Speaker 1: Chapter ten of The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir
Speaker 1: Arthur Conan Doyle. This LibriVox according is in the public domain.
Speaker 1: Chapter ten extract from the Diary of Doctor Watson. So
Speaker 1: far I have been able to quote from the reports
Speaker 1: which I have forwarded during those early days to Sherlock Holmes. Now, however,
Speaker 1: I have arrived at a point in my narrative where
Speaker 1: I am compelled to abandon this method and to trust
Speaker 1: once more to my recollections, aided by the diary which
Speaker 1: I kept at the time. A few extracts from the
Speaker 1: latter will carry me on to those scenes which are
Speaker 1: indelibly fixed in every detail upon my memory. I proceed
Speaker 1: then from the morning which followed our abortive chase of
Speaker 1: the convict, and our other strange experiences upon the moor.
Speaker 1: October sixteenth, a dull and foggy day with a drizzle
Speaker 1: of rain. The house is banked in with rolling clouds,
Speaker 1: which shries now and then to show the dreary curves
Speaker 1: of the moor with thin silver veins upon the sides
Speaker 1: of the hills, and the distant boulders gleaming where the
Speaker 1: light strikes upon their wet faces. It is melancholy outside
Speaker 1: and in the baronet is in a black reaction. After
Speaker 1: the excitements of the night, I am conscious myself of
Speaker 1: a weight at my heart and a feeling of impending danger,
Speaker 1: ever present, danger, which is the more terrible because I
Speaker 1: am unable to define it, and have I not cause
Speaker 1: for such a feeling. Consider the long sequence of incidents
Speaker 1: which have all pointed to some sinister influence which is
Speaker 1: at work around us. There is the death of the
Speaker 1: last occupant of the hall, fulfilling so exactly the conditions
Speaker 1: of the family legend. And there are the repeated reports
Speaker 1: from peasants of the appearance of a strange creature upon
Speaker 1: the moor. Twice I have with my own ears her
Speaker 1: the sound which resembled the distant baying of a hound.
Speaker 1: It is incredible, impossible that it should really be outside
Speaker 1: the ordinary laws of nature. A spectral hound, which leaves
Speaker 1: material footmarks and fills the air with its howling is
Speaker 1: surely not to be thought of. Stapleton may fall in
Speaker 1: with such a superstition, and Mortimer also, But if I
Speaker 1: have one quality upon earth, it is common sense, and
Speaker 1: nothing will persuade me to believe in such a thing.
Speaker 1: To do so would be to descend to the level
Speaker 1: of these poor peasants, who are not content with a
Speaker 1: mere fiend dog, but must needs describe him with hell
Speaker 1: fire shooting from his mouth and eyes. Holmes would not
Speaker 1: listen to such fancies, and I am his agent. But
Speaker 1: facts are facts, and I have twice heard this crying
Speaker 1: upon the moor. Suppose that there were really some huge
Speaker 1: hound loose upon it? That would go far to explain everything.
Speaker 1: But where could such a hound lie concealed? Where did
Speaker 1: it get its food? Where did it come from? How
Speaker 1: was it that no one saw it by day? It
Speaker 1: must be confessed that the natural explanation offers almost as
Speaker 1: many difficulties as the other. And always apart from the hound,
Speaker 1: there is the fact of the human agency in London,
Speaker 1: the man in the cab, and the letter which warned
Speaker 1: Sir Henry against the moor. This at least was real,
Speaker 1: But it might have been the work of a protecting
Speaker 1: friend as easily as of an enemy. Where is that
Speaker 1: friend or enemy? Now? Has he remained in London? Or
Speaker 1: has he followed us down here? Could he? Could he
Speaker 1: be the stranger whom I saw upon the tour? It
Speaker 1: is true that I have had only the one glance
Speaker 1: at him, and yet there are some things to which
Speaker 1: I am ready to swear. He is no one whom
Speaker 1: I have seen down here, and I have now met
Speaker 1: all the neighbors. The figure is far taller than that
Speaker 1: of Stapleton, far thinner than that of Frankland Barrymore. It
Speaker 1: might possibly have been, but we had left him behind us,
Speaker 1: and I am certain that he could not have followed us.
Speaker 1: A stranger, then is still dogging us, just as a
Speaker 1: stranger dogged us in London. We have never shaken him off.
