I sprang to my feet, my hand grasping my pistol, my mind paralysed by the dreadful shape which had sprung out upon us from the shadows of the fog. A hound it was, an enormous coal-black hound, but not such a hound as mortal eyes have ever seen. Fire burst from its open mouth, its eyes glowed with a smouldering glare, its muzzle and hackles and dewlap were outlined in flickering flame. Never in the delirious dream of a disordered brain could anything more savage, more appalling, more hellish, be conceived than that dark form and savage face which broke upon us out of the wall of fog.
Holmes and I both fired together, and the creature gave a hideous howl, which showed that one at least had hit him. He did not pause, however, but bounded onwards. The next instant Holmes had emptied five barrels of his revolver into the creature’s flank. With a last howl of agony and a vicious snap in the air it rolled upon its back, four feet pawing furiously, and then fell limp upon its side. I stooped, panting, and pressed my pistol to the dreadful, shimmering head, but it was useless to press the trigger. The giant hound was dead.
Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles.
Hound Collage: G Altabef & Deafchord87‘s acoustic cover of The Kill.
Gretchen Altabef is an award-winning author of new Sherlock Holmes mysteries, sci-fi and historical stories. Her books brim with imagination and a news reporter’s excitement for the true history of the day. THESE SCATTERED HOUSES brings Holmes to New York during his ‘great hiatus’ REMARKABLE POWER OF STIMULUS follows in London. During the investigation of a gruesome murder, Holmes is given a second chance with The Woman. The trilogy continues with FIVE MILES OF COUNTRY, where Holmes returns to New York to solve a murder in Thomas Edison’s moving picture studio, and Mrs Irene Adler-Holmes takes on Broadway. THE KEYS OF DEATH is a genesis story of the world’s most famous address, 221B Baker Street, and it’s landlady, Mrs Hudson.
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