Chapter 1 of The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir, Arthur
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Dallas Fort Worth Texas. The Hound of the Baskervilles by
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 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 hearthrug 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.
To James Mortimer. Em RCS 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 solid 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 what sun', what do you make of
our visitors 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.
I think said, I following as far as I could the methods of my
companion. The dr.
Mortimer is a successful elderly medical, man.
Well esteem, since those who know him, give him his Mark of
their appreciation. Good said Holmes.
Excellent. I think also that the
probability is in favor of his being a country practitioner who
does a great deal of his visiting on foot.
Why? So, because this stick, they
were originally a very handsome one has been so knocked about
that. I can hardly imagine a town
practitioner carrying it, the thick iron for rule is worn
down, so it is evident that he's 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 Hunter
whose members. He has possibly given some
surgical assistants 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.
I confess my dear fellow that I am Very much in your debt.
You never said as much before, and I must admit that his words
gave me Keen, pleasure for I had often been piqued by his
indifference to my admiration and the attempts, which I had
made to give publicity to his methods.
I was proud to 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 examine 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 city, there are certainly one or two indications upon the
stick. It gives us the basis for
several deductions as anything escaped me, I asked with some
self-importance I trust that there's nothing of consequence
which I've overlooked I am afraid, my dear Watson that the
most of your conclusions were erroneous.
When I said that, you stimulated me, I meant to be frank.
As 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 great deal. That I was right to that extent
but that was all. No no my dear Watson, not all by
no 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 at when initial CC are placed before that hospital the
words, Charing Cross very naturally suggest themselves.
You may be right. The probability lies in that
direction. And 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 Charing.
Cross Hospital. What?
Further inferences may we draw Do non suggest themselves, you
know my methods apply them. I can only think of the obvious
conclusion that the man is practiced in town before going
to the country. I think that we might venture a
little farther than this. Look at it in this light on What
occasion would 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 a practice for himself, we know there has been a
presentation we believe there has been a change from a town.
Go to A Country Practice is it then stretching our inference
too far to say that the presentation was on the occasion
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 there emerges
a young fellow under 30 amiable unambitious absent-minded and
the possessor of a favor. 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 City and blue little
wavering rings of smoke up to the ceiling.
As 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 mortimer's,
but only one could be our visitor, I read his record
allowed Mortimer. James M RCS 1882 grimpen
Dartmoor, 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 Lancet 1882.
Do we progress Journal of Psychology March 1883 medical
officer for the parishes of grimpen, thornsley and high
Barrow. No mention of that local hunt.
Watson said Holmes with a mischievous 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 the 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.
It may have been yes by jove. It is a curly-haired Spaniel.
He had risen and paste the room 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.
My 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 are 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 Keen gray, eyes set closely together and sparkling brightly
from behind a pair of gold-rimmed glasses.
He was clad in a professional but rather slovenly fashion for
his frock-coat was Dingy and his trousers frayed though, young is
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'm so very glad said he I was not so sure whether I'd left it
here or in the shipping office I would not lose that stick for
the world. I presentation I see said
Holmes. Yes sir 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 only that you have disarranged?
Our little deductions, your marriage, you say?
Yes, sir, I married. I'm 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. A humble Mr. Cs and a man of precise mind.
Evidently a dabbler in science. Mr. Holmes, a picture of a
shells on the shores of the great unknown ocean.
I presume that it is mr. Sherlock, Holmes, who I am
addressing and not know 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 doli, chose cephalic a skull of such well-marked supraorbital
development? Would you have any objection to
my running my finger, along your parietal?
Fisher, 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 false.
Mmm, But I confess that I covered 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
observed 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 night, it
was not merely for the purpose of examining.
My skull that you have done me, the honor 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 recognize that I am myself and 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 honor to be the first asked
Holmes with some asperity to the man of precisely scientific
mind. The work of Monsieur Betty Ong.
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 Knowledge 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 assistants.
End of chapter 1.