And you, Watson, see what comes of abandoning your charge! But, by Heaven, if the worst has happened, we'll avenge him!" Blindly we ran through the gloom, blundering against boulders, forcing our way through gorse bushes, panting up hills and rushing down slopes, heading always in the direction whence those dreadful sounds had come.

At every rise Holmes looked eagerly round him, but the shadows were thick upon the moor, and nothing moved upon its dreary face.
"Can you see anything ?" "Nothing." "But, hark, what is that ?" A low moan had fallen upon our ears.

There it was again upon our left! On that side a ridge of rocks ended in a sheer cliff which overlooked a stone-strewn slope.

On its jagged face was spread-eagled some dark, irregular object.

As we ran towards it the vague outline hardened into a definite shape.