. He looked round him in surprise as he
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Speaker 1: emerged into the clear, starlit night. Then he came swiftly
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Speaker 1: along the path, passed close to where we lay, and
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Speaker 1: went on up the long slope behind us. As he walked,
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Speaker 1: he glanced continually over either shoulder, like a man who
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Speaker 1: is ill at ease. Hist cried Holmes, and I heard
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Speaker 1: the sharp click of a cocking pistol. Look out, it's coming.
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Speaker 1: There was a thin, crisp, continuous patter from somewhere in
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Speaker 1: the heart of that crawling bank. The cloud was within
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Speaker 1: fifty yards of where we lay, and we glared at it,
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Speaker 1: all three, uncertain what horror was about to break from
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Speaker 1: the heart of it. I was at Holmes's elbow, and
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Speaker 1: I glanced for an instant at his face. It was
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Speaker 1: pale and exultant, his eyes shining brightly in the moonlight.
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Speaker 1: But suddenly they started forward in a rigid, fixed stare,
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Speaker 1: and his lips parted in amazement. At the same instant,
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Speaker 1: the strade gave a yell of terror, and threw himself
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Speaker 1: face downward upon the ground. I sprang to my feet,
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Speaker 1: my inert hand grasping my pistol, my mind paralyzed by
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Speaker 1: the dreadful shape which had sprung out upon us from
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Speaker 1: the shadows of the fog. A hound. It was an enormous,
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Speaker 1: cold black hound, but not such a hound as mortal
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Speaker 1: eyes have ever seen. Fire burst from its open mouth.
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Speaker 1: Its eyes glowed with a smoldering glare. Its muzzle and
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Speaker 1: hackles and dew lap were outlined in flickering flame. Never
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Speaker 1: in the delirious dream of a disordered brain could anything
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Speaker 1: more savage, more appalling, more hellish be conceived than that
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Speaker 1: dark form and savage face which broke upon us out
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Speaker 1: of the wall of fog with long bounds. The huge
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Speaker 1: black creature was leaping down the track, following hard upon
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Speaker 1: the footsteps of our friend. So paralyzed were we by
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Speaker 1: the apparition that we allowed him to pass before we
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Speaker 1: had recovered our nerve. Then Holmes and I both fired together,
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Speaker 1: and the creature gave a hit howl, which showed that
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Speaker 1: at one at least had hit him. He did not
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Speaker 1: pause however, but bounded onward. Far away on the path,
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Speaker 1: we saw Sir Henry looking back, his face white in
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Speaker 1: the moonlight, his hands raised in horror, glaring helplessly at
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Speaker 1: the frightful thing which was hunting him down. But that
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Speaker 1: cry of pain from the hound had blown all our
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Speaker 1: fears to the winds. If he was vulnerable, he was mortal,
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Speaker 1: and if we could wound him, we could kill him.
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Speaker 1: Never have I seen a man run as Holmes ran
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Speaker 1: that night. I am reckoned fleet of foot, but he
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Speaker 1: outpaced me as much as I uppaced the little professional
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Speaker 1: in front of us. As we flew up the track,
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Speaker 1: we heard scream after scream from Sir Henry, and the
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Speaker 1: deep roar of the hound. I was in time to
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Speaker 1: see the beast spring upon its victim, hurl him to
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Speaker 1: the ground, and worry at his throat. But the next
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Speaker 1: instant Holmes had emptied five barrels of his revolver into
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Speaker 1: the creature's flank, with a last howl of agony and
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Speaker 1: a vicious snap in the air, which rolled upon its
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Speaker 1: back four feet, pawing furiously, and then fell limp upon
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Speaker 1: its side. I stooped, panting, and pressed my pistol to
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Speaker 1: the dreadful shimmering head, but it was useless to press
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Speaker 1: the trigger. The giant hound was dead. Sir Henry lay
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Speaker 1: insensible where he had fallen. We tore away his collar,
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Speaker 1: and Holmes breathed a prayer of gratitude when we saw
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Speaker 1: that there was no sign of a wound, and that
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Speaker 1: the rescue had been in time already. Our friend's eyelids shivered,
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Speaker 1: and he made a feeble effort to move. Lestrade thrust
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Speaker 1: his brandy flask between the baronet's teeth, and two frightened
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Speaker 1: eyes were looking up at us. My God, he whispered,
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Speaker 1: what was it? What in Heaven's name was it? It's dead,
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Speaker 1: whatever it is, said Holmes, we've laid the family ghost
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Speaker 1: once and for ever. In mere size and strength. It
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Speaker 1: was a terrible creature which was lying stretched before us.
