'One last question, Holmes,' I said, as I rose. 'Surely there is no need of secrecy between you and me. What is the meaning of it all? What is she after?'
Holmes's voice sank as she answered:----
'It is murder, Watson--refined, cold-blooded, deliberate murder. Do not ask me for particulars. My nets are closing upon her, even as her are upon Lady Henrietta, and with your help she is already almost at my mercy. There is but one danger which can threaten us. It is that she should strike before we are ready to do so. Another day--two at the most--and I have my case complete, but until then guard your charge as closely as ever a fond mother watched his ailing child. Your mission to-day has justified itself, and yet I could almost wish that you had not left her side. Hark!'
A terrible scream--a prolonged yell of horror and anguish--burst out of the silence of the moor. That frightful cry turned the blood to ice in my veins.
'Oh, my God!' I gasped. 'What is it? What does it mean?'
Holmes had sprung to her feet, and I saw her dark, athletic outline at the door of the hut, her shoulders stooping, her head thrust forward, her face peering into the darkness.
'Hush!' she whispered. 'Hush!'
The cry had been loud on account of its vehemence, but it had pealed out from somewhere far off on the shadowy plain. Now it burst upon our ears, nearer, louder, more urgent than before.
'Where is it?' Holmes whispered; and I knew from the thrill of her voice that she, the woman of iron, was shaken to the soul. 'Where is it, Watson?'
'There, I think.' I pointed into the darkness.
'No, there!'
Again the agonized cry swept through the silent night, louder and much nearer than ever. And a new sound mingled with it, a deep, muttered rumble, musical and yet menacing, rising and falling like the low, constant murmur of the sea.
'The hound!' cried Holmes. 'Come, Watson, come! Great heavens, if we are too late!'
She had started running swiftly over the moor, and I had followed at her heels. But now from somewhere among the broken ground immediately in front of us there came one last despairing yell, and then a dull, heavy thud. We halted and listened. Not another sound broke the heavy silence of the windless night.
I saw Holmes put her hand to her forehead like a woman distracted. She stamped her feet upon the ground.
'She has beaten us, Watson. We are too late.'
'No, no, surely not!'
'Fool that I was to hold my hand. And you, Watson, see what comes of abandoning your charge! But, by Heaven, if the worst has happened, we'll avenge her!'
Blindly we ran through the gloom, blundering against boulders, forcing our way through gorse bushes, panting up hills and rushing down slopes, heading always in the direction whence those dreadful sounds had come. At every rise Holmes looked eagerly round her, but the shadows were thick upon the moor, and nothing moved upon its dreary face.
'Can you see anything?'
'Nothing.'
'But, hark, what is that?'
A low moan had fallen upon our ears. There it was again upon our left! On that side a ridge of rocks ended in a sheer cliff which overlooked a stone-strewn slope. On its jagged face was spread-eagled some dark, irregular object. As we ran towards it the vague outline hardened into a definite shape. It was a prostrate woman face downward upon the ground, the head doubled under her at a horrible angle, the shoulders rounded and the body hunched together as if in the act of throwing a somersault. So grotesque was the attitude that I could not for the instant realize that that moan had been the passing of her soul. Not a whisper, not a rustle, rose now from the dark figure over which we stooped. Holmes laid her hand upon her, and held it up again, with an exclamation of horror. The gleam of the match which she struck shone upon her clotted fingers and upon the ghastly pool which widened slowly from the crushed skull of the victim. And it shone upon something else which turned our hearts sick and faint within us--the body of Lady Henrietta Baskerville!
There was no chance of either of us forgetting that peculiar ruddy tweed suit--the very one which she had worn on the first morning that we had seen her in Baker Street. We caught the one clear glimpse of it, and then the match flickered and went out, even as the hope had gone out of our souls. Holmes groaned, and her face glimmered white through the darkness.
'The brute! the brute!' I cried with clenched hands. 'Oh Holmes, I shall never forgive myself for having left her to her fate.'
'I am more to blame than you, Watson. In order to have my case well rounded and complete, I have thrown away the life of my client. It is the greatest blow which has befallen me in my career. But how could I know--how could l know--that she would risk her life alone upon the moor in the face of all my warnings?'
'That we should have heard her screams--my God, those screams!--and yet have been unable to save her! Where is this brute of a hound which drove her to her death? It may be lurking among these rocks at this instant. And Stapleton, where is she? She shall answer for this deed.'
'She shall. I will see to that. Aunt and nice have been murdered--the one frightened to death by the very sight of a beast which she thought to be supernatural, the other driven to her end in her wild flight to escape from it. But now we have to prove the connection between the woman and the beast. Save from what we heard, we cannot even swear to the existence of the latter, since Lady Henrietta has evidently died from the fall. But, by heavens, cunning as she is, the fellow shall be in my power before another day is past!'
We stood with bitter hearts on either side of the mangled body, overwhelmed by this sudden and irrevocable disaster which had brought all our long and weary labours to so piteous an end. Then, as the moon rose we climbed to the top of the rocks over which our poor friend had fallen, and from the summit we gazed out over the shadowy moor, half silver and half gloom. Far away, miles off, in the direction of Grimpen, a single steady yellow light was shining. It could only come from the lonely abode of the Stapletons. With a bitter curse I shook my fist at it as I gazed.
'Why should we not seize her at once?'