Speaker 1: If I could lay my hands upon that man, then
Speaker 1: at last we might find ourselves at the end of
Speaker 1: all our difficulties. To this one purpose. I must now
Speaker 1: devote all my energies. My first impulse was to tell
Speaker 1: Sir Henry all my plans. My second and wisest one
Speaker 1: is to play my own game and speak as little
Speaker 1: as possible to any one. He is silent and distray.
Speaker 1: His nerves have been strangely shaken by that sound upon
Speaker 1: the moor. I will say nothing to add to his anxieties,
Speaker 1: but I will take my own steps to attain my
Speaker 1: own end. We had a small scene this morning after breakfast,
Speaker 1: Barrymore asked leave to speak with Sir Henry, and they
Speaker 1: were closeted in his study some little time. Sitting in
Speaker 1: the billiard room, I more than once heard the sound
Speaker 1: of voices raised, and I had a pretty good idea
Speaker 1: what the point was, which was under discussion. After a time,
Speaker 1: the baronet opened his door and called for me. Barymore
Speaker 1: considers that he has a grievance, He said. He thinks
Speaker 1: that it was unfair on our part to hunt his
Speaker 1: brother in law down when he, of his own free will,
Speaker 1: had told us the secret. The butler was standing very pale,
Speaker 1: but very collected before us. I may have spoken too warmly, sir,
Speaker 1: said he, And if I have, I am sure that
Speaker 1: I beg your pardon. At the same time, I was
Speaker 1: very much surprised when I heard you two gentlemen come
Speaker 1: back this morning and learned that you had been chasing seldom.
Speaker 1: The poor fellow is enough to fight against without my
Speaker 1: putting more upon his track. If you told us of
Speaker 1: your own free will, it would have been a different thing,
Speaker 1: said the baronet. You only told us, or rather your
Speaker 1: wife only told us, when it was forced from you
Speaker 1: and you could not help yourself. I didn't think you
Speaker 1: would have taken advantage of it, Sir Henry. Indeed I didn't.
Speaker 1: The man is a public danger. There are lonely houses
Speaker 1: scattered over the moor, and he is a fellow who
Speaker 1: would stick at nothing. You would only want to get
Speaker 1: a glimpse of his face to see that. Look at
Speaker 1: mister Stapleton's house, for example, with no one but himself
Speaker 1: to defend it. There's no safety for any one till
Speaker 1: he's under lock and key. You'll break into no house, sir,
Speaker 1: or give you my solemn word upon it. But he
Speaker 1: will never trouble any one in this country again. Are
Speaker 1: you assure you, Sir Henry, that in a very few days,
Speaker 1: the necessary arrangements will have been made and he will
Speaker 1: be on his way to South America. For God's sake, Sir,
Speaker 1: I beg of you not to let the police know
Speaker 1: that he's still on the moor. They've given up the
Speaker 1: chase there and he can lie quiet until the ship
Speaker 1: is ready for him. Ye can't tell on him without
Speaker 1: getting my wife and me into trouble. I beg you, sir,
Speaker 1: to say nothing to the police. What do you say, Watson?
Speaker 1: I shrugged my shoulders. If he were safely out of
Speaker 1: the country, it would relieve the taxpayer of a burden.
Speaker 1: But how about the chance of his holding some one
Speaker 1: up before he goes. He would not do anything, so
Speaker 1: mad sir. We have provided him with all that he
Speaker 1: can want to commit. A crime would be to show
Speaker 1: where he was hiding, that is true, said Sir Henry. Well, Barrymore,
Speaker 1: God bless you, sir, and thank you for my art.
Speaker 1: It would have killed my poor wife had he been
Speaker 1: taken again. I guess we're aiding and the betting a felony, Watson.
Speaker 1: But after what we've heard, I don't feel as if
Speaker 1: I could give the man up. So there's an end
Speaker 1: to it, all right, Barrymore, you can go with a
Speaker 1: few broken words of gratitude. The man turned, but he
Speaker 1: hesitated and then came back. You've been so kind to us, sir,
Speaker 1: so I should like to do the best I can
Speaker 1: for you in return. I know something, Sir Henry, and
Speaker 1: perhaps I should have said it before, but it was
Speaker 1: long after the inquest that I found it out. I'd
Speaker 1: never breathed a word about it yet to mortal man.
