49304 'Meyers, Toronto', was printed on the leather inside.
49305 'It is worth a mud bath,' said he.
49306 'It is our friend Sir Henry's missing boot.'
49307 'Thrown there by Stapleton in his flight.'
49308 'Exactly.
49309 He retained it in his hand after using it to set the hound upon his track.
49310 He fled when he knew the game was up, still clutching it.
49311 And he hurled it away at this point of his flight.
49312 We know at least that he came so far in safety.'
49313 But more than that we were never destined to know, though there was much which we might surmise.
49314 There was no chance of finding footsteps in the mire, for the rising mud oozed swiftly in upon them, but as we at last reached firmer ground beyond the morass we all looked eagerly for them.
49315 But no slightest sign of them ever met our eyes.
49316 If the earth told a true story, then Stapleton never reached that island of refuge towards which he struggled through the fog upon that last night.
49317 Somewhere in the heart of the great Grimpen Mire, down in the foul slime of the huge morass which had sucked him in, this cold and cruel-hearted man is for ever buried.