Speaker 1: The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Speaker 1: read by Greg Wagland. Chapter one. Mister Sherlock Holmes. Mister
Speaker 1: Sherlock Holmes, who was usually very late in the mornings,
Speaker 1: save upon those not infrequent occasions when he was up
Speaker 1: all night, was seated at the breakfast table. I stood
Speaker 1: upon the hearth rug and picked up the stick which
Speaker 1: our visitor had left behind him the night before. It
Speaker 1: was a fine thick piece of wood, bulbous headed, of
Speaker 1: the sort which is known as a penang lawyer. Just
Speaker 1: under the head was a broad silver band nearly an
Speaker 1: inch across to James Mortimer, m R C. S. From
Speaker 1: his friends of the C. C. H was engraved upon
Speaker 1: it with the date eighteen eighty five. Or it was
Speaker 1: just such a stick as the old fashioned family practitioner
Speaker 1: used to carry, dignified, solid bound reassuring, well, Watson, what
Speaker 1: do you make of it? Holmes was sitting with his
Speaker 1: back to me, and I had given him no sign
Speaker 1: of my occupation. How did you know what I was doing?
Speaker 1: I believe you have eyes in the back of your head.
Speaker 1: I have at least a well polished silver plated coffee
Speaker 1: pot in front of me, said he. But tell me, Watson,
Speaker 1: what do you make of our visitor's stick, Since we
Speaker 1: have been so unfortunate as to miss him and have
Speaker 1: no notion of his errand this accidental souvenir becomes of importance.
Speaker 1: Let me hear you reconstruct the man by an examination
Speaker 1: of it. I think, said I, following as far as
Speaker 1: I could the methods of my companion, that doctor Mortimer
Speaker 1: is a successful elderly medical man, well esteemed, since those
Speaker 1: who know him give him this mark of their apreciation, good,
Speaker 1: said Holmes. Excellent. I think also that the probability is
Speaker 1: in favor of his being a country practitioner who does
Speaker 1: a great deal of his visiting on foot. Why so,
Speaker 1: because this stick, though originally a very handsome one, has
Speaker 1: been so knocked about that I can hardly imagine a
Speaker 1: town practitioner carrying it. The thick iron ferrule is worn down.
Speaker 1: So it is evident that he has done a great
Speaker 1: amount of walking with it. Perfectly sound, said Holmes. And
Speaker 1: then again there is the friends of the c H.
Speaker 1: I should guess that to be the something Hunt, the
Speaker 1: local hunt to whose members he has possibly given some
Speaker 1: surgical assistance, and which has made him a small presentation
Speaker 1: in return. Really, Watson, you excel yourself, said Holmes, pushing
Speaker 1: back his chair and lighting a cigarette. I am bound
Speaker 1: to say that, in all the accounts which you have
Speaker 1: been so good as to give of my own small achievements,
Speaker 1: you have habitual he underrated your own abilities. It may
Speaker 1: be that you are not yourself luminous, but you are
Speaker 1: a conductor of light. Some people without possessing genius have
Speaker 1: a remarkable power of stimulating it. I confess, my dear fellow,
Speaker 1: that I am very much in your debt. He had
Speaker 1: never said as much before, and I must admit that
Speaker 1: his words gave me keen pleasure, for I had often
Speaker 1: been piqued by his indifference to my admiration and to
Speaker 1: the attempts which I had made to give publicity to
Speaker 1: his methods. I was proud, too, to think that I
Speaker 1: had so far mastered his system as to apply it
Speaker 1: in a way which earned his approval. He now took
Speaker 1: the stick from my hands and examined it for a
Speaker 1: few minutes with his naked eyes. Then, with an expression
Speaker 1: of interest, he laid down his cigarette, and, carrying the
Speaker 1: cane to the window, he looked over it again with
Speaker 1: a convex lens. Interesting though elementary, said he, as he
Speaker 1: returned to his favorite corner of the settee. There are
Speaker 1: certainly one or two indications upon the stick. It gives
Speaker 1: us the basis for several deductions. Has anything escaped me,
Speaker 1: i asked, with some self importance. I trust that there
Speaker 1: is nothing of consequence which I have overlooked. I am afraid,
Speaker 1: my dear Watson, that most of your conclusions were erroneous.
Speaker 1: When I said that you stimulated me, I meant to
Speaker 1: be frank that in noting your fallacies, I was occasionally
Speaker 1: guided towards the truth. Not that you are entirely wrong.
Speaker 1: In this instance. The man is certainly a country practitioner,
Speaker 1: and he walks a good deal, then I was right
Speaker 1: to that extent. But that was all. No, no, my
Speaker 1: dear Watson, not all I no means all. I would suggest,
Speaker 1: for example, that a presentation to a doctor is more
Speaker 1: more likely to come from a hospital than from a hunt,
Speaker 1: and that when the initials c C are placed before
Speaker 1: that hospital, the words charing cross very naturally suggest themselves.