Speaker 1: It's about poor Sir Charles's death. The baronet and I
Speaker 1: were both upon our feet. Do you know how he died? No, Sir,
Speaker 1: I don't know that. What then I know why he
Speaker 1: was at the gate at the hour. It was to
Speaker 1: meet a woman. To meet a woman, He yes, sir,
Speaker 1: and them's name. I can't give you the name, sir,
Speaker 1: but I can give ye the initials. Her initials were
Speaker 1: L L. How do you know this Barrymore? Well, sir, Henry,
Speaker 1: your uncle had a letter that morning. He had usually
Speaker 1: a great many letters, but he was a public man
Speaker 1: and well known for his kind heart, so that every
Speaker 1: one who was in trouble was glad to turn to him.
Speaker 1: But that morning, as it chanced, there was only this
Speaker 1: one letter, so I took the more notice of it.
Speaker 1: It was from Coombe Tracy, and it was addressed in
Speaker 1: a woman's hand. Well, well, sir, I thought no more
Speaker 1: of the matter, and never would have done that it
Speaker 1: not been for my wife. Only a few weeks ago
Speaker 1: she was cleaning out Sir Charles's study. It had never
Speaker 1: been touched since his death, and she found the ashes
Speaker 1: of a burned letter in the back of the grate.
Speaker 1: The greater part of it was charred to pieces, but
Speaker 1: one little slip the end of a page hung together,
Speaker 1: and the writing could still be read, though it was
Speaker 1: gray on a black background. It seemed to us to
Speaker 1: be a PostScript at the end of the letter, and
Speaker 1: it said, please, please, as you are a gentleman, burn
Speaker 1: this letter and be at the gate by ten o'clock.
Speaker 1: Beneath it were signed the initials l L. Have you
Speaker 1: got that slip? No, sir, it crumbled all to bits
Speaker 1: after we moved it. Had Sir Charles received any other
Speaker 1: letters in the same writing, well, sir, oh, he took
Speaker 1: no particular notice of his letters. I should not have
Speaker 1: noticed this one only happened to come alone. And you
Speaker 1: have no idea who l L is No, sir, no
Speaker 1: more than you have. But I expect if we could
Speaker 1: lay our hands upon that lady, we should know more
Speaker 1: about Sir Charles's death. I cannot understand barrymore. How you
Speaker 1: came to con seal this important information. Well, sir, it
Speaker 1: was immediately after that our own trouble came to us.
Speaker 1: And then again, sir, we were both of us very
Speaker 1: fond of Sir Charles, as we well might be, considering
Speaker 1: all he has done for us to rake this up.
Speaker 1: Couldn't help our poor master, and it's well to go
Speaker 1: carefully when there's a lady in the case. Even the
Speaker 1: best of us, you thought it might enjure his reputation. Well, sir,
Speaker 1: you thought no good could come of it. But now
Speaker 1: you've been kind to us, and I feel as if
Speaker 1: it would be treating you unfairly not to tell you
Speaker 1: all that I know about the matter. Very good, barrymore,
Speaker 1: you can go. When the butler had left us, Sir
Speaker 1: Henry turned to me, Well, Watson, what do you think
Speaker 1: of this new light? It seems to leave the darkness
Speaker 1: rather blacker than before, so I think. But if we
Speaker 1: can only trace l L it should clear up the
Speaker 1: whole business. We've gained that much. We know that there's
Speaker 1: some one who has the facts, if we can only
Speaker 1: find her. What do you think we should do? Let
Speaker 1: Holmes know all about it at once. It'll give him
Speaker 1: the clue for which he has been seeking. I am
Speaker 1: much mistaken if it does not bring him down. I
Speaker 1: went at once to my room and drew up my
Speaker 1: report of the morning's conversation for Holmes. It was evident
Speaker 1: to me that he'd been very busy of late. For
Speaker 1: the notes which I had from Baker Street were few
Speaker 1: and short, with no comments upon the information which I
Speaker 1: had supplied, and hardly any reference to my mission. No doubt,
Speaker 1: his blackmailing case is absorbing all his faculties, and yet
Speaker 1: this new factor must surely arrest his attention and renew
Speaker 1: his interest. I wished that he were here October seventeenth.
Speaker 1: All day to day, the rain poured down, rustling on
Speaker 1: the ivy and dripping from the eaves. I thought of
Speaker 1: the convict out upon the bleak, cold, shelterless moor. Poor devil,
Speaker 1: whatever his crimes, he suffered something to atone for them.
