and swung in a
rising wind. A half moon broke through the rifts of racing
clouds. In its cold light I saw beyond the trees a broken fringe
of rocks, and the long, low curve of the melancholy moor. I
closed the curtain, feeling that my last impression was in
keeping with the rest.

And yet it was not quite the last. I found myself weary and yet
wakeful, tossing restlessly from side to side, seeking for the
sleep which would not come. Far away a chiming clock struck out
the quarters of the hours, but otherwise a deathly silence lay
upon the old house. And then suddenly, in the very dead of the
night, there came a sound to my ears, clear, resonant, and
unmistakable. It was the sob of a woman, the muffled, strangling
gasp of one who is torn by an uncontrollable sorrow. I sat up in
bed and listened intently. The noise could not have been far away
and was certainly in the house. For half an hour I waited with
every nerve on the alert, but there came no other sound save the
chiming clock and the rustle of the ivy on the wall.

Chapter 7

The Stapletons of Merripit House

The fresh beauty of the following morning did something to efface
from our minds the grim and gray impression which had been left
upon both of us by our first experience of Baskerville Hall. As
Sir Henry and I sat at breakfast the sunlight flooded in through
the high mullioned windows, throwing watery patches of colour
from the coats of arms which covered them. The dark panelling
glowed like bronze in the golden rays, and it was hard to realize
that this was indeed the chamber which had struck such a gloom
into our souls upon the evening before.

"I guess it is ourselves and not the house that we have to
blame!" said the baronet. "We were tired with our journey and
chilled by our drive, so we took a gray view of the place. Now we
are fresh and well, so it is all cheerful once more."

"And yet it was not entirely a question of imagination," I
answered. "Did you, for example, happen to hear someone, a woman
I think, sobbing in the night?"

"That is curious, for I did when I was half asleep fancy that I
heard something of the sort. I waited quite a time, but there was
no more of it, so I concluded that it was all a dream."

"I heard it distinctly, and I am sure that it was really the sob
of a woman."

"We must ask about this right away." He rang the bell and asked
Barrymore whether he could account for our experience. It seemed
to me that