The Hound of the Baskervilles
Dr. Mortimer blinked through his glasses in mild astonishment.
“Why was it bad?”
“Only that you have disarranged our little deductions. Your
marriage, you say?”
“Yes, sir. I married, and so left the hospital, and with it all
hopes of a consulting practice. It was necessary to make a home
of my own.”
“Come, come, we are not so far wrong, after all,” said Holmes.
“And now, Dr. James Mortimer—”
“Mister, sir, Mister—a humble M.R.C.S.”
“And a man of precise mind, evidently.”
“A dabbler in science, Mr. Holmes, a picker up of shells on the
shores of the great unknown ocean. I presume that it is Mr.
Sherlock Holmes whom I am addressing and not—”
“No, this is my friend Dr. Watson.”
“Glad to meet you, sir. I have heard your name mentioned in
connection with that of your friend. You interest me very much,
Mr. Holmes. I had hardly expected so dolichocephalic a skull or
such well-marked supra-orbital development. Would you have any
objection to my running my finger along your parietal fissure? A
cast of your skull, sir, until the original is available, would
be an ornament to any anthropological museum. It is not my
intention to be fulsome, but I confess that I covet your skull.”
Sherlock Holmes waved our strange visitor into a chair. “You are
an enthusiast in your line of thought, I perceive, sir, as I am
in mine,” said he. “I observe from your forefinger that you make
your own cigarettes. Have no hesitation in lighting one.”
The man drew out paper and tobacco and twirled the one up in the
other with surprising dexterity. He had long, quivering fingers
as agile and restless as the antennæ of an insect.
Holmes was silent, but his little darting glances showed me the
interest which he took in our curious companion. “I presume,
sir,” said he at last, “that it was not merely for the purpose of
examining my skull that you have done me the honour to call here
last night and again today?”
“No, sir, no; though I am happy to have had the opportunity of
doing that as well. I came to you, Mr. Holmes, because I
recognized that I am myself an unpractical man and because I am
suddenly confronted with a most serious and extraordinary
problem. Recognizing, as I do, that you are the second highest
expert in Europe—”
“Indeed, sir! May I inquire who has the honour to be the first?”
asked Holmes with some asperity.
“To the man of precisely scientific mind the work of Monsieur
Bertillon must always appeal strongly.”
“Then had you not better consult him?”
“I said, sir, to the precisely scientific mind. But as a
practical man of affairs it is acknowledged that you stand alone.
I trust, sir, that I have not inadvertently—”
“Just a little,” said Holmes. “I think, Dr. Mortimer, you would
do wisely if without more ado you would kindly tell me plainly
what the exact nature of the problem is in which you demand my
assistance.”
Chapter 2.
The Curse of the Baskervilles
“I have in my pocket a manuscript,” said Dr. James Mortimer.
“I observed it as you entered the room,” said Holmes.
“It is an old manuscript.”
“Early eighteenth century, unless it is a forgery.”
“How can you say that, sir?”
“You have presented an inch or two of it to my examination all
the time that you have been talking. It would be a poor expert
who could not give the date of a document within a decade or so.
You may possibly have read my little monograph upon the subject.
I put that at 1730.”
“The exact date is 1742.” Dr. Mortimer drew it from his
breast-pocket. “This family paper was committed to my care by Sir
Charles Baskerville, whose sudden and tragic death some three
months ago created so much excitement in Devonshire. I may say
that I was his personal friend as well as his medical attendant.
He was a strong-minded man, sir, shrewd, practical, and as
unimaginative as I am myself. Yet he took this document very
seriously, and his mind was prepared for just such an end as did
eventually overtake him.”
Holmes stretched out his hand for the manuscript and flattened it
upon his knee. “You will observe, Watson, the alternative use of
the long _s_ and the short. It is one of several indications
which enabled me to fix the date.”
I looked over his shoulder at the yellow paper and the faded
script. At the head was written: “Baskerville Hall,” and below in
large, scrawling figures: “1742.”
“It appears to be a statement of some sort.”
“Yes, it is a statement of a certain legend which runs in the
Baskerville family.”
“But I understand that it is something more modern and practical
upon which you wish to consult me?”
“Most modern. A most practical, pressing matter, which must be
decided within twenty-four hours. But the manuscript is short and
is intimately connected with the affair. With your permission I
will read it to you.”