Speaker 1: And then I thought of that other one, the face
Speaker 1: in the cab, the figure against the moon. Was he
Speaker 1: also out in that deluge, the unseen watcher, the man
Speaker 1: of darkness. In the evening, I put on my waterproof
Speaker 1: and I walked far upon the sodden moor, full of
Speaker 1: dark imaginings, the rain beating upon my face and the
Speaker 1: wind whistling about my ears. God help those who wander
Speaker 1: into the great Maya now, for even the firm uplands
Speaker 1: are becoming a morass. I found the black tor upon
Speaker 1: which I had seen the solitary Watcher, and from its
Speaker 1: craggy summit, I looked out myself across the melancholy downs.
Speaker 1: Rain squalls drifted across their russet face, and the heavy,
Speaker 1: slate colored clouds hung low over the landscape, trailing in
Speaker 1: gray wreaths down the sides of the fantastic hills. In
Speaker 1: the distant hollow on the left, half hidden by the mist,
Speaker 1: the two thin towers of Baskerfill Hall rose above the trees.
Speaker 1: They were the only signs of human life which I
Speaker 1: could see, save only those prehistoric huts which lay thickly
Speaker 1: upon the slopes of the hills. Nowhere was there any
Speaker 1: trace of that lonely man whom I had seen on
Speaker 1: the same spot two nights before. As I walked back,
Speaker 1: I was overtaken by Doctor Mortimer, driving in his dog
Speaker 1: cart over a rough moorland track which led from the
Speaker 1: outlying farmhouse of Fowlmyre. He's been very attentive to us,
Speaker 1: and hardly a day has passed that he is not
Speaker 1: called at the hall to see how we're getting on.
Speaker 1: He insisted upon my climbing into his dog cart, and
Speaker 1: he gave me a lift homeward. I found him much
Speaker 1: troubled over the disappearance of his little spaniel. It had
Speaker 1: wandered on to the moor and had never come back.
Speaker 1: I gave him such consolation as I might, but I
Speaker 1: thought of the pony on the grimp and mire, and
Speaker 1: I do not fancy that he will see his little
Speaker 1: dog again. By the way, Mortimer said I, as we
Speaker 1: jolted along the rough road. I suppose there are a
Speaker 1: few people living within driving distance of this whom you
Speaker 1: do not know hardly any I think. Can you then
Speaker 1: tell me the name of any woman whose initials are
Speaker 1: L L? He thought for a few minutes. No, said he.
Speaker 1: There are a few gypsies and laboring folk for whom
Speaker 1: I can't answer. But among the farmers or gentry, there
Speaker 1: is no one whose initials are those. Wait a bit, though,
Speaker 1: he added, after a pause, there is Laura Lyons. Her
Speaker 1: initials are l L, but she lives in Combe Tracy.
Speaker 1: Who is she? I asked? She is Franklin's daughter? What
Speaker 1: old Franklin the crank? Exactly? She married an artist named
Speaker 1: Lions who came sketching on the moor. He proved to
Speaker 1: be a black card and deserted her. The fault from
Speaker 1: what I hear may not have been entirely. On one side.
Speaker 1: Her father refused to have anything to do with her
Speaker 1: because she had married without his consent, and perhaps for
Speaker 1: one or two other reasons as well. So between the
Speaker 1: old sinner and the young one, the girl has had
Speaker 1: a pretty bad time. How does she live? I fancy
Speaker 1: Old Frankland allows her a pittance, but it cannot be more,
Speaker 1: for his own affairs are considerably involved. Whatever she may
Speaker 1: have deserved, one could not allow her to go hopelessly
Speaker 1: to the bad. Her story got about, and several of
Speaker 1: the people here did something to enable her to earn
Speaker 1: an honest living. Stapleton did for one, and Sir Charles
Speaker 1: for another. I gave a trifle myself. It was to
Speaker 1: set her up in a typewriting business. He wanted to
Speaker 1: know the object of my inquiries, but I managed to
Speaker 1: satisfy his curiosity without telling him too much. For there
Speaker 1: is no reason why we should take any one into
Speaker 1: our confidence. Tomorrow morning I shall find my way to
Speaker 1: Coombe Tracy. And if I can see this, missus Laura
Speaker 1: Lyons of equivocal reputation, a long step will have been
Speaker 1: made towards clearing one incident in this chain of mysteries.
Speaker 1: I am certainly developing the wisdom of the serpent. For
Speaker 1: when Mortimer pressed his questions to an inconvenient extent, I
Speaker 1: asked him casually to what type Franklin's skull belonged, and
Speaker 1: so heard nothing but craniology. For the rest of our drive.
Speaker 1: I have not lived for years with Sherlock Holmes for nothing.
