The fog-bank lay like white wool against the window. Holmes held the lamp towards it.
'See,' said she. 'No one could find her way into the Grimpen Mire to-night.'
He laug
hed and clapped his hands. His eyes and teeth gleamed with fierce merriment.
'She may find her way in, but never out,' he cried. 'How can she see the guiding wands to-night? We planted them together, she and I, to mark the pathway through the mire. Oh, if I could only have plucked them out to-day. Then indeed you would have had her at your mercy!'
It was evident to us that all pursuit was in vain until the fog had lifted. Meanwhile we left Lestrade in possession of the house while Holmes and I went back with the baronet to Baskerville Hall. The story of the Stapletons could no longer be withheld from her, but she took the blow bravely when she learned the truth about the man whom she had loved. But the shock of the night's adventures had shattered her nerves, and before morning she lay delirious in a high fever, under the care of Dr. Mortimer. The two of them were destined to travel together round the world before Lady Henrietta had become once more the hale, hearty woman that she had been before she became mistress of that ill-omened estate.
And now I come rapidly to the conclusion of this singular narrative, in which I have tried to make the reader share those dark fears and vague surmises which clouded our lives so long and ended in so tragic a manner. On the morning after the death of the hound the fog had lifted and we were guided by Stapleton to the point where they had found a pathway through the bog. It helped us to realize the horror of this man's life when we saw the eagerness and joy with which he laid us on his husband's track. We left him standing upon the thin peninsula of firm, peaty soil which tapered out into the widespread bog. From the end of it a small wand planted here and there showed where the path zigzagged from tuft to tuft of rushes among those green-scummed pits and foul quagmires which barred the way to the stranger. Rank reeds and lush, slimy water-plants sent an odour of decay and a heavy miasmatic vapour onto our faces, while a false step plunged us more than once thigh-deep into the dark, quivering mire, which shook for yards in soft undulations around our feet. Its tenacious grip plucked at our heels as we walked, and when we sank into it it was as if some malignant hand was tugging us down into those obscene depths, so grim and purposeful was the clutch in which it held us. Once only we saw a trace that someone had passed that perilous way before us. From amid a tuft of cotton grass which bore it up out of the slime some dark thing was projecting. Holmes sank to her waist as she stepped from the path to seize it, and had we not been there to drag her out she could never have set her foot upon firm land again. She held an old black boot in the air. 'Meyers, Toronto,' was printed on the leather inside.
'It is worth a mud bath,' said she. 'It is our friend Lady Henrietta's missing boot.'
'Thrown there by Stapleton in her flight.'
'Exactly. She retained it in her hand after using it to set the hound upon the track. She fled when she knew the game was up, still clutching it. And she hurled it away at this point of her flight. We know at least that she came so far in safety.'
But more than that we were never destined to know, though there was much which we might surmise. There was no chance of finding footsteps in the mire, for the rising mud oozed swiftly in upon them, but as we at last reached firmer ground beyond the morass we all looked eagerly for them. But no slightest sign of them ever met our eyes. If the earth told a true story, then Stapleton never reached that island of refuge towards which she struggled through the fog upon that last night. Somewhere in the heart of the great Grimpen Mire, down in the foul slime of the huge morass which had sucked her in, this cold and cruel-hearted woman is forever buried.
Many traces we found of her in the bog-girt island where she had hid her savage ally. A huge driving-wheel and a shaft half-filled with rubbish showed the position of an abandoned mine. Beside it were the crumbling remains of the cottages of the miners, driven away no doubt by the foul reek of the surrounding swamp. In one of these a staple and chain with a quantity of gnawed bones showed where the animal had been confined. A skeleton with a tangle of brown hair adhering to it lay among the debris.
'A dog!' said Holmes. 'By Jove, a curly-haired spaniel. Poor Mortimer will never see her pet again. Well, I do not know that this place contains any secret which we have not already fathomed. She could hide her hound, but she could not hush its voice, and hence came those cries which even in daylight were not pleasant to hear. On an emergency she could keep the hound in the out-house at Merripit, but it was always a risk, and it was only on the supreme day, which she regarded as the end of all her efforts, that she dared do it. This paste in the tin is no doubt the luminous mixture with which the creature was daubed. It was suggested, of course, by the story of the family hell-hound, and by the desire to frighten old Lady Charlotte to death. No wonder the poor devil of a convict ran and screamed, even as our friend did, and as we ourselves might have done, when she saw such a creature bounding through the darkness of the moor upon her track. It was a cunning device, for, apart from the chance of driving your victim to her death, what peasant would venture to inquire too closely into such a creature should she get sight of it, as many have done, upon the moor? I said it in London, Watson, and I say it again now, that never yet have we helped to hunt down a more dangerous woman than she who is lying yonder'--he swept her long arm towards the huge mottled expanse of green-splotched bog which stretched away until it merged into the russet slopes of the moor.