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Speaker 1: It was not a pure bloodhound, and it was not
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Speaker 1: a pure mastiff, but it appeared to be a combination
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Speaker 1: of the two gaunt, savage, and as large as a
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Speaker 1: small lioness. Even now in the stillness of death, the
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Speaker 1: huge jaws seemed to be dripping with a bluish flame,
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Speaker 1: and the small, deep set, cruel eyes were ringed with fire.
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Speaker 1: I placed my hand upon the glowing muzzle, and as
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Speaker 1: I held them up, my own fingers smoldered and gleamed
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Speaker 1: in the darkness. Phosphorus, I said, A cunning preparation of it,
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Speaker 1: said Holmes, sniffing at the dead animal. There is no
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Speaker 1: smell which might have interfered with his power of scent.
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Speaker 1: We owe you a deep apology, sir Henry, for having
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Speaker 1: exposed you to this fright. I was prepared for a hound,
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Speaker 1: but not for such a creature as this, and the
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Speaker 1: fog gave us little time to receive him. You have
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Speaker 1: saved my life, having first endangered it. Are you strong
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Speaker 1: enough to stand? Give me another mouthful of that brandy,
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Speaker 1: and I shall be ready for anything. So now, if
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Speaker 1: you will help me up, what do you propose to
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Speaker 1: do to leave you here? You are not fit for
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Speaker 1: further adventures to night. If you will wait, one or
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Speaker 1: other of us will go back with you to the hall.
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Speaker 1: He tried to stagger to his feet, but he was
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Speaker 1: still ghastly, pale, and trembling in every limb. We helped
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Speaker 1: him to a rock, where he sat shivering, with his
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Speaker 1: face buried in his hands. We must leave you now,
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Speaker 1: said Holmes, the rest of our work must be done,
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Speaker 1: and every moment is of importance. We have our case,
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Speaker 1: and now we only one hour. Man, it's a thousand
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Speaker 1: to one against our finding him at the house, he continued,
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Speaker 1: as we retraced our steps swiftly down the path. Those
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Speaker 1: shots must have told him that the game was up.
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Speaker 1: We were some distance off, and this fog may have
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Speaker 1: deadened them. He followed the hound to call him off
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Speaker 1: of that. You may be certain. No, no, he's gone
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Speaker 1: by this time. But we'll search the house and make
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Speaker 1: sure the front door was open. So we rushed in
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Speaker 1: and hurried from room to room, to the amazement of
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Speaker 1: a doddering old man servant, who met us in the passage.
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Speaker 1: There was no light save in the dining room, but
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Speaker 1: Holmes caught up the lamp and left no corner of
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Speaker 1: the house unexplored. No sign could we see of the
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Speaker 1: man whom we were chasing. On the upper floor, however,
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Speaker 1: one of the bedroom doors was locked. It's some one
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Speaker 1: in here, cried Lestrade, R. Can he a movement open
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Speaker 1: this door? A faint moaning and rustling came from within.
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Speaker 1: Homes struck the door just over the lock with the
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Speaker 1: flat of his foot, and it flew open, pistol in hand.
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Speaker 1: We all three rushed into the room, but there was
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Speaker 1: no sign within it of that desperate and defiant villain
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Speaker 1: whom we expected to see. Instead, we were faced by
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Speaker 1: an object so strange and so unexpected that we stood
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Speaker 1: for a moment staring at it in amazement. The room
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Speaker 1: had been fashioned into a small museum, and the walls
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Speaker 1: were lined by a number of glass topped cases full
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Speaker 1: of that collection of butterflies and moths, the formation of
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Speaker 1: which had been the relaxation of this complex and dangerous man.
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Speaker 1: In the center of this room there was an upright beam,
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Speaker 1: which had been placed at some period as a support
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Speaker 1: for the old, worm eaten bulk of timber which spanned
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Speaker 1: the roof to this post. A figure was tied, so
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Speaker 1: swathed and muffled in the sheets which had been us
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Speaker 1: used to secure it, that one could not for the
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Speaker 1: moment tell whether it was that of a man or
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Speaker 1: a woman. One towel passed round the throat and was
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Speaker 1: secured at the back of the pillar. Another covered the
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Speaker 1: lower part of the face, and over it two dark eyes,
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Speaker 1: eyes full of grief and shame, and a dreadful questioning,
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Speaker 1: stared back at us. In a minute, we had torn
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Speaker 1: off the gag, unswathed the bonds, and Missus Stapleton sank
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Speaker 1: upon the floor in front of us. As her beautiful
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Speaker 1: head fell upon her chest, I saw the clear red
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Speaker 1: wheel of a whiplash across her neck. The brute cried, Holmes, here, lestrade,
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Speaker 1: your brandy bottle. Put her in a chair. She is
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Speaker 1: fainted from ill usage and exhaustion. She opened her eyes again.
