Stapleton imprisons his wife and flees to Grimpen Mire

Stapleton imprisons Beryl Stapleton and flees toward Grimpen Mire in the final pursuit that follows the hound’s death. Her rescue exposes the refuge he had prepared in the bog and the route markers that made it possible to cross; the subsequent search finds a trace of his passage, but not proof of what became of him.

Discovery and Rescue

After hearing sounds from a locked room, Sherlock Holmes breaks open its door, and he, Dr. Watson, and Inspector Lestrade enter expecting to find Stapleton. Instead, they discover Beryl Stapleton restrained and unable to speak. The room is a small museum, its walls lined with glass-topped cases holding the butterflies and moths that had been Stapleton’s collecting interest. The domestic and scientific setting is sharply at odds with the scene of captivity within it.

They free her, and she collapses. Inspector Lestrade helps care for her while she recovers. When told that the hound is dead, she responds with relief. Her account makes clear that her imprisonment is part of the immediate aftermath of Stapleton’s failed scheme, not an incidental discovery: with the hound gone and pursuit closing in, he has left her behind and escaped.

What Beryl Reveals

Once able to speak, Beryl explains the personal cost of her relationship with Stapleton. She says that she endured mistreatment, isolation, and a life built on deception while she still believed that he loved her; she now understands that he had used her. Her testimony revises the meaning of their apparent marriage and of her earlier connection to him: she is not simply a member of his household, but a captive who has learned that her trust was exploited.

She identifies an old tin mine on an island in the heart of Grimpen Mire as the place where Stapleton kept the hound and prepared a refuge for himself. This disclosure gives the pursuers a destination, but not a safe or readily accessible one. The fog has settled over the bog, and Sherlock Holmes recognizes that they cannot find a way through it that night. Beryl, however, knows the route: she and Stapleton planted small wands to mark the path across the mire. She says that if she had been able to remove them earlier, Stapleton might have been trapped there. The markers therefore hold a double significance: they enabled his passage, but their removal could have cut off his escape.

Flight and Search

With the route obscured by fog, immediate pursuit is abandoned. Inspector Lestrade remains at the house, while Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson return with Sir Henry Baskerville to Baskerville Hall. They tell Sir Henry the truth about the Stapletons and the woman he had loved. He receives the revelation bravely, but the shock of the night’s events leaves him seriously ill with fever. Dr. Mortimer cares for him; later, he and Sir Henry travel around the world together before Sir Henry recovers his former health.

The search for Stapleton resumes the following morning, after the fog lifts. Guided by Beryl, the searchers follow the route across the bog, marked by the wands. The ground is unstable, and Sherlock Holmes himself sinks deeply into it when he leaves the path to retrieve an object. The discovery is an old black boot bearing the name of a Toronto maker. Holmes recognizes it as Sir Henry Baskerville’s missing boot, and the searchers conclude that Stapleton discarded it while fleeing. Its presence establishes that he reached at least that point safely, but it does not show whether he reached the island where he had intended to shelter.

Uncertain Fate and Aftermath

The searchers find no reliable trail beyond the boot. The mire quickly erases footprints, and no further sign of Stapleton appears. The account therefore treats his fate as a strong inference rather than a witnessed death: if the bog’s evidence tells the truth, he never reached his refuge and was swallowed by the mire. His disappearance closes the pursuit without resolving every detail of his final movements.

The island nevertheless confirms parts of Beryl’s account. The searchers find the remains of an abandoned mine, decaying miners’ cottages, and a place where the hound had been confined. They also find a tin containing the luminous mixture used to disguise the animal. These discoveries connect Stapleton’s prepared hideout to the means by which he had kept the hound and sustained the deception surrounding it. Beryl’s rescue thus changes the investigation from an attempt to catch a fleeing man into a search for material traces of his scheme. The evidence establishes his preparations and the direction of his flight, while the bog itself prevents certainty about his end.