Speaker 1: You may be right. The probability lies in that direction.
Speaker 1: And if we take this as a working hypothesis. We
Speaker 1: have a fresh basis from which to start our construction
Speaker 1: of this unknown visitor. Well, then, supposing that CCH does
Speaker 1: stand for Charing Cross Hospital, what further inferences may we draw?
Speaker 1: Do none suggest themselves? You know my methods apply them.
Speaker 1: I can only think of the obvious conclusion that the
Speaker 1: man has practiced in town before going to the country.
Speaker 1: I think that we might venture a little farther than this.
Speaker 1: Look at it in this light. On what occasion would
Speaker 1: it be most probable that such a presentation would be made?
Speaker 1: When would his friends unite to give him a pledge
Speaker 1: of their good will? Obviously at the moment when doctor
Speaker 1: Mortimer withdrew from the service of the hospital in order
Speaker 1: to start a practice for himself. We know there has
Speaker 1: been a presentation. We believe there has been a change
Speaker 1: from a town hospital to a country practice. Is it
Speaker 1: then stretching our inference too far to say that the
Speaker 1: presentation was on the occasion of the change? It certainly
Speaker 1: seems probable. Now you will observe that he could not
Speaker 1: have been on the staff of the hospital, since only
Speaker 1: a man well established in a London practice could hold
Speaker 1: such a position, and such a one would not drift
Speaker 1: into the country. What was he then? If he was
Speaker 1: in the hospital and yet not on the staff, he
Speaker 1: could only have been a house surgeon or a house physician,
Speaker 1: a little more than a senior student. And he left
Speaker 1: five years ago. The date is on the stick. So
Speaker 1: your grave, middle aged family practitioner vanishes into thin air,
Speaker 1: my dear Watson, and there emerges a young fellow under thirty, amiable, unambitious,
Speaker 1: absent minded, and the possessor of a favorite dog, which
Speaker 1: I should describe roughly as being larger than a terrier
Speaker 1: and smaller than a mastiff. I laughed incredulously, as Sherlock
Speaker 1: Holmes leaned back in his settee and blew little wavering
Speaker 1: rings of smoke up to the ceiling. As to the
Speaker 1: latter part, I have no means of checking, you, said I,
Speaker 1: But at least it is not difficult to find out
Speaker 1: a few particulars about the man's age and professional career
Speaker 1: from my small medical shelf. I took down the medical
Speaker 1: directory and turned up the name. There were several Mortimers,
Speaker 1: but only one who could be our visitor. I read
Speaker 1: his record aloud. Mortimer James MRCS eighteen eighty two, Grimpen, Dartmoor,
Speaker 1: Devon how surgeon from eighteen eighty two to eighteen eighty
Speaker 1: four at charing Cross Hospital, winner of the Jackson Prize
Speaker 1: for Comparaisative Pathology, with essay entitled is Disease a Reversion?
Speaker 1: Corresponding member of the Swedish Pathological Society, author of Some
Speaker 1: Freaks of Atavism Lancet, eighteen eighty two. Do we Progress,
Speaker 1: Journal of Psychology, March eighteen eighty three. Medical officer for
Speaker 1: the parishes of Grimpen, Thorsley and High Barrow. No mention
Speaker 1: of that local hunt, Watson, said Holmes, with a mischievous smile.
Speaker 1: What a country doctor, as you very astutely observed. I
Speaker 1: think that I am fairly justified in my inferences as
Speaker 1: to the adjectives I said, If I remember right, amiable,
Speaker 1: unambitious and absent minded. It is my experience that it
Speaker 1: is only an amiable man in this world who receives testimonials,
Speaker 1: only an unambitious one who abandons a London career for
Speaker 1: the country, and only an absent minded one who leaves
Speaker 1: his stick and not his visiting card. After waiting an
Speaker 1: hour in your room and the dog has been in
Speaker 1: the habit of carrying this stick behind his master. Being
Speaker 1: a heavy stick, the dog has held it tightly by
Speaker 1: the middle, and the marks of his teeth are very
Speaker 1: plainly visible. The dog's jaw, as shown in the space
Speaker 1: between these marks, is too broad, in my opinion, for
Speaker 1: a terrier, and not broad enough for a mastiff. It
Speaker 1: may have been Yes, by jove, it's a curly head spaniel.
Speaker 1: He had risen and paced the room as he spoke.
Speaker 1: Now he halted in the recess of the window. There
Speaker 1: was such a ring of conviction in his voice that
Speaker 1: I glanced up in surprise. My dear fellow, How can
Speaker 1: you possibly be so sure of that? For the very
Speaker 1: simple reason that I see the dog himself on our
Speaker 1: very doorstep, and there is the ring of its owner.