Speaker 1: I have only one other incident to record upon this
Speaker 1: tempestuous and melancholy day. This was my conversation with Barrymore
Speaker 1: just now, which gives me one more strong card which
Speaker 1: I can play in due time. Mortimer had stayed to dinner,
Speaker 1: and he and the baronet played a cart Afterwards, the
Speaker 1: butler brought me my coffee into the library, and I
Speaker 1: took the chance to ask him a few questions. Well said, I,
Speaker 1: has this precious relation of yours departed? Or is he
Speaker 1: still lurking out yonder? Oh you don't know, sir. I
Speaker 1: hope to Heaven that he's gone, for he's brought nothing
Speaker 1: but trouble here. I've not heard of him since I
Speaker 1: left our food for him last, and that was three
Speaker 1: days ago. Did you see him then, No, sir, But
Speaker 1: the food was gone. When next I went that way,
Speaker 1: then he was certainly there, so you would think, sir,
Speaker 1: unless it was the other man who took it. I
Speaker 1: sat with my coffee cup half way to my lips
Speaker 1: and stared at Barrymore. You know that there is another man? Then, yes, sir,
Speaker 1: there is another man upon the moor. Have you seen him? No, sir,
Speaker 1: how do you know of him? Then? Selden told me
Speaker 1: of him, Sir, a week ago or more. He's annoyding too,
Speaker 1: but he's not a convict, as far as I can
Speaker 1: make out. I don't like it, Doctor Watson. I tell
Speaker 1: you straight, sir, that I don't like it. He spoke,
Speaker 1: with a sudden passion of earnestness. Now listen to me, Barrymore.
Speaker 1: I have no interest in this matter but that of
Speaker 1: your master. I have come here with no object except
Speaker 1: to help him. Tell me, frankly, what is it that
Speaker 1: you don't like? Barrymore hesitated for a moment, as if
Speaker 1: he regretted his outburst or found it difficult to express
Speaker 1: his own feelings in words. It's all these goings on, sir,
Speaker 1: he cried at last, waving his hand towards the rain
Speaker 1: lashed window, which faced the moor. There's foul play somewhere,
Speaker 1: and there's black villainy brewing to that. I'll swear very
Speaker 1: glad I should be, sir to see Sir Henry on
Speaker 1: his way back to London again. But what is it
Speaker 1: that alarms you? Look at Sir Charles's death, that was
Speaker 1: bad enough for all that, the coroner said, Look at
Speaker 1: the noises on the moor at night. There's not a
Speaker 1: man who would cross it after sundown if he was
Speaker 1: paid for it. Look at this stranger riding out yonder
Speaker 1: and watching and waiting. What's he waiting for? What does
Speaker 1: it mean? It means no good to any one of
Speaker 1: the name of Baskerville, And very glad I shall be
Speaker 1: to quit of it all in the day that Sir
Speaker 1: Henry's new servants are ready to take over the hall.
Speaker 1: But about this stranger, said, I can you tell me
Speaker 1: anything about him? What did Selden say? Did he find
Speaker 1: out where he hid or what he was doing? He
Speaker 1: saw him once or twice, but he's a deep one
Speaker 1: and gives nothing away. At first he thought that he
Speaker 1: was the police, but soon he found that he had
Speaker 1: some lay of his own, A kind of gentleman. He
Speaker 1: was as far as he got see. But what he
Speaker 1: was doing he could not make out. And where did
Speaker 1: he say? That? He lived among the old houses on
Speaker 1: the hillside, the stone huts where the old folk used
Speaker 1: to live. But how about his food? Selden found out
Speaker 1: that he has got a lad who works for him
Speaker 1: and brings all he needs, Or he dare say he
Speaker 1: goes to Coombe Tracy, for he wants very good barrymore.
Speaker 1: We may talk further of this some other time. When
Speaker 1: the butler had gone, I walked over to the black window,
Speaker 1: and I looked through a blurred pane at the driving
Speaker 1: clouds and at the tossing outline of the wind swept trees.
Speaker 1: It is a wild night indoors. And what must it
Speaker 1: be in stone hut upon the moor? What passion of
Speaker 1: hatred can it be which leads a man to lurk
Speaker 1: in such a place at such a time, And what
Speaker 1: deep and earnest purpose can he have which calls for
Speaker 1: such a trial? There in that hut upon the moor
Speaker 1: seems to lie the very center of that problem which
Speaker 1: has vexed me so sorely. I swear that another day
Speaker 1: shall not have passed before I have done all that
Speaker 1: man can do to reach the heart of the mystery.
Speaker 1: End of Chapter ten.