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i fancy old frankland allows her a pittance but it can not be more for his own affairs are considerably involved . whatever she may have deserved one could not allow her to go hopelessly to the bad . her story got about and several of the people here did something to enable her to earn an honest living . stapleton did for one and sir charles for another . i gave a trifle myself . it was to set her up in a typewriting business .

well has this precious relation of yours departed or is he still lurking out yonder ?

i dont know sir . i hope to heaven that he has gone for he has brought nothing but trouble here ! ive not heard of him since i left out food for him last and that was three days ago .

did you see him then ?

no sir but the food was gone when next i went that way .

then he was certainly there ?

so you would think sir unless it was the other man who took it .

you know that there is another man then ?

yes sir there is another man upon the moor .

have you seen him ?

no sir .

how do you know of him then ?

selden told me of him sir a week ago or more . hes in hiding too but hes not a convict as far as i can make out . i dont like it dr . watsoni tell you straight sir that i dont like it .

now listen to me barrymore ! i have no interest in this matter but that of your master . i have come here with no object except to help him . tell me frankly what it is that you dont like .

its all these goingson sir theres foul play somewhere and theres black villainy brewing to that ill swear ! very glad i should be sir to see sir henry on his way back to london again !

but what is it that alarms you ?

look at sir charless death ! that was bad enough for all that the coroner said . look at the noises on the moor at night . theres not a man would cross it after sundown if he was paid for it . look at this stranger hiding out yonder and watching and waiting ! whats he waiting for ? what does it mean ? it means no good to anyone of the name of baskerville and very glad i shall be to be quit of it all on the day that sir henrys new servants are ready to take over the hall .

but about this stranger can you tell me anything about him ? what did selden say ? did he find out where he hid or what he was doing ?

he saw him once or twice but he is a deep one and gives nothing away . at first he thought that he was the police but soon he found that he had some lay of his own . a kind of gentleman he was as far as he could see but what he was doing he could not make out .

and where did he say that he lived ?

among the old houses on the hillsidethe stone huts where the old folk used to live .

but how about his food ?

selden found out that he has got a lad who works for him and brings all he needs . i dare say he goes to coombe tracey for what he wants .

very good barrymore . we may talk further of this some other time .

i have the pleasure of knowing your father .

there is nothing in common between my father and me i owe him nothing and his friends are not mine . if it were not for the late sir charles baskerville and some other kind hearts i might have starved for all that my father cared .

it was about the late sir charles baskerville that i have come here to see you .

what can i tell you about him ?

you knew him did you not ?

i have already said that i owe a great deal to his kindness . if i am able to support myself it is largely due to the interest which he took in my unhappy situation .

did you correspond with him ?

what is the object of these questions ?

the object is to avoid a public scandal . it is better that i should ask them here than that the matter should pass outside our control .

well ill answer what are your questions ?

did you correspond with sir charles ?

i certainly wrote to him once or twice to acknowledge his delicacy and his generosity .

have you the dates of those letters ?

no .

have you ever met him ?

yes once or twice when he came into coombe tracey . he was a very retiring man and he preferred to do good by stealth .

but if you saw him so seldom and wrote so seldom how did he know enough about your affairs to be able to help you as you say that he has done ?

there were several gentlemen who knew my sad history and united to help me . one was mr . stapleton a neighbour and intimate friend of sir charless . he was exceedingly kind and it was through him that sir charles learned about my affairs .

did you ever write to sir charles asking him to meet you ?

really sir this is a very extraordinary question .

i am sorry madam but i must repeat it .

then i answer certainly not .

not on the very day of sir charless death ?

no

surely your memory deceives you i could even quote a passage of your letter . it ran please please as you are a gentleman burn this letter and be at the gate by ten oclock .

is there no such thing as a gentleman ?

you do sir charles an injustice . he did burn the letter . but sometimes a letter may be legible even when burned . you acknowledge now that you wrote it ?

yes i did write it i did write it . why should i deny it ? i have no reason to be ashamed of it . i wished him to help me . i believed that if i had an interview i could gain his help so i asked him to meet me .

but why at such an hour ?

because i had only just learned that he was going to london next day and might be away for months . there were reasons why i could not get there earlier .

but why a rendezvous in the garden instead of a visit to the house ?

do you think a woman could go alone at that hour to a bachelors house ?

well what happened when you did get there ?

i never went .

mrs . lyons !

no i swear it to you on all i hold sacred . i never went . something intervened to prevent my going .

what was that ?

that is a private matter . i can not tell it .

you acknowledge then that you made an appointment with sir charles at the very hour and place at which he met his death but you deny that you kept the appointment .

that is the truth .

mrs . lyons you are taking a very great responsibility and putting yourself in a very false position by not making an absolutely clean breast of all that you know . if i have to call in the aid of the police you will find how seriously you are compromised . if your position is innocent why did you in the first instance deny having written to sir charles upon that date ?

because i feared that some false conclusion might be drawn from it and that i might find myself involved in a scandal .

and why were you so pressing that sir charles should destroy your letter ?

if you have read the letter you will know .

i did not say that i had read all the letter .

you quoted some of it .

i quoted the postscript . the letter had as i said been burned and it was not all legible . i ask you once again why it was that you were so pressing that sir charles should destroy this letter which he received on the day of his death .

the matter is a very private one .

the more reason why you should avoid a public investigation .

i will tell you then . if you have heard anything of my unhappy history you will know that i made a rash marriage and had reason to regret it .

i have heard so much .

my life has been one incessant persecution from a husband whom i abhor . the law is upon his side and every day i am faced by the possibility that he may force me to live with him . at the time that i wrote this letter to sir charles i had learned that there was a prospect of my regaining my freedom if certain expenses could be met . it meant everything to mepeace of mind happiness selfrespecteverything . i knew sir charless generosity and i thought that if he heard the story from my own lips he would help me .

then how is it that you did not go ?

because i received help in the interval from another source .

why then did you not write to sir charles and explain this ?

so i should have done had i not seen his death in the paper next morning .

how on earth did you do that ?

look it up in the books sir . it will repay readingfrankland v . morland court of queens bench . it cost me 200 but i got my verdict .

did it do you any good ?

how so ?

because i could tell them what they are dying to know but nothing would induce me to help the rascals in any way .

some poaching case no doubt ?

ha ha my boy a very much more important matter than that ! what about the convict on the moor ?

you dont mean that you know where he is ?

i may not know exactly where he is but i am quite sure that i could help the police to lay their hands on him . has it never struck you that the way to catch that man was to find out where he got his food and so trace it to him ?

no doubt but how do you know that he is anywhere upon the moor ?

i know it because i have seen with my own eyes the messenger who takes him his food .

indeed sir ! do you see that black tor over yonder ? well do you see the low hill beyond with the thornbush upon it ? it is the stoniest part of the whole moor . is that a place where a shepherd would be likely to take his station ? your suggestion sir is a most absurd one .

you may be sure sir that i have very good grounds before i come to an opinion . i have seen the boy again and again with his bundle . every day and sometimes twice a day i have been ablebut wait a moment dr . watson . do my eyes deceive me or is there at the present moment something moving upon that hillside ?