Speaker 1: Chapter one of the Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir
Speaker 1: Arthur Conan Doyle. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
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Speaker 1: Based in Dallas Fort Worth, Texas. The Hound of the
Speaker 1: Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Chapter one. Mister Sherlock Holmes.
Speaker 1: Mister Sherlock Holmes, who was usually very late in the mornings,
Speaker 1: save upon those not in frequent occasions when he was
Speaker 1: up all night, was seated at the breakfast table. I
Speaker 1: stood upon the hearth rug and picked up the stick
Speaker 1: which our visitor had left behind him the night before.
Speaker 1: It was a fine thick piece of wood, bulbous headed,
Speaker 1: of the sort which is known as a penang lawyer.
Speaker 1: Just under the head was a broad silver band nearly
Speaker 1: an inch across to James Mortimer, m R c. S.
Speaker 1: From his Friends of the c H was engraved upon
Speaker 1: it with the date eighteen eighty four. It was just
Speaker 1: such a stick as the old fashioned family practitioner used
Speaker 1: to carry dignified, solid and reassuring Well, Watson, what do
Speaker 1: you make of it? Holmes was sitting with his back
Speaker 1: to me, and I had given him no sign of
Speaker 1: 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 examine
Speaker 1: nation of it. I think, said I, following as far
Speaker 1: as I could the methods of my companion. Doctor Mortimer
Speaker 1: is a successful elderly medical man, well esteemed, since those
Speaker 1: who know him give him his mark of their appreciation. 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 CH.
Speaker 1: I should guess that to be the Something Hunt, the
Speaker 1: local hunt, whose members he has possibly given some surgical assistance,
Speaker 1: and which has made him a small presentation in return. Really, Watson,
Speaker 1: you excel yourself, said Holmes, pushing back his chair and
Speaker 1: lighting a cigarette. I am bound to say that, in
Speaker 1: all the accounts which you have been so good as
Speaker 1: to give of my own small achievements, you have habitually
Speaker 1: underrated your own abilities. It may be that you are
Speaker 1: not yourself luminous, but you are a conductor of light.
Speaker 1: Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of
Speaker 1: stimulating it. I confess, my dear fellow, that I am
Speaker 1: very much in your debt. He had never said as
Speaker 1: much before, and I must admit that his words gave
Speaker 1: me keen pleasure, for I had often been piqued by
Speaker 1: his indifference to my admiration and the attempts which I
Speaker 1: had made to give publicity to his methods. I was
Speaker 1: proud too, to think that I had so far mustered
Speaker 1: his system as to apply it in a way which
Speaker 1: earned his approval. He now took the stick from my
Speaker 1: hands and examined it for a few minutes with his
Speaker 1: naked eyes. Then, with an expression of interest, he laid
Speaker 1: down his cigarette, and, carrying the cane to the window,
Speaker 1: he looked over it again with a convex lens. Interesting
Speaker 1: though elementary, said he, as he returned to his favorite
Speaker 1: corner of the settee. There are certainly one or two
Speaker 1: indications upon the stick. It gives us the basis for
Speaker 1: several deductions. Has anything escaped me, i asked, with some
Speaker 1: self importance. I trust that there's nothing of consequence which
Speaker 1: I've overlooked. I am afraid, my dear Watson, that most
Speaker 1: of your conclusions were erroneous. When I said that you
Speaker 1: stimulated me, I meant to be frank that in noting
Speaker 1: your fallacies, I was occasionally guided towards the truth, not
Speaker 1: that you are entirely wrong. In this instance. The man
Speaker 1: is certainly a country practitioner, and he walks a great deal.
