48418    As I set it down again, after having examined it, my heart leaped to see that beneath it there lay a sheet of paper with writing upon it.

48419    I raised it, and this was what I read, roughly scrawled in pencil:

48420    'Dr Watson has gone to Coombe Tracey.'

48421    For a minute I stood there with the paper in my hands thinking out the meaning of this curt message.

48422    It was I, then, and not Sir Henry, who was being dogged by this secret man.

48423    He had not followed me himself, but he had set an agent - the boy, perhaps - upon my track, and this was his report.

48424    Possibly I had taken no step since I had been upon the moor which had not been observed and repeated.

48425    Always there was this feeling of an unseen force, a fine net drawn round us with infinite skill and delicacy, holding us so lightly that it was only at some supreme moment that one realized that one was indeed entangled in its meshes.

48426    If there was one report there might be others, so I looked round the hut in search of them.

48427    There was no trace, however, of anything of the kind, nor could I discover any sign which might indicate the character or intentions of the man who lived in this singular place, save that he must be of Spartan habits, and cared little for the comforts of life.

48428    When I thought of the heavy rains and looked at the gaping roof I understood how strong and immutable must be the purpose which had kept him in that inhospitable abode.

48429    Was he our malignant enemy, or was he by chance our guardian angel?

48430    I swore that I would not leave the hut until I knew.

48431    Outside the sun was sinking low and the west was blazing with scarlet and gold.

48432    Its reflection was shot back in ruddy patches by the distant pools which lay amid the Great Grimpen Mire.