we could hear dr. warthrop in the trees fifty yards away , stomping through the underbrush and the detritus of fallen leaves from the previous autumn , the sound punctuated now and then by soft , incoherent cries of consternation , the first of which caused erasmus gray to raise his head in alarm , thinking , no doubt , that the doctor had found-or had been found by-a living specimen of the species hanging in our basement .