49156    He looked round him in surprise as he emerged into the clear, star-lit night.

49157    Then he came swiftly along the path, passed close to where we lay, and went on up the long slope behind us.

49158    As he walked he glanced continually over either shoulder, like a man who is ill at ease.

49159    'Hist!' cried Holmes, and I heard the sharp click of a cocking pistol.

49160    'Look out!

49161    It's coming!'

49162    There was a thin, crisp, continuous patter from somewhere in the heart of that crawling bank.

49163    The cloud was within fifty yards of where we lay, and we glared at it, all three, uncertain what horror was about to break from the heart of it.

49164    I was at Holmes's elbow, and I glanced for an instant at his face.

49165    It was pale and exultant, his eyes shining brightly in the moonlight.

49166    But suddenly they started forward in a rigid, fixed stare, and his lips parted in amazement.

49167    At the same instant Lestrade gave a yell of terror and threw himself face downwards upon the ground.

49168    I sprang to my feet, my inert hand grasping my pistol, my mind paralysed by the dreadful shape which had sprung out upon us from the shadows of the fog.

49169    A hound it was, an enormous coal-black hound, but not such a hound as mortal eyes have ever seen.

49170    Fire burst from its open mouth, its eyes glowed with a smouldering glare, its muzzle and hackles and dewlap were outlined in flickering flame.