49454 My hardships were not so great as you imagine, though such trifling details must never interfere with the investigation of a case.
49455 I stayed for the most part at Coombe Tracey, and only used the hut upon the moor when it was necessary to be near the scene of action.
49456 Cartwright had come down with me, and in his disguise as a country boy he was of great assistance to me.
49457 I was dependent upon him for food and clean linen.
49458 When I was watching Stapleton, Cartwright was frequently watching you, so that I was able to keep my hand upon all the strings.
49459 'I have already told you that your reports reached me rapidly, being forwarded instantly from Baker Street to Coombe Tracey.
49460 They were of great service to me, and especially that one incidentally truthful piece of biography of Stapleton's.
49461 I was able to establish the identity of the man and the woman, and knew at last exactly how I stood.
49462 The case had been considerably complicated through the incident of the escaped convict and the relations between him and the Barrymores.
49463 This also you cleared up in a very effective way, though I had already come to the same conclusions from my own observations.
49464 'By the time that you discovered me upon the moor I had a complete knowledge of the whole business, but I had not a case which could go to a jury.
49465 Even Stapleton's attempt upon Sir Henry that night, which ended in the death of the unfortunate convict, did not help us much in proving murder against our man.
49466 There seemed to be no alternative but to catch him red-handed, and to do so we had to use Sir Henry, alone and apparently unprotected, as a bait.
49467 We did so, and at the cost of a severe shock to our client we succeeded in completing our case and driving Stapleton to his destruction.
49468 That Sir Henry should have been exposed to this is, I must confess, a reproach to my management of the case, but we had no means of foreseeing the terrible and paralysing spectacle which the beast presented, nor could we predict the fog which enabled him to burst upon us at short notice.