Then he recalled Mortimer's reference to the change of footprints
recorded at the inquest. He suggested that the man had not suddenly
walked on tiptoe, but had been running, crazed with fear, until he fell dead
upon his face. The cause of his fear must have come to him across the moor,
and yet he ran 'from' the house instead of towards it, with cries for
help in the direction where help was least likely to be. Whom was he
waiting for, and why was he waiting in the yew alley rather than in his
own house? It was unlikely that an elderly & infirm man should take his
evening stroll and wait for five or ten minutes at the moor-gate on a damp
night just before his departure for London. Satisfied, in his own mind at
least, that his thoughts were taking shape, he asked me to hand him his violin,
and put aside all further thoughts of the matter until tomorrow, when
we are supposed to meet Sir Henry Baskerville and Dr. Mortimer again.