Speaker 1: Don't move, I beg you, Watson. He is a professional
Speaker 1: brother of yours, and your presence may be of assis
Speaker 1: stance to me. Now is the dramatic moment of fate, Watson,
Speaker 1: when you hear a step upon the stair which is
Speaker 1: walking into your life, and you know not whether for
Speaker 1: good or ill? What does doctor James Mortimer, the man
Speaker 1: of science, ask of Sherlock Holmes, the specialist in crime
Speaker 1: a come in. The appearance of our visitor was a
Speaker 1: surprise to me, since I had expected a typical country practitioner.
Speaker 1: He was a very tall, thin man, with a long
Speaker 1: nose like a beak, which jutted out between two keen,
Speaker 1: gray eyes set closely together, and sparkling brightly from behind
Speaker 1: a pair of gold rimmed glasses. He was clad in
Speaker 1: a professional but rather slovenly fashion, for his frock coat
Speaker 1: was dingy, and his trousers frayed. Though young, his long
Speaker 1: back was already bowed, and he walked with a forward
Speaker 1: thrust of his head and a general air of peering benevolence.
Speaker 1: As he entered, his eyes fell upon the stick in
Speaker 1: Holmes's hand, and he ran towards it with an exclamation
Speaker 1: of joy. I am so very glad, said he. I
Speaker 1: was not sure whether I had left it here or
Speaker 1: in the shipping office. I would not lose that stick
Speaker 1: for the world. The presentation I see, said Holmes, Yes, Sir,
Speaker 1: from charing Cross Hospital, from one or two friends there
Speaker 1: on the occasion of my marriage. Dear, dear, that's bad,
Speaker 1: said Holmes, shaking his head. Doctor Mortimer blinked through his
Speaker 1: glasses in mild astonishment. Why was it bad only that
Speaker 1: you have disarranged our little deductions your marriage? You say, yes, Sir,
Speaker 1: I married, and so left the hospital and with it
Speaker 1: all hopes of a consulting practice. It was necessary to
Speaker 1: make a home of my own. Come, Come, we are
Speaker 1: not so far wrong after all, said Holmes. And now
Speaker 1: doctor James Mortimer, mister sir, mister a humble m R. C.
Speaker 1: S and a man of precise mind, evidently a dabbler
Speaker 1: in science, mister Holmes, a picker up of s on
Speaker 1: the shores of the great unknown ocean. I presume that
Speaker 1: it is mister Sherlock Holmes who I am addressing, and
Speaker 1: not no, this is my friend, doctor Watson. Glad to
Speaker 1: meet you, Sir. I have heard your name mentioned in
Speaker 1: connection with that of your friend. You interest me very much,
Speaker 1: mister Holmes. I had hardly expected so delycocephalic a skull,
Speaker 1: or such well marked supraorbital development. Would you have any
Speaker 1: objection to my running my finger along your parietal ficia.
Speaker 1: A cast of your skull, Sir, until the original is available,
Speaker 1: would be an ornament to any anthropological museum. It is
Speaker 1: not my intention to be fulsome, but I confess that
Speaker 1: I covet your skull. Sherlock Holmes waved our strange visitor
Speaker 1: into a chair. You are an enthusiast in your line
Speaker 1: of thought, I perceive, sir, as I am in mine,
Speaker 1: said he. I observe from your forefinger that you make
Speaker 1: your own cigarettes. Have no hesitation in lighting one. The
Speaker 1: man drew out paper and tobacco and twirled the one
Speaker 1: up in the other with surprising dexterity. He had long,
Speaker 1: quivering fingers, as agile and restless as the antennae of
Speaker 1: an insect. Holmes was silent, but his little darting glances
Speaker 1: showed me the interest which he took in our curious companion.
Speaker 1: I presume, sir, said he at last, that it was
Speaker 1: not merely for the purpose of examining my skull that
Speaker 1: you have done me the honor to call here last
Speaker 1: night and again today. No, sir, no, though I am
Speaker 1: happy to have had the opportunity of doing that as well.
Speaker 1: I came to you, mister Holmes, because I recognized that
Speaker 1: I am myself an unpractical man, and because I am
Speaker 1: suddenly confronted with a most serious and extraordinary problem. Recognizing
Speaker 1: as I do, that you are the second highest expert
Speaker 1: in Europe. Indeed, Sir, may I inquire, who has the
Speaker 1: honor to be the first? Asked Holmes, with some asperity,
Speaker 1: to the man of precisely scientific mind. The work of
Speaker 1: Monsieur Betty must always appeal strongly. Then, had you not
Speaker 1: better consult him, I said, sir, to the precisely scientific mind.
Speaker 1: But as a practical man of affairs, it is acknowledged
Speaker 1: that you stand alone. I trust, sir, that I have
Speaker 1: not inadvertently just a little, said Holmes. I think doctor Mortimer,
Speaker 1: you would do wisely if, without more ado, you would
Speaker 1: kindly tell me plainly what the exact nature of the
Speaker 1: problem is in which you demand my assistance.