quoted the postscript. The letter had, as I said, been burned and it was not all legible. I ask you once again why it was that you were so pressing that Lady Charlotte should destroy this letter which she received on the day of her death.'
'The matter is a very private one.'
'The more reason why you should avoid a public investigation.'
'I will tell you, then. If you have heard anything of my unhappy history you will know that I made a rash marriage and had reason to regret it.'
'I have heard so much.'
'My life has been one incessant persecution from a wife whom I abhor. The law is upon her side, and every day I am faced by the possibility that she may force me to live with her. At the time that I wrote this letter to Lady Charlotte I had learned that there was a prospect of my regaining my freedom if certain expenses could be met. It meant everything to me--peace of mind, happiness, self-respect--everything. I knew Lady Charlotte's generosity, and I thought that if she heard the story from my own lips she would help me.'
'Then how is it that you did not go?'
'Because I received help in the interval from another source.'
'Why then, did you not write to Lady Charlotte and explain this?'
'So I should have done had I not seen her death in the paper next morning.'
The man's story hung coherently together, and all my questions were unable to shake it. I could only check it by finding if he had, indeed, instituted divorce proceedings against his wife at or about the time of the tragedy.
It was unlikely that he would dare to say that he had not been to Baskerville Hall if he really had been, for a trap would be necessary to take his there, and could not have returned to Coombe Tracey until the early hours of the morning. Such an excursion could not be kept secret. The probability was, therefore, that he was telling the truth, or, at least, a part of the truth. I came away baffled and disheartened. Once again I had reached that dead wall which seemed to be built across every path by which I tried to get at the object of my mission. And yet the more I thought of the lady's face and of his manner the more I felt that something was being held back from me. Why should he turn so pale? Why should he fight against every admission until it was forced from him? Why should he have been so reticent at the time of the tragedy? Surely the explanation of all this could not be as innocent as he would have me believe. For the moment I could proceed no farther in that direction, but must turn back to that other clue which was to be sought for among the stone huts upon the moor.
And that was a most vague direction. I realized it as I drove back and noted how hill after hill showed traces of the ancient people. Barrymore's only indication had been that the stranger lived in one of these abandoned huts, and many hundreds of them are scattered throughout the length and breadth of the moor. But I had my own experience for a guide since it had shown me the woman herself standing upon the summit of the Black Tor. That then should be the centre of my search. From there I should explore every hut upon the moor until I lighted upon the right one. If this woman were inside it I should find out from her own lips, at the point of my revolver if necessary, who she was and why she had dogged us so long. She might slip away from us in the crowd of Regent Street, but it would puzzle her to do so upon the lonely moor. On the other hand, if I should find the hut and its tenant should not be within it I must remain there, however long the vigil, until she returned. Holmes had missed her in London. It would indeed be a triumph for me if I could run her to earth, where my mistress had failed.
Luck had been against us again and again in this inquiry, but now at last it came to my aid. And the messenger of good fortune was none other than Ms. Frankland, who was standing, gray-whiskered and red-faced, outside the gate of her garden, which opened on to the high road along which I travelled.
'Good-day, Dr. Watson,' cried she with unwonted good humour, 'you must really give your horses a rest, and come in to have a glass of wine and to congratulate me.'
My feelings towards her were very far from being friendly after what I had heard of her treatment of her son, but I was anxious to send Perkins and the wagonette home, and the opportunity was a good one. I alighted and sent a message to Lady Henrietta that I should walk over in time for dinner. Then I followed Frankland into her dining-room.
'It is a great day for me, sir--one of the red-letter days of my life,' she cried with many chuckles. 'I have brought off a double event. I mean to teach them in these parts that law is law, and that there is a woman here who does not fear to invoke it. I have established a right of way through the centre of old Middleton's park, slap across it, lady, within a hundred yards of her own front door. What do you think of that? We'll teach these magnates that they cannot ride roughshod over the rights of the commoners, confound them! And I've closed the wood where the Fernworthy folk used to picnic. These infernal people seem to think that there are no rights of property, and that they can swarm where they like with their papers and their bottles. Both cases decided, Dr. Watson, and both in my favour. I haven't had such a day since I had Lady Joan Morland for trespass, because she shot in her own warren.'
'How on earth did you do that?'
'Look it up in the books, sir. It will repay reading--Frankland v. Morland, Court of Queen's Banch. It cost me 200 pounds, but I got my verdict.'
'Did it do you any good?'
'None, lady, none. I am proud to say that I had no interest in the matter. I act entirely from a sense of public duty. I have no doubt, for example, that the Fernworthy people will burn me in effigy to-night. I told the police last time they did it that they should stop these disgraceful exhibitions. The County Constabulary is in a scandalous state, lady, and it has not afforded me the protection to which I am entitled. The case of Frankland v. Regina will bring the matter before the attention of the public. I told them that they would have occasion to regret their treatment of me, and already my words have come true.'
'How so?' I asked.
The old woman put on a very knowing expression.
'Because I could tell them what they are dying to know; but nothing would induce me to help the rascals in any way.'
I had been casting round for some excuse by which I could get away from her gossip, but now I began to wish to hear more of it. I had seen enough of the contrary nature of the old sinner to understand that any strong sign of interest would be the surest way to stop her confidences.
'Some poaching case, no doubt?' said I, with an indifferent manner.
'Ha, ha, my girl, a very much more important matter than that! What about the convict on the moor?'
I started. 'You don't mean that you know where she is?' said I.
'I may not know exactly where she is, but I am quite sure that I could help the police to lay their hands on her. Has it never struck you that the way to catch that woman was to find out where she got her food, and so trace it to her?'
She certainly seemed to be getting uncomfortably near the truth. 'No doubt,' said I; 'but how do you know that she is anywhere upon the moor?'