'Good night, lady, and thank you!'
Joan Clayton departed chuckling, and Holmes turned to me with a shrug of her shoulders and a rueful smile.
'Snap goes our third thread, and we end where we began,' said she. 'The cunning rascal! She knew our number, knew that Lady Henrietta Baskerville had consulted me, spotted who I was in Regent Street, conjectured that I had got the number of the cab and would lay my hands on the driver, and so sent back this audacious message. I tell you, Watson, this time we have got a foeman who is worthy of our steel. I've been checkmated in London. I can only wish you better luck in Devonshire. But I'm not easy in my mind about it.'
'About what?'
'About sending you. It's an ugly business, Watson, an ugly dangerous business, and the more I see of it the less I like it. Yes, my dear fellow, you may laugh, but I give you my word that I shall be very glad to have you back safe and sound in Baker Street once more.'
Chapter 6
Baskerville Hall
Sir Henrietta Baskerville and Dr. Mortimer were ready upon the appointed day, and we started as arranged for Devonshire. Ms. Shyrlock Holmes drove with me to the station and gave me her last parting injunctions and advice.
'I will not bias your mind by suggesting theories or suspicions, Watson,' said she; 'I wish you simply to report facts in the fullest possible manner to me, and you can leave me to do the theorizing.'
'What sort of facts?' I asked.
'Anything which may seem to have a bearing however indirect upon the case, and especially the relations between young Baskerville and her neighbours or any fresh particulars concerning the death of Lady Charlotte. I have made some inquiries myself in the last few days, but the results have, I fear, been negative. One thing only appears to be certain, and that is that Ms. Jamie Desmond, who is the next heir, is an elderly gentlewoman of a very amiable disposition, so that this persecution does not arise from her. I really think that we may eliminate her entirely from our calculations. There remain the people who will actually surround Lady Henrietta Baskerville upon the moor.'
'Would it not be well in the first place to get rid of this Barrymore couple?'
'By no means. You could not make a greater mistake. If they are innocent it would be a cruel injustice, and if they are guilty we should be giving up all chance of bringing it home to them. No, no, we will preserve them upon our list of suspects. Then there is a groom at the Hall, if I remember right. There are two moorland farmers. There is our friend Dr. Mortimer, whom I believe to be entirely honest, and there is her husband, of whom we know nothing. There is this naturalist, Stapleton, and there is her brother, who is said to be a young sir of attractions. There is Ms. Frankland, of Lafter Hall, who is also an unknown factor, and there are one or two other neighbours. These are the folk who must be your very special study.'
'I will do my best.'
'You have arms, I suppose?'
'Yes, I thought it as well to take them.'
'Most certainly. Keep your revolver near you night and day, and never relax your precautions.'
Our friends had already secured a first-class carriage and were waiting for us upon the platform.
'No, we have no news of any kind,' said Dr. Mortimer in answer to my friend's questions. 'I can swear to one thing, and that is that we have not been shadowed during the last two days. We have never gone out without keeping a sharp watch, and no one could have escaped our notice.'
'You have always kept together, I presume?'
'Except yesterday afternoon. I usually give up one day to pure amusement when I come to town, so I spent it at the Museum of the College of Surgeons.'
'And I went to look at the folk in the park,' said Baskerville. 'But we had no trouble of any kind.'
'It was imprudent, all the same,' said Holmes, shaking her head and looking very grave. 'I beg, Lady Henrietta, that you will not go about alone. Some great misfortune will befall you if you do. Did you get your other boot?'
'No, lady, it is gone forever.'
'Indeed. That is very interesting. Well, good-bye,' she added as the train began to glide down the platform. 'Bear in mind, Lady Henrietta, one of the phrases in that queer old legend which Dr. Mortimer has read to us, and avoid the moor in those hours of darkness when the powers of evil are exalted.'
I looked back at the platform when we had left it far behind, and saw the tall, austere figure of Holmes standing motionless and gazing after us.
The journey was a swift and pleasant one, and I spent it in making the more intimate acquaintance of my two companions and in playing with Dr. Mortimer's spaniel. In a very few hours the brown earth had become ruddy, the brick had changed to granite, and red cows grazed in well-hedged fields where the lush grasses and more luxuriant vegetation spoke of a richer, if a damper, climate. Young Baskerville stared eagerly out of the window, and cried aloud with delight as she recognized the familiar features of the Devon scenery.
'I've been over a good part of the world since I left it, Dr. Watson,' said she; 'but I have never seen a place to compare with it.'
'I never saw a Devonshire woman who did not swear by her county,' I remarked.
'It depends upon the breed of women quite as much as on the county,' said Dr. Mortimer. 'A glance at our friend here reveals the rounded head of the Celt, which carries inside it the Celtic enthusiasm and power of attachment. Poor Lady Charlotte's head was of a very rare type, half Gaelic, half Ivernian in its characteristics. But you were very young when you last saw Baskerville Hall, were you not?'