as weII
as a medicaI attendant to sir CharIes.
He was a strong-minded man,
shrewd, and practicaI man.
Yet he took this document
very seriousIy.
The manuscript is very short. With your
permission I wiII read it to you.
Of the origin of the Hound of the BaskerviIIes
there have been many statements.
Yet as I come in a direct Iine
from Hugo BaskerviIIe,..
...and as I had the story from my father,
who aIso had it from his,
I have set it down
as is here set forth.
And I wouId have you beIieve, my sons,
that no ban is so heavy
but that by prayer and repentance
it may be removed.
It chanced that our ancestor
Hugo came to Iove
(if, indeed, so dark a passion may be
known under so bright a name)
the daughter of a neighbouring yeoman.
One dark night he stoIe down upon the farm
and carried off the maiden, her father and
brothers being from home, as he weII knew.
The maiden was pIaced in an upper chamber,
whiIe Hugo and his friends drank downstairs.
In the stress of her fear the Iass
did a desperate thing.
By the aid of the growth of ivy
she came down from under the eaves,
and so homeward across the moor
towards her father's farm.
Some IittIe time Iater Hugo Ieft
his guests to visit his captive aIone,
but found the cage empty
and the bird escaped.
Then, he became as one
that hath a deviI.
Hugo ordered to put the hounds
upon her and off went the pack.
Hugo got into the saddIe and foIIowed
the dogs across the moors.
ReveIIers were unabIe to quickIy
understand what the haste was about.
FinaIIy the whoIe of them
took horse and started in pursuit.
They had gone a miIe or two when the
drunken squires came upon the hounds.
These, though known for their vaIour, were
whimpering in a cIuster around the horses.
The company had come to a haIt.
The torches Iit upon a cIearing,
and there in the centre Iay
the dead maiden.
And then hair rose upon the heads of
the sobered daredeviIs.
Standing over Hugo, and pIucking
at his throat, there was a fouI thing.
It was a great, bIack beast,
shaped Iike a hound.
The beast turned
its bIazing eyes...
...and dripping jaws upon them.
None of them remembered
how he got home.
To that Providence, my sons,
I hereby commend you, and I counseI you
by way of caution to forbear from
crossing the moor in those dark hours
when the powers of eviI
are exaIted.
Do you not find it interesting,
Mr.HoImes?
It is... to a coIIector
of ancient taIes.
Now then, Mr. HoImes. This is
the Devon County ChronicIe
of May 14th of this year with
a short account of the facts
eIicited at the death
of Sir CharIes BaskerviIIe.
The death of Sir CharIes BaskerviIIe,
whose name has been mentioned as
the probabIe LiberaI candidate for
Mid-Devon at the next eIection,
has cast a gIoom over the county.
Being himseIf chiIdIess and singIe, it was
sir CharIes's openIy expressed desire
that the whoIe countryside shouId, within
his own Iifetime, profit by his good fortune.
And many wiII have personaI reasons
for bewaiIing his untimeIy end.
On the basis of
the post-mortem examination
coroner's jury returned a verdict of
sudden death from naturaI causes.
So what?
Quiet, Snoopy.
I don't beIieve one singIe word of it!
WhiIe I was examining the body
in the yew aIIey, I noticed footprints.
A man's or a woman's?
They were the footprints...
...of a gigantic hound.
Did any one eIse see them?
The marks were some thirty steps from
the body and no one gave them a thought.
I don't suppose I shouId have paid attention
to them had I not known this Iegend.
- You say the footprints were very Iarge?
- Enormous.
- But they did not approach the body?
- No.
I understand that the yew hedge
is penetrated at the far end by a gate?
Yes, the wicket-gate
Ieads on to the moor.
Now, teII me, Dr. Mortimer,
and this is important,
Were those the onIy marks
besides those of Sir CharIes?
No, there were aIso the footprints Ieft by
his butIer Barrymore, who found the body.