I asked him whether Selden had left the country.
‘ I don’t know, sir,’ Barrymore replied. ‘ I hope he has gone. But I’ve not heard anything of him since I last left food and some clothes for him, and that was three days ago.’
‘ Did you see him then?’ ‘ No, sir, but the food and clothes were gone when I next went that way,’ Barrymore told me. ‘ Then Selden was certainly there?’ I asked.’ I think so,sir, unless the other man took everything.’
I sat very still and looked heard at Barrymore. ‘ You know there is another man, then? Have you seen him?’
‘ No, sir, but Selden told me about him a week or more ago. He is hiding from someone, too, but he is not an escaped prisoner. I don’t like it, sir. Something evil is going to happen, I’m sure. Sir Henry would be much safer in London.’ ‘ Did Selden tell you anything more about the other man?’ I asked.
‘ He looked like a gentleman. He was living in one of the old storm huts on the moor. A boy works for him and brings him all the food and thing he needs. That’s all Selden told me.’I thanked him, and he left me. I went to the window and looked out at the rain and the clouds. It was a wild night. I knew the huts Barrymore had spoken about. There were many of them on the moor. They had been build many hundreds of years ago by the people who lived on the moor. They would not keep a man warm and dry in bed weather. Selden could not choose to live anywhere else, but why did the other man live in such condition ?
I sat and thought what I should do next. I decided I must try to find the man who had been watching us. Was he the enemy who had been following us since the very beginning in London? If he was, and I could catch him, perhaps our difficulties would be an end.
I also decided to hunt the man on my own. Sir Henry was still shaken by the terrible cry we had heard on the moor. I did not want to add to his troubles or to lead him into more danger.