Chapter 1 Sherlock Holmes from The Hound of the Bask

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1:03The Hound of the Baskervilles. By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Red by Greg Wagland. Chapter 1. Mr. Sherlock Holmes. Mr. Sherlock Holmes, who was usually very late in the mornings, save upon those not infrequent occasions when he was up all night, was seated at the breakfast table. I stood upon the hearth rug and picked up the stick, which our visitor had left behind him the night before. It was a fine, thick piece of wood bulbous-headed, of the sort which is known as a penang lawyer. Just under the head was a broad silver band, nearly an inch across. Andrew James Mortimer, MRCS, from his friends of the CCH, was engraved upon it with the date 1884. It was just such a stick as the old-fashioned family practitioner used to carry, dignified,

2:08solid, and reassuring. Well, Watson, what do you make of it? Holmes was sitting with his back to me, and I had given him no sign of my occupation. How did you know what I was doing? I believe you have eyes in the back of your head. I have at least a well-polished silver-plated coffee pot in front of me, said he. But tell me, Watson, what do you make of our visitor's stick? Since we have been so unfortunate as to miss him and have no notion of his errand, this accidental souvenir becomes of importance. Let me hear you reconstruct the man by an examination of it. My thing, said I, following as far as I could, the methods of my companion, that Dr. Mortimer is a successful elderly medical man, well-esteem since those who know him, give him this mark of their appreciation. Good, said Holmes, excellent. I think also that the probability is in favour of his being a country practitioner who does

3:10a great deal of his visiting on foot. Why so? Because this stick, though originally a very handsome one, has been so knocked about that I can hardly imagine a town practitioner carrying it. The thick iron feral is worn down, so it is evident that he has done a great amount of walking with it. Perfectly sound, said Holmes. And then again there is the friends of the CCH. I should guess that to be the something hunt. The local hunt to whose members he has possibly given some surgical assistance, and which has made him a small presentation in return. "'Really Watson, you excel yourself,' said Holmes, pushing back his chair and lighting a cigarette. "'I am bound to say that in all the accounts which you have been so good as to give of my own small achievements, you have habitually underrated your own abilities. It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but you are a conductor of light. Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it.

4:15I confess my dear fellow that I am very much in your debt.' He had never said as much before, and I must admit that his words gave me keen pleasure. For I had often been peaked by his indifference to my admiration, and to the attempts which I had made to give publicity to his methods. I was proud too to think that I had so far mastered his system as to apply it in a way which earned his approval. He now took the stick from my hands and examined it for a few minutes with his naked eyes. Then with an expression of interest, he laid down his cigarette, and carrying the cane to the window. He looked over it again with a convex lens. Interesting, though elementary, said he as he returned to his favorite corner of the set-e. There are certainly one or two indications upon the stick. It gives us the basis for several deductions.

5:16As anything escaped me, I asked with some self-importance. I trust that there is nothing of consequence which I have overlooked. I am afraid, my dear Watson, that most of your conclusions were erroneous. When I said that you stimulated me, I meant to be frank, that in noting your fallacies I was occasionally guided towards the truth. Not that you are entirely wrong in this instance, the man is certainly a country practitioner, and he walks a good deal, then I was right, to that extent. But that was all. No, no, my dear Watson, not all. I know means all. I would suggest, for example, that a presentation to a doctor is more likely to come from a hospital than from a hunt. And that when the initial CCR placed before that hospital the words, chairing cross, very naturally suggest themselves. You may be right. The probability lies in that direction.

6:17And if we take this as a working hypothesis, we have a fresh basis from which to start our construction of this unknown visitor. Well then, supposing that CCH does stand for chairing cross hospital, what further inferences may we draw? Do none suggest themselves, you know my methods apply them? I can only think of the obvious conclusion that the man has practised in town before going to the country. I think that we might venture a little farther than this. Look at it in this light. And what occasion would it be most probable that such a presentation would be made? When would his friends unite to give him a pledge of their goodwill? Obviously, at the moment when Dr Mortimer withdrew from the service of the hospital in order to start practice for himself. We know there has been a presentation. We believe there has been a change from a town hospital to a country practice. Is it then stretching our inference too far to say that the presentation was on the

7:21occasion of the change? It certainly seems probable. Now you will observe that he could not have been on the staff of the hospital since only a man well established in a London practice could hold such a position. And such a one would not drift into the country. What was he then? If he was in the hospital and yet not on the staff, he could only have been a house surgeon or a house physician, little more than a senior student. And he left five years ago. The date is on the stick. So your grave, middle-aged family practitioner vanishes into thin air, my dear Watson and their emerges, a young fellow under thirty amiable, unambitious, absent-minded, and a possessor of a favorite dog, which I should describe roughly as being larger than a terrier and smaller than a mastiff. I laughed incredulously as Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his setty and blue little wavering rings of smoke up to the ceiling.

