CHAPTER NINE

The Escaped Prisoner

That same afternoon, Mr Stapleton came to Baskerville Hall to meet Sir Henry. Sir Henry seemed to like Stapleton, so the next morning we all visited the place where the evil Sir Hugo had died. Then we walked to Pen House and had lunch.

It was clear to both Stapleton and I that Sir Henry liked Miss Stapleton very much. His eyes followed her everywhere, and I know he must have thought she was beautiful. Even though Miss Stapleton was very quiet, I was sure she liked Sir Henry as well. When we walked back to Baskerville Hall he could not stop talking about her. We saw the Stapletons almost every day after that.

Soon we could see that Sir Henry had fallen deeply in love with Miss Stapleton. At first I thought that Stapleton would be very pleased if his sister married Sir Henry. But for some reason, I saw that he did not want this to happen. He did everything he could to make sure that they were never alone. One or two times, they did manage to meet alone, but Stapleton followed them. He was never pleased to see them together.

I soon met another friend of Sir Henry's. His name was Mr Frankland, and he lived about four miles to the south of the Hall. He was an old man with a red face and white hair that stood up from his head. He had two favorite things to do. The first was arguing. He argued with everybody, and loved to disagree with people. The second thing he liked to do was study the stars. For this, he had a very big telescope. But for several days, instead of watching the stars, he watched the moor through his telescope instead. He wanted to find Selden, the escaped murderer. No one had seen this man Selden for many days. We all decided he must have left the moor and gone somewhere else.

A few nights later, at about two o'clock in the morning, I was woken by a noise. It was the sound of someone walking softly outside my door. I got up, opened the door and looked out. It was Barrymore, walking down the hall. I had a feeling that something strange was going on, so I followed him as quietly as I could. He went into one of the empty bedrooms and left the door open. I went quietly up to the door and looked inside.

Barrymore stood at the window. He held a candle in his hand and stared out at the moor. He stood without moving for a few minutes, and then he put out the light.

Quickly I went back to my room. A few minutes later, Barrymore walked quietly by my door once again.

The next morning I told Sir Henry what I had seen.

"We must find out what he is doing," said Sir Henry. "If we move quietly he won't hear us."

That night we sat in Sir Henry's room and waited. At about three o'clock in the morning we heard the sound of footsteps outside the bedroom. We looked out and saw Barrymore. We followed him as quietly as we could. He went into the same room as before. We reached the door and looked into the room. There was Barrymore, with the candle in his hand. He was looking out the window across the moor, exactly as I had seen him on the night before.

Sir Henry walked into the room and said in a loud voice: "Why, Barrymore! What are you doing here in the middle of the night?"

Barrymore turned around quickly. There was fear in his face.

"Nothing, sir!" he said slowly. "It ... it was the window, sir. I go round at night to see that they are closed, and this one was open." He seemed terribly nervous.

"Come now, Barrymore," said Sir Henry. "Do not lie to us. What were you doing with that light? You were holding it up to the window—as if you were looking for something outside."

I suddenly had an idea. "Sir Henry, I think he was sending a message with the light," I said. "Let's see if there's an answer from someone outside."

I held the light up to the window, and looked out into the darkness. Suddenly I saw another light shining on the moor!

"There it is!" I said. I waved my light backwards and forwards across the window. The light on the moor answered me, by moving in the same way.

"Now, Barrymore, who is your friend on the moor? What's going on?" said Sir Henry.

"That's my business," said Barrymore. "I won't tell you."

"Are you making some criminal plan against me?"

Sir Henry asked angrily.

"No, Sir Henry, this is not against you," said a voice behind us. It was Mrs Barrymore. She was standing at the door. "He's doing it for me. My unhappy brother is cold and hungry on the moor, and I wanted to help him. Our light is to tell him that food is ready for him. His light shows us where we should take the food."

"Then your brother is ... " began Sir Henry.

"The escaped prisoner, sir. Selden, the murderer. He is my younger brother. He has done evil things, but to me he is still like a little child. When I read that he had escaped, I knew he would come to Baskerville Hall to find me. I had to help him. Everything my husband has done has been for me. Please don't take his job from him. It's not his fault."

Sir Henry turned to Barrymore and said.

"Well, Barrymore, I cannot blame you for helping your wife. We will talk about this in the morning."

The Barrymores left us.

"That murderer is waiting out there by that light," said Sir Henry. "He's a danger to everyone in this area! I'm going to catch him. If you want to come with me, Watson, get your gun and let's go!"

We got our guns and left the Hall immediately.

"We must surprise him and catch him," said Sir Henry. "Now, Watson, this night reminds me of something. Do you remember what the old papers said? They said: 'the Devil does his work when the world is dark.'"

Just as he spoke, we heard a loud, long strange howl coming from across the moor. It was the same cry I had heard when I was with Stapleton on the edge of the Great Grimpen Marsh.

"What is that noise?" asked Sir Henry. He stopped and put his hand on my arm to hold me back.

"I've heard it before," I said. "Stapleton says it's the cry of a bird."

"Watson," said Sir Henry, his voice shaking, "clearly, that is the howl of a hound! And a horrible one, like no other dog on this earth! What do the local people think that cry is?"

"They say it is the cry of the Hound of the Baskervilles," I replied slowly.

Sir Henry said nothing for a few moments. "Can there possibly be some truth in the story?" said Sir Henry. "Am I really in danger from some large, evil animal? I think I am as brave as most men, but that sound froze my heart, it is so frightening. But we have come out to catch that prisoner Selden, and the Devil himself will not make me turn back. Clearly, there is enough danger on the moor already!"

It was difficult to cross the moor in the dark, but at last we reached the light. It was standing on a rock. Suddenly a man's face looked at us from behind the rock. When he saw us, he screamed as he turned to run.

Sir Henry and I were both fast runners, and very healthy men, but we soon realized that we could not catch Selden. He knew the way, and he was running for his life, which made him even faster than we were. Soon we had lost him in the dark, so we stopped and sat down to rest.

At that moment a very strange thing happened. On our right, the moon was low in the sky. In its light, we could see the top of a hill. On that hill stood a tall, thin man with the moon behind him. He was standing very still, and he was watching us.

I knew this man was not Selden, because he was much taller. I turned to Sir Henry to ask him who the man was, but as I turned, the man disappeared.

I wanted to go and try to find him, but we were tired and it was now very late at night. I remembered that Sir Henry might be in danger, so we went back to Baskerville Hall.

Who was the tall man I had seen? Was the man who had been watching us a friend—or another enemy?

I wished more and more that Holmes could leave London and come to Baskerville Hall. I wrote a letter to him every few days, and told him everything that happened in the case.

(end of section)