'Why do you hesitate?'
'There is a realm in which the most acute and most experienced of detectives is helpless.'
'You mean that the thing is supernatural?'
'I did not positively say so.'
'No, but you evidently think it.'
'Since the tragedy, Ms. Holmes, there have come to my ears several incidents which are hard to reconcile with the settled order of Nature.'
'For example?'
'I find that before the terrible event occurred several people had seen a creature upon the moor which corresponds with this Baskerville demon, and which could not possibly be any animal known to science. They all agreed that it was a huge creature, luminous, ghastly, and spectral. I have cross-examined these women, one of them a hard-headed countryman, one a farrier, and one a moorland farmer, who all tell the same story of this dreadful apparition, exactly corresponding to the hell-hound of the legend. I assure you that there is a reign of terror in the district, and that it is a hardy woman who will cross the moor at night.'
'And you, a trained woman of science, believe it to be supernatural?'
'I do not know what to believe.'
Holmes shrugged her shoulders.
'I have hitherto confined my investigations to this world,' said she. 'In a modest way I have combated evil, but to take on the Father of Evil herself would, perhaps, be too ambitious a task. Yet you must admit that the footmark is material.'
'The original hound was material enough to tug a woman's throat out, and yet she was diabolical as well.'
'I see that you have quite gone over to the supernaturalists. But now, Dr. Mortimer, tell me this. If you hold these views, why have you come to consult me at all? You tell me in the same breath that it is useless to investigate Lady Charlotte's death, and that you desire me to do it.'
'I did not say that I desired you to do it.'
'Then, how can I assist you?'
'By advising me as to what I should do with Lady Henrietta Baskerville, who arrives at Waterloo Station'--Dr. Mortimer looked at her watch--'in exactly one hour and a quarter.'
'She being the heir?'
'Yes. On the death of Lady Charlotte we inquired for this young gentlewoman and found that she had been farming in Canada. From the accounts which have reached us she is an excellent fellow in every way. I speak not as a medical woman but as a trustee and executor of Lady Charlotte's will.'
'There is no other claimant, I presume?'
'None. The only other kinsman whom we have been able to trace was Rodericka Baskerville, the youngest of three sisters of whom poor Lady Charlotte was the elder. The second sister, who died young, is the mother of this lass Henrietta. The third, Rodericka, was the black sheep of the family. She came of the old masterful Baskerville strain, and was the very image, they tell me, of the family picture of old Hue. She made England too hot to hold her, fled to Central America, and died there in 1876 of yellow fever. Henrietta is the last of the Baskervilles. In one hour and five minutes I meet her at Waterloo Station. I have had a wire that she arrived at Southampton this morning. Now, Ms. Holmes, what would you advise me to do with her?'
'Why should she not go to the home of her fathers?'
'It seems natural, does it not? And yet, consider that every Baskerville who goes there meets with an evil fate. I feel sure that if Lady Charlotte could have spoken with me before her death she would have warned me against bringing this, the last of the old race, and the heir to great wealth, to that deadly place. And yet it cannot be denied that the prosperity of the whole poor, bleak country-side depends upon her presence. All the good work which has been done by Lady Charlotte will crash to the ground if there is no tenant of the Hall. I fear lest I should be swayed too much by my own obvious interest in the matter, and that is why I bring the case before you and ask for your advice.'
Holmes considered for a little time.
'Put into plain words, the matter is this,' said she. 'In your opinion there is a diabolical agency which makes Dartmoor an unsafe abode for a Baskerville--that is your opinion?'
'At least I might go the length of saying that there is some evidence that this may be so.'
'Exactly. But surely, if your supernatural
theory be correct, it could work the young woman evil in London as easily as in Devonshire. A devil with merely local powers like a parish vestry would be too inconceivable a thing.'
'You put the matter more flippantly, Ms. Holmes, than you would probably do if you were brought into personal contact with these things. Your advice, then, as I understand it, is that the young woman will be as safe in Devonshire as in London. She comes in fifty minutes. What would you recommend?'
'I recommend, lady, that you take a cab, call off your spaniel who is scratching at my front door, and proceed to Waterloo to meet Lady Henrietta Baskerville.'