The Hound of the Baskervilles
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The Hound of the Baskervilles Arthur Conan Doyle This text is provided to you “as-is” without any warranty. No warranties of any kind, expressed or implied, are made to you as to the text or any medium it may be on, including but not limited to warranties of merchantablity or fitness for a particular purpose. This text was formatted from various free ASCII and HTML variants. See http://sherlock-holm.esfor an electronic form of this text and additional information about it. Table of contents Mr. Sherlock Holmes . 3 The Curse of the Baskervilles . 6 The Problem . 10 Sir Henry Baskerville . 14 Three Broken Threads . 20 Baskerville Hall . 24 The Stapletons of Merripit House . 28 First Report of Dr. Watson . 34 Second Report of Dr. Watson . 37 Extract from the Diary of Dr. Watson . 45 The Man on the Tor. 49 Death on the Moor . 54 Fixing the Nets . 59 The Hound of the Baskervilles . 64 A Retrospection . 69 1 CHAPTER I. Mr.Sherlock Holmes r.Sherlock Holmes, who was usually “Really, Watson, you excel yourself,” said very late in the mornings, save upon Holmes, pushing back his chair and lighting a those not infrequent occasions when he cigarette. “I am bound to say that in all the ac- M was up all night, was seated at the break- counts which you have been so good as to give of fast table. I stood upon the hearth-rug and picked my own small achievements you have habitually up the stick which our visitor had left behind him underrated your own abilities. It may be that you the night before. It was a fine, thick piece of wood, are not yourself luminous, but you are a conductor bulbous-headed, of the sort which is known as a of light. Some people without possessing genius “Penang lawyer.” Just under the head was a broad have a remarkable power of stimulating it. I con- silver band nearly an inch across. “To James Mor- fess, my dear fellow, that I am very much in your timer, M.R.C.S., from his friends of the C.C.H.,” was debt.” engraved upon it, with the date “1884.” It was just He had never said as much before, and I must such a stick as the old-fashioned family practitioner admit that his words gave me keen pleasure, for used to carry—dignified, solid, and reassuring. I had often been piqued by his indifference to my “Well, Watson, what do you make of it?” admiration and to the attempts which I had made to give publicity to his methods. I was proud, too, Holmes was sitting with his back to me, and I to think that I had so far mastered his system as to had given him no sign of my occupation. apply it in a way which earned his approval. He “How did you know what I was doing? I believe now took the stick from my hands and examined it you have eyes in the back of your head.” for a few minutes with his naked eyes. Then with “I have, at least, a well-polished, silver-plated an expression of interest he laid down his cigarette, coffee-pot in front of me,” said he. “But, tell me, and carrying the cane to the window, he looked Watson, what do you make of our visitor’s stick? over it again with a convex lens. Since we have been so unfortunate as to miss him “Interesting, though elementary,” said he as and have no notion of his errand, this accidental he returned to his favourite corner of the settee. souvenir becomes of importance. Let me hear you “There are certainly one or two indications upon reconstruct the man by an examination of it.” the stick. It gives us the basis for several deduc- tions.” “I think,” said I, following as far as I could the methods of my companion, “that Dr. Mortimer is “Has anything escaped me?” I asked with some a successful, elderly medical man, well-esteemed self-importance. “I trust that there is nothing of since those who know him give him this mark of consequence which I have overlooked?” their appreciation.” “I am afraid, my dear Watson, that most of your “Good!” said Holmes. “Excellent!” conclusions were erroneous. When I said that you stimulated me I meant, to be frank, that in noting “I think also that the probability is in favour of your fallacies I was occasionally guided towards his being a country practitioner who does a great the truth. Not that you are entirely wrong in this in- deal of his visiting on foot.” stance. The man is certainly a country practitioner. “Why so?” And he walks a good deal.” “Because this stick, though originally a very “Then I was right.” handsome one has been so knocked about that I “To that extent.” can hardly imagine a town practitioner carrying it. “But that was all.” The thick-iron ferrule is worn down, so it is evident “No, no, my dear Watson, not all—by no means that he has done a great amount of walking with all. I would suggest, for example, that a presen- it.” tation to a doctor is more likely to come from a “Perfectly sound!” said Holmes. hospital than from a hunt, and that when the ini- tials ‘C.C.’ are placed before that hospital the words “And then again, there is the ‘friends of the ‘Charing Cross’ very naturally suggest themselves.” C.C.H.’ I should guess that to be the Something Hunt, the local hunt to whose members he has pos- “You may be right.” sibly given some surgical assistance, and which has “The probability lies in that direction. And if made him a small presentation in return.” we take this as a working hypothesis we have a 3 fresh basis from which to start our construction of “Mortimer, James, M.R.C.S., 1882, this unknown visitor.” Grimpen, Dartmoor, Devon. House- surgeon, from 1882 to 1884, at Char- “Well, then, supposing that ‘C.C.H.’ does stand ing Cross Hospital. Winner of the Jack- for ‘Charing Cross Hospital,’ what further infer- son prize for Comparative Pathology, ences may we draw?” with essay entitled ‘Is Disease a Rever- sion?’ Corresponding member of the “Do none suggest themselves? You know my Swedish Pathological Society. Author of methods. Apply them!” ‘Some Freaks of Atavism’ (Lancet 1882). “I can only think of the obvious conclusion that ‘Do We Progress?’ (Journal of Psychol- the man has practised in town before going to the ogy, March, 1883). Medical Officer for country.” the parishes of Grimpen, Thorsley, and High Barrow.” “I think that we might venture a little farther than this. Look at it in this light. On what occasion “No mention of that local hunt, Watson,” said would it be most probable that such a presentation Holmes with a mischievous smile, “but a country would be made? When would his friends unite to doctor, as you very astutely observed. I think that give him a pledge of their good will? Obviously at I am fairly justified in my inferences. As to the the moment when Dr. Mortimer withdrew from the adjectives, I said, if I remember right, amiable, un- service of the hospital in order to start in practice ambitious, and absent-minded. It is my experience for himself. We know there has been a presentation. that it is only an amiable man in this world who re- We believe there has been a change from a town ceives testimonials, only an unambitious one who hospital to a country practice. Is it, then, stretching abandons a London career for the country, and our inference too far to say that the presentation only an absent-minded one who leaves his stick was on the occasion of the change?” and not his visiting-card after waiting an hour in your room.” “It certainly seems probable.” “And the dog?” “Now, you will observe that he could not have “Has been in the habit of carrying this stick be- been on the staff of the hospital, since only a man hind his master. Being a heavy stick the dog has well-established in a London practice could hold held it tightly by the middle, and the marks of his such a position, and such a one would not drift into teeth are very plainly visible. The dog’s jaw, as the country. What was he, then? If he was in the shown in the space between these marks, is too hospital and yet not on the staff he could only have broad in my opinion for a terrier and not broad been a house-surgeon or a house-physician—little enough for a mastiff. It may have been—yes, by more than a senior student. And he left five years Jove, it is a curly-haired spaniel.” ago—the date is on the stick. So your grave, middle- He had risen and paced the room as he spoke. aged family practitioner vanishes into thin air, my Now he halted in the recess of the window. There dear Watson, and there emerges a young fellow was such a ring of conviction in his voice that I under thirty, amiable, unambitious, absent-minded, glanced up in surprise. and the possessor of a favourite dog, which I should describe roughly as being larger than a terrier and “My dear fellow, how can you possibly be so smaller than a mastiff.” sure of that?” “For the very simple reason that I see the dog I laughed incredulously as Sherlock Holmes himself on our very door-step, and there is the leaned back in his settee and blew little wavering ring of its owner.