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03 - The Problem · Sherlock Holmes

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  Speaker 1: Chapter three of the Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir
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  Speaker 1: Arthur Conan Doyle. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: Chapter three, The problem I confess. At these words, a
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  Speaker 1: shudder passed through me. There was a thrill in the
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  Speaker 1: doctor's voice which showed that he was himself deeply moved
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  Speaker 1: by that which he told us. Holmes leaned forward in
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  Speaker 1: his excitement, and his eyes had the hard, dry glitter
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  Speaker 1: which shot from them when he was keenly interested. You
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  Speaker 1: saw this as clearly as I see you, and you
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  Speaker 1: said nothing. What was the use? How was it that
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  Speaker 1: no one else saw it? The marks were some twenty
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  Speaker 1: yards from the body, and no one gave them a thought.
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  Speaker 1: I don't suppose I should have done so had I
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  Speaker 1: not known this legend. There are many sheep dogs on
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  Speaker 1: the moor, no doubt, But this was no sheep dog.
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  Speaker 1: You say it was large, enormous, but it had not
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  Speaker 1: approached the body. No. What sort of night was it?
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  Speaker 1: Damp and raw but not actually raining? No? What is
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  Speaker 1: the alley like? There are two lines of old yu hedge,
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  Speaker 1: twelve feet high and impenetrable. The walk in the center
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  Speaker 1: is about eight feet across Is there anything between the
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  Speaker 1: hedges and the walk? Yes, there is a strip of
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  Speaker 1: grass about six feet broad on either side. I understand
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  Speaker 1: that the U hedge is penetrated at one point by
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  Speaker 1: a gate, Yes, the wicket gate which leads on to
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  Speaker 1: the moor. Is there any other opening? None, So that
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  Speaker 1: to reach the U alley one either has to come
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  Speaker 1: down it from the house or else to enter it
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  Speaker 1: by the moor gate. There is an exit through a
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  Speaker 1: summer house at the far end. Had Sir Charles reached
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  Speaker 1: this no, he lay about fifty yards from it. Now
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  Speaker 1: tell me, doctor Mortimer, and this is important. The marks
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  Speaker 1: which you saw were on the path and not on
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  Speaker 1: the grass. No marks could show on the grass. Were
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  Speaker 1: they on the same side of the path as the moorgate? Yes,
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  Speaker 1: they were on the edge of the path, on the
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  Speaker 1: same side as the moorgate. You interest me exceedingly. Another point,
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  Speaker 1: was the wicket gate closed? Closed and padlocked? How high
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  Speaker 1: was it about four feet high? Then any one could
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  Speaker 1: have got over it? Yes? And what marks did you
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  Speaker 1: see by the wicket gate? None? In particular, good heaven
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  Speaker 1: did no one examine? Yes? I examined myself and found nothing.
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  Speaker 1: It was all very confused. If Sir Charles had evidently
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  Speaker 1: stood there for five or ten minutes, how do you
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  Speaker 1: know that? Because the ash had twice dropped from his cigar? Excellent,
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  Speaker 1: This is a colleague Watson after our own heart. But
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  Speaker 1: the marks he had left his own marks all over
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  Speaker 1: that small patch of gravel I could discern no others.
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  Speaker 1: Sherlock Holmes struck his hand against his knee with an
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  Speaker 1: impatient gesture. If I had only been there, he cried,
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  Speaker 1: It is evidently a case of extraordinary interest, and one
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  Speaker 1: which presented immense opportunities to the scientific expert. That gravel
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  Speaker 1: page upon which I might have read so much has
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  Speaker 1: been long ere, this smudged by the rain and defaced
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  Speaker 1: by the clogs of curious peasants. Oh, Dctor Mortimer, Dr Mortimer.
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  Speaker 1: To think that you should not have called me in,
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  Speaker 1: you have indeed much to answer for. I could not
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  Speaker 1: call you in, mister Holmes, without disclosing these facts to
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  Speaker 1: the world, and I have already given my reasons for
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  Speaker 1: not wishing to do so. Besides, besides, why do you hesitate?
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  Speaker 1: There is a realm in which the most acute and
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  Speaker 1: most experienced of detectives is helpless. You mean that the
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  Speaker 1: thing is supernatural. I did not positively say so, no,
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  Speaker 1: but you evidently think it. Since the tragedy, mister Holmes,
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  Speaker 1: there have come to my ears several incidents which are
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  Speaker 1: hard to reconcile with the settled order of nature. For example,
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  Speaker 1: I find that before the terrible event occurred, several people
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  Speaker 1: had seen a creature upon the moor which corresponds with
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  Speaker 1: this Baskerville damon, and which could not possibly be any
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  Speaker 1: animal known to science. They all agreed that it was
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  Speaker 1: a huge creature, luminous, ghastly, and spectral. I have cross
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  Speaker 1: examined these men, one of them a hard headed countryman,
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  Speaker 1: one a farrier, and one a Moorland farmer, who all
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  Speaker 1: tell the same story of this dreadful apparition, exactly corresponding
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  Speaker 1: to the hell hound of the legend. I assure you
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  Speaker 1: that there is a reign of terror in the district,
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  Speaker 1: and that it is a hardy man who will cross
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  Speaker 1: the moor at night, and you, a trained man of science,
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  Speaker 1: believe it to be supernatural. I do not know what
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  Speaker 1: to believe. Holmes shrugged his shoulders. I have hitherto confined
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  Speaker 1: my investigations to this world, said he in a modest way.