Holmes leaned back in his chair, placed his finger-tips together,
and closed his eyes, with an air of resignation. Dr. Mortimer
turned the manuscript to the light and read in a high, cracking
voice the following curious, old-world narrative:
“Of the origin of the Hound of the Baskervilles there have been
many statements, yet as I come in a direct line from Hugo
Baskerville, and as I had the story from my father, who also
had it from his, I have set it down with all belief that it
occurred even as is here set forth. And I would have you
believe, my sons, that the same Justice which punishes sin may
also most graciously forgive it, and that no ban is so heavy
but that by prayer and repentance it may be removed. Learn
then from this story not to fear the fruits of the past, but
rather to be circumspect in the future, that those foul
passions whereby our family has suffered so grievously may not
again be loosed to our undoing.
“Know then that in the time of the Great Rebellion (the
history of which by the learned Lord Clarendon I most
earnestly commend to your attention) this Manor of
Baskerville was held by Hugo of that name, nor can it be
gainsaid that he was a most wild, profane, and godless man.
This, in truth, his neighbours might have pardoned, seeing
that saints have never flourished in those parts, but there
was in him a certain wanton and cruel humour which made his
name a by-word through the West. It chanced that this Hugo
came to love (if, indeed, so dark a passion may be known
under so bright a name) the daughter of a yeoman who held
lands near the Baskerville estate. But the young maiden,
being discreet and of good repute, would ever avoid him,
for she feared his evil name. So it came to pass that one
Michaelmas this Hugo, with five or six of his idle and
wicked companions, stole down upon the farm and carried off
the maiden, her father and brothers being from home, as he
well knew. When they had brought her to the Hall the
maiden was placed in an upper chamber, while Hugo and his
friends sat down to a long carouse, as was their nightly
custom. Now, the poor lass upstairs was like to have her
wits turned at the singing and shouting and terrible oaths
which came up to her from below, for they say that the
words used by Hugo Baskerville, when he was in wine, were
such as might blast the man who said them. At last in the
stress of her fear she did that which might have daunted
the bravest or most active man, for by the aid of the
growth of ivy which covered (and still covers) the south
wall she came down from under the eaves, and so homeward
across the moor, there being three leagues betwixt the Hall
and her father’s farm.
“It chanced that some little time later Hugo left his
guests to carry food and drink—with other worse things,
perchance—to his captive, and so found the cage empty and
the bird escaped. Then, as it would seem, he became as one
that hath a devil, for, rushing down the stairs into the
dining-hall, he sprang upon the great table, flagons and
trenchers flying before him, and he cried aloud before all
the company that he would that very night render his body
and soul to the Powers of Evil if he might but overtake the
wench. And while the revellers stood aghast at the fury of
the man, one more wicked or, it may be, more drunken than
the rest, cried out that they should put the hounds upon
her. Whereat Hugo ran from the house, crying to his grooms
that they should saddle his mare and unkennel the pack, and
giving the hounds a kerchief of the maid’s, he swung them
to the line, and so off full cry in the moonlight over the
moor.
“Now, for some space the revellers stood agape, unable to
understand all that had been done in such haste. But anon
their bemused wits awoke to the nature of the deed which
was like to be done upon the moorlands. Everything was now
in an uproar, some calling for their pistols, some for
their horses, and some for another flask of wine. But at
length some sense came back to their crazed minds, and the
whole of them, thirteen in number, took horse and started
in pursuit. The moon shone clear above them, and they rode
swiftly abreast, taking that course which the maid must
needs have taken if she were to reach her own home.
“They had gone a mile or two when they passed one of the
night shepherds upon the moorlands, and they cried to him
to know if he had seen the hunt. And the man, as the story
goes, was so crazed with fear that he could scarce speak,
but at last he said that he had indeed seen the unhappy
maiden, with the hounds upon her track. ‘But I have seen
more than that,’ said he, ‘for Hugo Baskerville passed me
upon his black mare, and there ran mute behind him such a
hound of hell as God forbid should ever be at my heels.’
So the drunken squires cursed the shepherd and rode onward.
But soon their skins turned cold, for there came a
galloping across the moor, and the black mare, dabbled with
white froth, went past with trailing bridle and empty
saddle. Then the revellers rode close together, for a
great fear was on them, but they still followed over the
moor, though each, had he been alone, would have been right
glad to have turned his horse’s head. Riding slowly in
this fashion they came at last upon the hounds. These,
though known for their valour and their breed, were
whimpering in a cluster at the head of a deep dip or goyal,