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.

49318    Many traces we found of him in the bog-girt island where he had hid his savage ally.

49319    A huge driving-wheel and a shaft half-filled with rubbish showed the position of an abandoned mine.

49320    Beside it were the crumbling remains of the cottages of the miners, driven away, no doubt, by the foul reek of the surrounding swamp.

49321    In one of these a staple and chain, with a quantity of gnawed bones, showed where the animal had been confined.

49322    A skeleton with a tangle of brown hair adhering to it lay among the débris.

49323    'A dog!' said Holmes.

49324    'By Jove, a curly-haired spaniel.

49325    Poor Mortimer will never see his pet again.

49326    Well, I do not know that this place contains any secret which we have not already fathomed.