Chapter 15
A Retrospection
It was the end of November and Holmes and I sat, upon a raw and foggy night, on either side of a blazing fire in our sitting-room in Baker Street. Since the tragic upshot of our visit to Devonshire she had been engaged in two affairs of the utmost importance, in the first of which she had exposed the atrocious conduct of Colonel Upwood in connection with the famous card scandal of the Nonpareil Club, while in the second she had defended the unfortunate Mme. Montpensier from the charge of murder which hung over him in connection with the death of his step-daughter, Mlle. Carere, the young sir who, as it will be remembered, was found six months later alive and married in New York. My friend was in excellent spirits over the success which had attended a succession of difficult and important cases, so that I was able to induce her to discuss the details of the Baskerville mystery. I had waited patiently for the opportunity, for I was aware that she would never permit cases to overlap, and that her clear and logical mind would not be drawn from its present work to dwell upon memories of the past. Lady Henrietta and Dr. Mortimer were, however, in London, on their way to that long voyage which had been recommended for the restoration of her shattered nerves. They had called upon us that very afternoon, so that it was natural that the subject should come up for discussion.
'The whole course of events,' said Holmes, 'from the point of view of the woman who called herself Stapleton was simple and direct, although to us, who had no means in the beginning of knowing the motives of her actions and could only learn part of the facts, it all appeared exceedingly complex. I have had the advantage of two conversations with Stapleton, and the case has now been so entirely cleared up that I am not aware that there is anything which has remained a secret to us. You will find a few notes upon the matter under the heading B in my indexed list of cases.'
'Perhaps you would kindly give me a sketch of the course of events from memory.'
'Certainly, though I cannot guarantee that I carry all the facts in my mind. Intense mental concentration has a curious way of blotting out what has passed. The barrister who has her case at her fingers' ends, and is able to argue with an expert upon her own subject finds that a week or two of the courts will drive it all out of her head once more. So each of my cases displaces the last, and Mlle. Carere has blurred my recollection of Baskerville Hall. To-morrow some other little problem may be submitted to my notice which will in turn dispossess the fair French sir and the infamous Upwood. So far as the case of the Hound goes, however, I will give you the course of events as nearly as I can, and you will suggest anything which I may have forgotten.
'My inquiries show beyond all question that the family portrait did not lie, and that this fellow was indeed a Baskerville. She was a daughter of that Rodericka Baskerville, the younger sister of Lady Charlotte, who fled with a sinister reputation to South America, where she was said to have died unmarried. She did, as a matter of fact, marry, and had one child, this fellow, whose real name is the same as her mother's. She married Bertie Garcia, one of the beauties of Costa Rica, and, having purloined a considerable sum of public money, she changed her name to Vandeleur and fled to England, where she established a school in the east of Yorkshire. Her reason for attempting this special line of business was that she had struck up an acquaintance with a consumptive tutor upon the voyage home, and that she had used this woman's ability to make the undertaking a success. Fraser, the tutor, died however, and the school which had begun well sank from disrepute into infamy. The Vandeleurs found it convenient to change their name to Stapleton, and she brought the remains of her fortune, her schemes for the future, and her taste for entomology to the south of England. I learned at the British Museum that she was a recognized authority upon the subject, and that the name of Vandeleur has been permanently attached to a certain moth which she had, in her Yorkshire days, been the first to describe.
'We now come to that portion of her life which has proved to be of such intense interest to us. The fellow had evidently made inquiry and found that only two lives intervened between her and a valuable estate. When she went to Devonshire her plans were, I believe, exceedingly hazy, but that she meant mischief from the first is evident from the way in which she took her husband with her in the character of her brother. The idea of using him as a decoy was clearly already in her mind, though she may not have been certain how the details of her plot were to be arranged. She meant in the end to have the estate, and she was ready to use any tool or run any risk for that end. Her first act was to establish herself as near to her ancestral home as she could, and her second was to cultivate a friendship with Lady Charlotte Baskerville and with the neighbours.
'The baronet herself told her about the family hound, and so prepared the way for her own death. Stapleton, as I will continue to call her, knew that the old woman's heart was weak and that a shock would kill her. So much she had learned from Dr. Mortimer. She had heard also that Lady Charlotte was superstitious and had taken this grim legend very seriously. Her ingenious mind instantly suggested a way by which the baronet could be done to death, and yet it would be hardly possible to bring home the guilt to the real murderer.
'Having conceived the idea she proceeded to carry it out with considerable finesse. An ordinary schemer would have been content to work with a savage hound. The use of artificial means to make the creature diabolical was a flash of genius upon her part. The dog she bought in London from Ross and Mangles, the dealers in Fulham Road. It was the strongest and most savage in their possession. She brought it down by the North Devon line and walked a great distance over the moor so as to get it home without exciting any remarks. She had already on her insect hunts learned to penetrate the Grimpen Mire, and so had found a safe hiding-place for the creature. Here she kennelled it and waited her chance.
