A huge driving-wheel and a shaft half-filled with rubbish showed the position of an abandoned mine.

Beside it were the crumbling remains of the cottages of the miners, driven away no doubt by the foul reek of the surrounding swamp.

In one of these a staple and chain with a quantity of gnawed bones showed where the animal had been confined.
A skeleton with a tangle of brown hair adhering to it lay among the debris.
"A dog!" said Holmes.

"By Jove, a curly-haired spaniel.

Poor Mortimer will never see his pet again.