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Many traces we found of him in the bog-girt island where he had hid his 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 his pet again.

Well, I do not know that this place contains any secret which we have not already fathomed.

He could hide his hound, but he could not hush its voice, and hence came those cries which even in daylight were not pleasant to hear.

On an emergency he 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 he regarded as the end of all his efforts, that he 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 Sir Charles 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 he saw such a creature bounding through the darkness of the moor upon his track.

It was a cunning device, for, apart from the chance of driving your victim to his death, what peasant would venture to inquire too closely into such a creature should he 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 man than he who is lying yonder"-he swept his long arm towards the huge mottled expanse of green-splotched bog which stretched away until it merged into the russet slopes of the moor.

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 he had been engaged in two affairs of the utmost importance, in the first of which he had exposed the atrocious conduct of Colonel Upwood in connection with the famous card scandal of the Nonpareil Club, while in the second he had defended the unfortunate Mme.

Montpensier from the charge of murder which hung over her in connection with the death of her step-daughter, Mlle.

Carere, the young lady 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 him to discuss the details of the Baskerville mystery.

I had waited patiently for the opportunity for I was aware that he would never permit cases to overlap, and that his clear and logical mind would not be drawn from its present work to dwell upon memories of the past.

Sir Henry and Dr. Mortimer were, however, in London, on their way to that long voyage which had been recommended for the restoration of his 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 man who called himself Stapleton was simple and direct, although to us, who had no means in the beginning of knowing the motives of his actions and could only learn part of the facts, it all appeared exceedingly complex.

Chapter 15. A Retrospection

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