Speaker 1: Then I was right to that extent. But that was all. No, No,
Speaker 1: my dear Watson, not all, by no means all. I
Speaker 1: would suggest, for example, that a presentation to a doctor
Speaker 1: is more likely to come from a hospital than from
Speaker 1: a hunt, and that when initials C C are placed
Speaker 1: before 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 c C
Speaker 1: H does stand for Charing Cross Hospital, what further inferences
Speaker 1: may we draw? Do none suggest themselves? You know my
Speaker 1: methods apply them. I can only think of the obvious
Speaker 1: conclusion that the man has practiced in town before going
Speaker 1: to the country. I think that we might venture a
Speaker 1: little farther than this. Look at it in this light,
Speaker 1: on what occasion would it be most probable that such
Speaker 1: presentation would be made? When would his friends unite to
Speaker 1: give him a pledge of their good will? Obviously at
Speaker 1: the moment when doctor Mortimer withdrew from the service of
Speaker 1: the hospital in order to start a practice for himself.
Speaker 1: We know there has been a presentation. We believe there
Speaker 1: has been a change from a town hospital to a
Speaker 1: country practice. Is it then, stretching our inference too far
Speaker 1: to say that the presentation was on the occasion of
Speaker 1: the change. It certainly seems probable. Now you will observe
Speaker 1: that he could not have been on the staff of
Speaker 1: the hospital, since only a man well established in a
Speaker 1: London practice could hold such a position, and such a
Speaker 1: one would not drift in to the country. What was
Speaker 1: he then, if he was in the hospital and yet
Speaker 1: not on the staff, He could only have been a
Speaker 1: house surgeon or a house physician, little more than a
Speaker 1: senior student. And he left five years ago. The date
Speaker 1: is on the stick. So your grave, middle aged family
Speaker 1: practitioner vanishes into thin air, my dear Watson, and there
Speaker 1: emerges a young fellow under thirty, amiable, unambitious, absent minded,
Speaker 1: and the possessor of a favorite dog, which I should
Speaker 1: describe roughly as being larger than a terrier and smaller
Speaker 1: than a mastiff. I laughed incredulously, as Sherlock Holmes leaned
Speaker 1: back in his settee and blew little wavering rings of
Speaker 1: smoke up to the ceiling. As to the latter part,
Speaker 1: I have no means of checking, you, said I, but
Speaker 1: at least it is not difficult to find out a
Speaker 1: few particulars about the man's age and professional career from
Speaker 1: my small medical shelf. I took down the medical directory
Speaker 1: and turned up the name. There were several Mortimers, but
Speaker 1: only one could be our visitor. I read his record aloud.
Speaker 1: Mortimer James M R c s. Eighteen eighty two, Grimpen, Dartmoor,
Speaker 1: Devon House surgeon from eighteen eighty two to eighteen eighty
Speaker 1: four at charing Cross Hospital, winner of the Jackson Prize
Speaker 1: for Comparative 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: But 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 is 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 is a curly
Speaker 1: head spaniel. 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 door step, 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 assistance
Speaker 1: 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: come in the appearance of our visitor was a surprise
Speaker 1: 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'm so very glad, said he. I was
Speaker 1: not so 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 A 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. S.
Speaker 1: And a man of precise mind, evidently a dabbler in science,
Speaker 1: mister Holmes, a picker up of shells on the shores
Speaker 1: of the great unknown ocean. I presume that it is
Speaker 1: mister Sherlock Holmes whom I am addressing, and not no,
Speaker 1: this is my friend Dr Watson. Glad to meet you, Sir.
Speaker 1: I have heard your name mentioned in connection with that
Speaker 1: of your friend. You interest me very much, mister Holmes.
Speaker 1: I I had hardly expected so dowly chocephalic a skull
Speaker 1: of such well marked supra orbital development. Would you have
Speaker 1: any objection to my running my finger along your parietal fissure?
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 falsome, 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 glance
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 to day. No, sir, no, though I
Speaker 1: am happy to have had the opportunity of doing that
Speaker 1: as well. I came to you, mister Holmes, because I
Speaker 1: recognized that I am myself an unpractical man, and because
Speaker 1: I am suddenly confronted with a most serious and extraordinary problem,
Speaker 1: Recognizing as I do, that you are the second highest
Speaker 1: expert in Europe. Indeed, Sir, may I inquire who has
Speaker 1: the 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 Bertillon 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. End of
Speaker 1: Chapter one