49137 There only remained the lamp in the dining-room where the two men, the murderous host and the unconscious guest, still chatted over their cigars.
49138 Every minute that white woolly plain which covered one half of the moor was drifting closer and closer to the house.
49139 Already the first thin wisps of it were curling across the golden square of the lighted window.
49140 The farther wall of the orchard was already invisible, and the trees were standing out of a swirl of white vapour.
49141 As we watched it the fog-wreaths came crawling round both corners of the house and rolled slowly into one dense bank, on which the upper floor and the roof floated like a strange ship upon a shadowy sea.
49142 Holmes struck his hand passionately upon the rock in front of us, and stamped his feet in his impatience.
49143 'If he isn't out in a quarter of an hour the path will be covered.
49144 In half an hour we won't be able to see our hands in front of us.'
49145 'Shall we move farther back upon higher ground?'
49146 'Yes, I think it would be as well.'
49147 So as the fog-bank flowed onwards we fell back before it until we were half a mile from the house, and still that dense white sea, with the moon silvering its upper edge, swept slowly and inexorably on.
49148 'We are going too far,' said Holmes.
49149 'We dare not take the chance of his being overtaken before he can reach us.