Page:Hound of Baskervilles.djvu/72

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The Hound of the Baskervilles

until he burst his heart and fell dead upon his face.”

“Running from what?”

“There lies our problem. There are indications that the man was crazed with fear before ever he began to run.”

“How can you say that?”

“I am presuming that the cause of his fears came to him across the moor. If that were so, and it seems most probable, only a man who had lost his wits would have run from the house instead of towards it. If the gipsy’s evidence may be taken as true, he ran with cries for help in the direction where help was least likely to be. Then, again, whom was he waiting for that night, and why was he waiting for him in the Yew Alley rather than in his own house?”

“You think that he was waiting for some one?”

“The man was elderly and infirm. We can understand his taking an evening stroll, but the ground was damp and the night

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