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Speaker 1: Is he safe, she asked? Has he escaped? He cannot
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Speaker 1: escape us? Madam, No, no, I did not mean my husband,
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Speaker 1: Sir Henry. Is he safe? Yes? And the hound, it
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Speaker 1: is dead. She gave a long sigh of satisfaction. Thank God,
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Speaker 1: thank God, Oh, this villain. See how he has treated me.
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Speaker 1: She shut her arms out from her sleeves, and we
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Speaker 1: saw with horror that they were all mottled with bruises.
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Speaker 1: But this is nothing, nothing. It is my mind and
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Speaker 1: soul that he has tortured and defiled. I could endure
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Speaker 1: it all, ill usage, solitude, a life of deception, everything,
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Speaker 1: as long as I could still cling to the hope
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Speaker 1: that I had his love. But now I know that
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Speaker 1: in this also I have been his dupe and his fool.
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Speaker 1: She broke into a passionate sobbing as she spoke. You
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Speaker 1: bear him no good will, madam, said Holmes. Tell us, then,
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Speaker 1: where we shall find him if you have ever aided
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Speaker 1: him an evil us now and so atone. There is
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Speaker 1: but one place where he can have fled. She answered.
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Speaker 1: There is an old tin mine on an island in
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Speaker 1: the heart of the Miya. It was there that he
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Speaker 1: kept his hound, and there also he had made preparations
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Speaker 1: so that he might have a refuge. That is where
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Speaker 1: he would fly. The fog bank lay like white wall
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Speaker 1: against the window. Holmes held a lamp towards it. See
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Speaker 1: said he no one could find his way into the
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Speaker 1: grimp and maya to night. She laughed and clapped her hands.
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Speaker 1: Her eyes and teeth gleamed with fierce merriment. He may
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Speaker 1: find his way in, but never out, she cried. How
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Speaker 1: can he see the guiding ones to night? We planted
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Speaker 1: them together, he and I to mark the pathway through
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Speaker 1: the mire. Oh, if I could only have plucked them
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Speaker 1: out to day, then indeed you would have had him
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Speaker 1: at your mercy. It was evident to us that all
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Speaker 1: pursuit was in vain until the fog had lifted. Meanwhile,
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Speaker 1: we left Lestrade in possession of the house, while Holmes
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Speaker 1: and I went back with the Baronet to Baskerville Hall.
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Speaker 1: The story of the Stapletons could no longer be withheld
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Speaker 1: from him, But he took the blow bravely when he
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Speaker 1: learned the truth about the woman whom he had loved.
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Speaker 1: But the shock of the Knight's adventures had shattered his nerves,
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Speaker 1: and before morning he lay delirious in a high fever,
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Speaker 1: under the care of Doctor Mortimer. The two of them
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Speaker 1: were destined to travel together round the world before Sir
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Speaker 1: Henry had become once more the hale, hearty man that
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Speaker 1: he had been before he became master of that ill
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Speaker 1: omened estate. And now I come rapidly to the conclusion
20:45
Speaker 1: of this singular narrative in which I have tried to
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Speaker 1: make the reader share those dark fears and vague surmises
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Speaker 1: which cloud our lives so long, and ended in so
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Speaker 1: tragic a manner. On the morning after the death of
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Speaker 1: the the fog had lifted, and we were guided by
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Speaker 1: Missus Stapleton to the point where they had found a
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Speaker 1: pathway through the bog. It helped us to realize the
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Speaker 1: horror of this woman's life when we saw the eagerness
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Speaker 1: and joy with which she laid us on her husband's track.
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Speaker 1: We left her standing upon the thin peninsula of firm,
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Speaker 1: peaty soil, which tapered out into the widespread bog. From
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Speaker 1: the end of it a small wand planted here and
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Speaker 1: there showed where the path zigzagged from tuft to tuft
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Speaker 1: of rushes among those green, scummed pits and foul quagmires
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Speaker 1: which barred the way to the stranger. Rank reeds and lush,
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Speaker 1: slimy water plants sent an odor of decay and a
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Speaker 1: heavy miasmatic vapor onto our faces, while a false step
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Speaker 1: plunged us more than once thigh deep into the dark,
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Speaker 1: quivering mire, which shook for yards in soft undulations around
21:58
Speaker 1: our feet. Its tenacious grip plucked at our heels as
22:03
Speaker 1: we walked, and when we sank into it, it was
22:06
Speaker 1: as if some malignant hand was tugging us down into
22:09
Speaker 1: those obscene depths. So grim and purposeful was the clutch
22:14
Speaker 1: in which had held us once. Only we saw a
22:17
Speaker 1: trace that some one had passed that perilous way before us,
22:22
Speaker 1: from amid a tuft of cotton grass, which bore it
22:24
Speaker 1: up out of the slime. Some dark thing was projecting.
