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 | The Hound of the Baskervilles Ebook | |
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 | |  | | E-book Category: Adventure, Classic
E-book Title: The Hound of the Baskervilles
Author: Arthur Conan Doyle
Book Description: CHAPTER I. MR. Private detective HOLMES.
MR. Private detective HOLMES, who was normally really late in the mornings, save upon those not occasional occasions once
he was up all night, was sitting
at the breakfast table. I stood upon the hearth-rug and picked up the stick which our visitant had left behind him the night before. It was a fine, thick piece of wood, bulbous-headed, of the sort which is acknowledged as a "Penang lawyer." Simply under the head was a broad silver band, nearly an inch across. "To James Mortimer, M.R.C.S., from his friends of the C.C.H.," was etched upon it, with the date "1884." It was simply such a stick as the old-fashioned family practician used to carry -- dignified, solid, and reassuring.
"Well, Watson, what do you do of it?"
Holmes was sitting with his back to me, and I had given him no sign of my occupation.
"How did you cognize 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," aforesaid he. "But, tell me, Watson, what do you do 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. "I think," aforesaid I, following as far as I could the methods of my companion, "that Dr. Lord is a booming aged medical man, well-esteemed, since those who cognize him give him this mark of their appreciation."
"Good!" aforesaid Holmes. "Excellent!"
"I think besides that the probability is in favour of his being a country practician who makes a great deal of his visiting on foot."
"Why so?"
"Because this stick, although originally a really handsome one, has been so knocked simply about that I can hardly imagine a town practician carrying it. The thick iron collet is worn down, so it is evident that he has done a great figure of walking with it."
"Perfectly sound!" aforesaid Holmes.
"And then again, there is the 'friends of the C.C.H.' I should guess that to be the Thing
Hunt, the local hunt to whose members he has possibly given several surgical assistance, and which has ready-made him a small presentation in return."
"Really, Watson, you stand out yourself," aforesaid Holmes, pushing back his chair and lighting a cigarette. "I am bound to say that in all the accounts which you have been so nice as to give of my own small achievements you have routinely
underrated your own abilities. It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but you are a conductor of light. Several folk without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it. I confess, my dear fellow, that I am really more in your debt."
He had ne'er
aforesaid as more 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 to the attempts which I had ready-made to give promotion to his methods. I was proud too to think that I had so far down his system as to apply it in a way which attained
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 set down his cigaret and, carrying the cane to the window, he looked over it once again with a bell-shaped lens.
"Interesting, although elementary," aforesaid he, as he returned to his favourite corner of the settee. "There are surely one or two indications upon the stick. It gives us the basis for several deductions."
"Has thing
at large me?" I asked, with several 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. Once
I aforesaid that you stirred me I meant, to be frank, that in noting your fallacies I was on occasion radio-controlled towards the truth. Not that you are entirely wrong in this instance. The man is surely a country practitioner. And he walks a nice deal."More... | 
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