The Hound Of The Baskervilles
contributor: Eric Lease Morgan (Infomotions, Inc.)
creator: Doyle, Arthur Conan
date: 0000-00-00
extent: 339172
format: text/plain
language: en
publisher: Wiretap Electronic Text Archive
rights: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/GPL/2.0/
source: hound.dyl
subject: man
subject: holmes
subject: henry
subject: moor
subject: usually
subject: late
subject: mornings
subject: save
subject: infrequent
subject: occasions
subject: night
subject: doyle
subject: arthur
subject: conan
subject: hound
subject: baskervilles
subject: english
subject: literature
type: text
local mirror: doyle-hound-383.txt
concordance: http://infomotions.com/alex/cgi-bin/concordance.pl
plain html: doyle-hound-383.htm
sort title: Hound Of The Baskervilles, The
full text: [obi/Doyle/hound.of.baskervilles.txt] 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 hearth-rug 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 law- yer." Just 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 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, Watson, what do you make 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," said I, following as far as I could the methods of my companion, "that Dr. Mortimer is a successful, elderly medical man, well-esteemed since those who know him give him this mark of their appreciation." "Good!" said Holmes. "Excellent!" "I think also that the probability is in favour of his being a country practitioner who does a great deal of his visiting on foot." "Why so?" "Because this stick, though originally a very handsome one has been so knocked about that I can hardly imagine a town practitioner carrying it. The thick-iron ferrule is worn down, so it is evident that he has done a great amount of walking with it." "Perfectly sound!" said Holmes. "And then again, there is the 'fr…