The Hound of the Baskervilles: The Light on the Moor

The morning after he saw Barrymore at the window, Watson told Sir Henry what he had seen, and they agreed to sit up one night and watch.That same afternoon, Sir Henry slipped out alone to meet Miss Stapleton, and Watson, remembering Holmes’s orders, followed him across the moor.From a hill he watched the two of them walking together, until Stapleton came running towards them, waving his net and shouting angrily.

Sir Henry came back hurt and confused, because he had asked her to marry him and her brother had treated him like a criminal.Later that day Stapleton came to the Hall to apologise, saying that his sister was everything to him and that he could not bear to lose her.He asked only that Sir Henry wait three months before speaking of love again, and Sir Henry agreed.

On the second night of watching, Watson and Sir Henry heard Barrymore’s steps and followed him to the empty room.They found him holding a candle to the window, and when Sir Henry demanded an answer, the butler refused to give away a secret that was not his own.Far out on the black moor, a tiny point of yellow light answered the candle.

Then Mrs. Barrymore came in and confessed that the escaped convict, Selden, was her younger brother.He was hiding on the moor, starving, and the light was a signal that food was ready for him.Her husband had only helped him for her sake, so Sir Henry sent them both back to bed.

Sir Henry and Watson decided that such a dangerous man should not be left free, so they went out into the night to catch him.As they hurried towards the light, a long, deep howl rose from the moor, and Sir Henry asked in a low voice what the local people called that sound.Watson did not want to answer, but he knew that the people said it was the hound of the Baskervilles.

They reached the candle among the rocks and saw a wild, dirty face, but the convict threw a stone at them and ran off into the dark.On the way back, Watson saw a tall, thin man standing on top of a rocky hill, black against the moon.It was not the convict, and when Watson turned to show Sir Henry, the man had gone.