8:23As to the latter part I have no means of checking you, said I. But at least it is not difficult to find out a few particulars about the man's age and professional career. From my small medical shelf I took down the medical directory and turned up the name. There were several mortemers but only one who could be our visitor. I read his record aloud. Former James MRCS 1882, Grimpin, Dartmore, Devon, House surgeon from 1882 to 1884, at Charing Cross Hospital, winner of the Jackson Prize for Comparative Pathology with essay entitled Is Disease a Reversion? Corresponding member of the Swedish Pathological Society, author of Some Freaks of Atavism, Hansit 1882, Do We Progress, Journal of Psychology March 1883, Medical Officer for the Parishes of Grimpin, Thorzley and High Barrow?

9:26No mention of that local hunt, Watson, said Holmes with a mischief a smile, but a country doctor, as you very astutely observed. I think that I am fairly justified in my inferences. As to the adjectives I said, if I remember right, amiable, unambitious and absent-minded, it is my experience that it is only an amiable man in this world who receives testimonials. Only an unambitious one who abandons a London career for the country, and only an absent-minded one who leaves his stick and not his visiting card after waiting an hour in your room, and the dog has been in the habit of carrying this stick behind his master. Being a heavy stick, the dog has held it tightly by the middle and the marks of his teeth are very plainly visible. The dog's jaw, as shown in the space between these marks, is too broad, in my opinion, for a terrier and not broad enough for a mastiff.

10:27It may have been, yes by Jov, it's a curly-haired spaniel. He had risen and paced the rum as he spoke. Now he halted in the recess of the window. There was such a ring of conviction in his voice that I glanced up in surprise. Like dear fellow, how can you possibly be so sure of that? For the very simple reason, that I see the dog himself on our very doorstep, and there is the ring of its owner. Don't move, I beg you Watson. He is a professional brother of yours, and your presence may be of assistance to me. Now is the dramatic moment of fate Watson, when you hear a step upon the stair which is walking into your life, and you know not whether for good or ill. What does Dr. James Mortimer, the man of science, ask of Sherlock Holmes, the specialist in crime, come in? The appearance of our visitor was a surprise to me, since I had expected a typical country practitioner. He was a very tall thin man with a long nose like a beak, which jutted out between two

11:32keen grey eyes, set closely together and sparkling brightly from behind a pair of gold-rinned glasses. He was clad in a professional but rather slavently fashion, but his frot coat was dingy, and his trousers frayed. Though young, his long back was already bowed, and he walked with a forward thrust of his head and a general air of peering benevolence. As he entered, his eyes fell upon the stick in Holmes's hand, and he ran towards it with an exclamation of joy. I am so very clad," said he. I was not sure whether I had left it here or in the shipping office. I would not lose that stick for the world. The presentation I see, said Holmes. Issah. From Charing Cross Hospital? From one or two friends there, on the occasion of my marriage. "'Dear dear, that's bad,' said Holmes, shaking his head. Dr. Mortimer blinked through his glasses in mild astonishment. Why was it bad? Because you have disarranged our little deductions.

12:33Your 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. Mr. Sir Mr. Humble MRCS. And a man of precise mind evidently. A dabble 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, who 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 Delicose aphalica skull, or such well-marked, super-orbital development. Did 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

13:36museum. 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 antennae 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 recognised that I am myself an unpractical man, and because

14:41I am suddenly confronted with the most serious and extraordinary problem. Everything 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 prosperity. To the man of precisely scientific mind the work of Monsieur Betion 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. Shop Vons and Albertsons for fresh savings every time you shop. This week at Vons and Albertsons get fresh, boneless, skinless chicken breast for £199

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