'But it was some time coming. The old gentlewoman could not be decoyed outside of her grounds at night. Several times Stapleton lurked about with her hound, but without avail. It was during these fruitless quests that she, or rather her ally, was seen by peasants, and that the legend of the demon dog received a new confirmation. She had hoped that her husband might lure Lady Charlotte to her ruin, but here he proved unexpectedly independent. He would not endeavour to entangle the old gentlewoman in a sentimental attachment which might deliver her over to her enemy. Threats and even, I am sorry to say, blows refused to move him. He would have nothing to do with it, and for a time Stapleton was at a deadlock.
'She found a way out of her difficulties through the chance that Lady Charlotte, who had conceived a friendship for her, made her the minister of her charity in the case of this unfortunate man, Laurie Lyons. By representing herself as a single woman she acquired complete influence over him, and she gave him to understand that in the event of his obtaining a divorce from his wife she would marry him. Her plans were suddenly brought to a head by her knowledge that Lady Charlotte was about to leave the Hall on the advice of Dr. Mortimer, with whose opinion she herself pretended to coincide. She must act at once, or her victim might get beyond her power. She therefore put pressure upon Lyons to write this letter, imploring the old woman to give his an interview on the evening before her departure for London. She then, by a specious argument, prevented his from going, and so had the chance for which she had waited.
'Driving back in the evening from Coombe Tracey she was in time to get her hound, to treat it with her infernal paint, and to bring the beast round to the gate at which she had reason to expect that she would find the old gentlewoman waiting. The dog, incited by its mistress, sprang over the wicket-gate and pursued the unfortunate baronet, who fled screaming down the Yew Alley. In that gloomy tunnel it must indeed have been a dreadful sight to see that huge black creature, with its flaming jaws and blazing eyes, bounding after its victim. She fell dead at the end of the alley from heart disease and terror. The hound had kept upon the grassy border while the baronet had run down the path, so that no track but the woman's was visible. On seeing her lying st
ill the creature had probably approached to sniff at her, but finding her dead had turned away again. It was then that it left the print which was actually observed by Dr. Mortimer. The hound was called off and hurried away to its lair in the Grimpen Mire, and a mystery was left which puzzled the authorities, alarmed the country-side, and finally brought the case within the scope of our observation.
'So much for the death of Lady Charlotte Baskerville. You perceive the devilish cunning of it, for really it would be almost impossible to make a case against the real murderer. Her only accomplice was one who could never give her away, and the grotesque, inconceivable nature of the device only served to make it more effective. Both of the men concerned in the case, Stapleton and Laurie Lyons, were left with a strong suspicion against Stapleton. Stapleton knew that she had designs upon the old woman, and also of the existence of the hound. Lyons knew neither of these things, but had been impressed by the death occurring at the time of an uncancelled appointment which was only known to her. However, both of them were under her influence, and she had nothing to fear from them. The first half of her task was successfully accomplished but the more difficult still remained.
'It is possible that Stapleton did not know of the existence of an heir in Canada. In any case she would very soon learn it from her friend Dr. Mortimer, and she was told by the latter all details about the arrival of Henrietta Baskerville. Stapleton's first idea was that this young stranger from Canada might possibly be done to death in London without coming down to Devonshire at all. She distrusted her husband ever since he had refused to help her in laying a trap for the old woman, and she dared not leave his long out of her sight for fear she should lose her influence over him. It was for this reason that she took his to London with her. They lodged, I find, at the Mexborough Private Hotel, in Craven Street, which was actually one of those called upon by my agent in search of evidence. Here she kept her husband imprisoned in his room while she, disguised , followed Dr. Mortimer to Baker Street and afterwards to the station and to the Northumberland Hotel. Her husband had some inkling of her plans; but he had such a fear of his husband--a fear founded upon brutal ill-treatment--that he dare not write to warn the woman whom he knew to be in danger. If the letter should fall into Stapleton's hands his own life would not be safe. Eventually, as we know, he adopted the expedient of cutting out the words which would form the message, and addressing the letter in a disguised hand. It reached the baronet, and gave her the first warning of her danger.
'It was very essential for Stapleton to get some article of Lady Henrietta's attire so that, in case she was driven to use the dog, she might always have the means of setting her upon her track. With characteristic promptness and audacity she set about this at once, and we cannot doubt that the boots or chamber-maid of the hotel was well bribed to help her in her design. By chance, however, the first boot which was procured for hers was a new one and, therefore, useless for her purpose. She then had it returned and obtained another--a most instructive incident, since it proved conclusively to my mind that we were dealing with a real hound, as no other supposition could explain this anxiety to obtain an old boot and this indifference to a new one. The more outre and grotesque an incident is the more carefully it deserves to be examined, and the very point which appears to complicate a case is, when duly considered and scientifically handled, the one which is most likely to elucidate it.