Sherlock Holmes Complete Works 2

Chapter 78 The Hound of the Baskervilles 17
Our operation is in its final stages.We went back to the moor again, got off at the gate near the driveway, paid the fare and sent the driver back.Then, we headed towards the Melissa Mansion.

"Remired, are you armed?"

The little detective smiled. "I won't forget."

"great."

"What shall we do now, Mr. Holmes?"

"Just wait and see the show!"

The detective looked up and looked around, "I see a light in a house ahead, and I guess that's our destination."

"Yes, that's Meliser's mansion, and it's also the end of our trip. Now we're going to walk on our toes, and we can only speak in a low voice, and don't make any noise."

We stopped two hundred yards from the house.

"Behind this hill on the right is our wonderful hiding place, and we're all going up," he said.

"Shall we wait here until Sir Henry returns?"

"Exactly, come into this ditch, Raymond. Watson, you have been inside the Staple Valley house, can you tell where each room is? How many squares at this end?" What room is the window?"

"It's the kitchen window."

"Take a look at what that bright room over there is for?"

"That's the dining room."

"The shutters are drawn. Watson, you know the terrain best. Now you go over quietly and see what they are doing. Do not let anyone know that they are being watched!"

I walked quietly along the path, without making a sound, and in the great shadows around the low wall I found a place from which I could look directly into the uncurtained window.

Sir Henry and Staple Valley sat facing each other on either side of a round table, both facing me in profile.Therefore, they cannot see me.Both of them were smoking cigars with coffee and wine on the table in front of them.While Stapledale was talking excitedly to his companion, the baronet was preoccupied.

Staple Valley suddenly left the room.Sir Henry sat there alone.Hearing only the sound of a door opening and the crisp sound of leather shoes stepping on the gravel road, the biologist walked past the wall where I was squatting, and stopped at the door of a small house on the corner of the fruit forest.He took out the key and opened the door, once he was inside there was a strange scuffling noise and he was there for about a minute.Later he went back to his room and talked with his guest.So I quietly went back to my companions and told them what I had seen.

"Is the lady in the house, Watson?" asked Holmes, after my report.

"I did not see."

"Where is she, then? There's no light in any room but the kitchen!"

"I can't figure out where she is."

At this time, the thick white mist slowly floated in our direction.Holmes turned to that side and kept muttering:

"Watson, the fog is coming our way!"

"Is the situation serious?"

"It is serious indeed, and our plans may be disturbed. Sir Henry should be out, and it is ten o'clock now. The success of our plan, and the safety of his life, may depend upon his presence or absence." Come out before the fog covers the path."

The fog, which covered half the moor, was getting closer and thicker.While we waited for Sir Henry to come out, the fog was almost closing in on the Staple Valley house.At this moment, Holmes was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan.

"If he doesn't come out in 15 minutes, the trail will be covered. Another 10 minutes and we won't see anything."

"Then shall we retreat to a slightly higher place?"

"Ok."

We retreated as far as half a mile from the house.But the fog was still pushing in our direction.

Holmes said: "We have gone too far. The Hounds of Staple Valley will catch up with Sir Henry before he comes to us. We cannot gamble with Sir Henry's life. We cannot take another step back." Knelt down, put his left ear on the ground and listened, "Thank God, he is finally back!"

A sound of rapid footsteps broke the silence of the moor.The footsteps came closer, and as he stood under the starlit night, he looked around in panic, and then walked quickly down the path.After passing very close to our hiding place, we walked towards the hillside behind us.He looked around restlessly as he walked, checking for anything that appeared around him.

"Hush!" Holmes drew out his pistol and cocked the nose of the pistol. "Attention, here it comes!"

There was a rattling sound from the slowly advancing wall of fog, and all three of us stared intently at it.I was at Holmes' elbow, and I cast a quick glance into his face, which was pale, but with ecstasy in his eyes, which gleamed in the moonlight.Suddenly, his lips parted in surprise.At that moment Remired gave a cry of terror and threw himself on the ground, and I jumped up, my hands were almost too stiff to move, but I held fast to my revolver.I was frightened out of my wits by the horrible shape rushing through the mist. It was a big black hound with fire blowing from its wide mouth, and its eyes seemed to be shining in the dark night. The mouth, head, neck hair and lower part of the neck were all on fire, and today I finally saw this legendary thing.

The huge black thing scuttled down the path, after Sir Henry, and all three of us were terrified by the black ghost.So fast that it ran past us before we recovered our sanity.When Holmes and I came to our senses, we shot at it together, and the creature let out a yelp, which showed that it had been hit.But the strange thing is that the guy continued to rush forward.On the path we saw Sir Henry looking back, in the moonlight, with his hands raised in terror, and staring hopelessly at the terrible thing that pursued him.

Holmes ran so fast that he left me behind with ease.As we galloped down the lane we heard the shout after the shout from Sir Henry ahead, and the deep growl of the hound.When I arrived, I saw the beast sprang up, threw the baronet on the ground, and tried to bite him by the throat.At the critical moment, Holmes fired all five bullets in the revolver into the fellow's flank.With a final yelp and a sharp bite into the air, the dog lay on all fours, kicked wildly, and then fell on its side.The big hound is dead.

Sir Henry lay unconscious on the ground, and we unfastened his collar.There was no injury on his body. After a while, his eyelids began to move, and he tried to move his body, but failed.His distorted, terrified eyes looked up at us.

He whispered to us, "My God! What the hell is that?"

Holmes replied: "Whatever it is, it is dead anyway, and we have exterminated the monster in your house."

The thing's body was sprawled before us, a hideous and savage aspect, and twice the size of an average hound.Even now, as it lay dead and motionless on the ground, that great mouth seemed to spew blue fire, and the small, deep-set, cruel eyes had rings of fire around them, and I I touched its glowing mouth, and when I raised my hand, my fingers also glowed in the dark.

"It's phosphorus, no wonder the dog glows," I said.

"It is indeed a cunning adornment," said Holmes, "and the phosphorous powder did not impair the hound's keen sense of smell. We are very sorry, Sir Henry, to have caused you such a fright, and never imagined it to be so horrific." A big hunting dog, too unexpected for me. Also, today's fog is too big."

"But my life was saved by you."

"But I have put your life at such a risk. Now, Sir Henry, will you stand?"

(End of this chapter)