22:28
Speaker 1: Holmes sank to his waist as he stepped from the
22:31
Speaker 1: path to seize it, and had we not been there
22:34
Speaker 1: to drag him out, he could never have set his
22:36
Speaker 1: foot upon firm land again. He held an old black
22:40
Speaker 1: boot in the air. Myia's toronto was printed on the
22:44
Speaker 1: leather inside. It is worth a mudbath, said he. It
22:49
Speaker 1: is our friend, Sir Henry's missing boot, thrown here by
22:53
Speaker 1: Stapleton in his flight. Exactly he retained it in his
22:58
Speaker 1: hand after using it to set the hound upon the track.
23:02
Speaker 1: He fled when he knew the game was up, still
23:04
Speaker 1: clutching it, and he hurled it away. At this point
23:07
Speaker 1: of his flight, we know at least that he came
23:09
Speaker 1: so far in safety, But more than that we were
23:13
Speaker 1: never destined to know. Though there was much which we
23:16
Speaker 1: might surmise. There was no chance of finding footsteps in
23:20
Speaker 1: the maya, for the rising mud oozed swiftly in upon them.
23:25
Speaker 1: But as we at last reached firmer ground beyond the morass,
23:28
Speaker 1: we all looked eagerly for them, but no slightest sign
23:31
Speaker 1: of them ever met our eyes. If the earth told
23:34
Speaker 1: a true story, then Stapleton never reached that island of
23:38
Speaker 1: refuge towards which he struggled through the fog upon that
23:41
Speaker 1: last night, somewhere in the heart of the great grimp,
23:45
Speaker 1: and maya down in the foul slime of the huge
23:48
Speaker 1: morass which had sucked him in, this cold and cruel
23:52
Speaker 1: hearted man is forever buried. Many traces we found of
23:57
Speaker 1: him in the Boggirt island where he had hid his savage. Ally,
24:02
Speaker 1: a huge driving wheel and a shaft, half filled with
24:05
Speaker 1: rubbish showed the position of an abandoned mine. Beside it
24:09
Speaker 1: were the crumbling remains of the cottages of the miners,
24:12
Speaker 1: driven away, no doubt by the foul reek of the
24:15
Speaker 1: surrounding swamp. In one of these, a staple and chain
24:20
Speaker 1: with a quantity of gnawed bones showed where the animal
24:23
Speaker 1: had been confined. A skeleton with a tangle of brown
24:26
Speaker 1: hair adhering to it lay among the debris. A dog,
24:31
Speaker 1: said Holmes, by jove, a curly haired spaniel. Poor Mortimer
24:36
Speaker 1: will never see his pet again. Well, I do not
24:39
Speaker 1: know that this place contains any secret which we would
24:42
Speaker 1: not already fathomed. He could hide his hound but he
24:46
Speaker 1: could not hush its voice, and hence came those cries, which,
24:50
Speaker 1: even in daylight were not pleasant to hear. On an emergency,
24:55
Speaker 1: he could keep the hound in the outhouse at Merrypit,
24:58
Speaker 1: but it was always a risk, and it was only
25:00
Speaker 1: on the Supreme Day, which he regarded as the end
25:03
Speaker 1: of all his efforts, that he dared do it. This
25:07
Speaker 1: paste in the tin is no doubt the luminous mixture
25:10
Speaker 1: with which the creature was daubed. It was suggested, of course,
25:14
Speaker 1: by the story of the family hell Hound, and by
25:16
Speaker 1: the desire to frighten old Sir Charles to death. No wonder,
25:20
Speaker 1: the poor devil of a convict ran and screamed, even
25:23
Speaker 1: as our friend did, and as we ourselves might have done,
25:27
Speaker 1: when he saw such a creature bounding through the darkness
25:30
Speaker 1: of the moor upon his track. It was a cunning device,
25:34
Speaker 1: for apart from the chance of driving your victim to
25:37
Speaker 1: his death, what peasant would venture to inquire too closely
25:41
Speaker 1: into such a creature should he get a sight of it,
25:44
Speaker 1: as many have done upon the moor. I said it
25:47
Speaker 1: in London, Watson, and I say it again now, that
25:51
Speaker 1: never yet have we helped to hunt down a more
25:54
Speaker 1: dangerous man than he who is lying yonder. He swept
25:58
Speaker 1: his long arm towards the huge, mottled expanse of green
26:01
Speaker 1: splotched bog, which stretched away until it merged into the
26:05
Speaker 1: russet slopes of the moor. End of Chapter fourteen.