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  Speaker 1: I have combated evil, but to take on the father
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  Speaker 1: of evil himself would perhaps be too ambitious a task.
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  Speaker 1: Yet you must admit that the footmark is material. The
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  Speaker 1: original hound was material enough to tug a man's throat out,
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  Speaker 1: and yet he was diabolical as well. I see that
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  Speaker 1: you have quite gone over to the supernaturalists. But now,
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  Speaker 1: Doctor Mortimer, tell me this. If you hold these views,
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  Speaker 1: why have you come to consult me at all? You
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  Speaker 1: tell me in the same breath that it is useless
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  Speaker 1: to investigate Sir Charles's death, and that you desire me
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  Speaker 1: to do it. I did not say that I desired
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  Speaker 1: you to do it. Then how can I assist you
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  Speaker 1: by advising me as to what I should do with
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  Speaker 1: Sir Henry Baskerville, who arrives at Waterloo Station. Doctor Mortimer
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  Speaker 1: looked at his watch in exactly one hour and a quarter.
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  Speaker 1: He being the heir Yes on the death of Sir Charles.
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  Speaker 1: We inquired for this young gentleman and found that he
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  Speaker 1: had been farming in Canada. From the accounts which have
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  Speaker 1: reached us, he is an excellent fellow in every way.
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  Speaker 1: I speak now not as a medical man, but as
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  Speaker 1: a trustee and executor of Sir Charles's will. There is
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  Speaker 1: no other claimant, I presume none. The only other Kinsman
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  Speaker 1: whom we have been able to trace was Roger Baskerville,
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  Speaker 1: the youngest of three brothers, of whom poor Sir Charles
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  Speaker 1: was the elder. The second brother, who died young, is
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  Speaker 1: the father of this lad Henry. The third Roger was
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  Speaker 1: the black sheep of the family. He came of the old,
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  Speaker 1: masterful Baskerville strain, and was the very image they tell
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  Speaker 1: me of the family picture of old Hugo. He made
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  Speaker 1: England too hot to hold him, fled to Central America,
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  Speaker 1: and died there in eighteen seventy six of yellow fever.
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  Speaker 1: Henry is the last of the Baskervilles. In one hour
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  Speaker 1: and five minutes I meet him at Waterloo Station. I
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  Speaker 1: have had a wire that he arrived at Southampton this morning. Now,
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  Speaker 1: mister Holmes, what would you advise me to do with him?
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  Speaker 1: Why should he not go to the home of his
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  Speaker 1: father's It seems natural, does it not? And yet consider
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  Speaker 1: that every Baskerville who goes there meets with an evil fate.
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  Speaker 1: I feel sure that if Sir Charles could have spoken
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  Speaker 1: with me before his death, he would have warned me
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  Speaker 1: against bringing this, the last of the old race, and
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  Speaker 1: the heir to great wealth, to that deadly place. And
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  Speaker 1: yet it cannot be denied that the prosperity of the
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  Speaker 1: whole poor, bleak countryside depends upon his presence. All the
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  Speaker 1: good work which has been done by Sir Charles will
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  Speaker 1: crash to the ground if there is no tenant of
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  Speaker 1: the hall. I fear lest I should be swayed too
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  Speaker 1: much by my own obvious interest in the matter, And
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  Speaker 1: that is why I bring the case before you and
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  Speaker 1: ask for your advice. Holmes considered for a little time,
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  Speaker 1: put into plain words the matter is this, said he
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  Speaker 1: in your opinion, there is a diabolical agency which makes
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  Speaker 1: Dartmore an unsafe abode for a Baskerville. That is your opinion.
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  Speaker 1: At least I might go the length of saying that
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  Speaker 1: there is some evidence that this may be so exactly.
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  Speaker 1: But surely if your supernatural theory be correct, it could
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  Speaker 1: work the young man evil in London as easily as
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  Speaker 1: in Devonshire. A devil with merely local powers like a
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  Speaker 1: parish vestry would be too inconceivable a thing. You put
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  Speaker 1: the matter more flippantly mister Holmes, than you would probably
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  Speaker 1: do if you were brought into personal contact with these things.
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  Speaker 1: Your advice, then, as I understand it is that the
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  Speaker 1: young man will be as safe in Devonshire as in London.
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  Speaker 1: He comes in fifty minutes, what would you recommend? I recommend, sir,
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  Speaker 1: that you take a cab, call off your spaniel who
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  Speaker 1: is scratching at my front door, and proceed to Waterloo
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  Speaker 1: to meet Sir Henry b Baskerville. And then and then
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  Speaker 1: you will say nothing to him at all until I
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  Speaker 1: have made up my mind about the matter. How long
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  Speaker 1: will it take you to make up your mind? Twenty
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  Speaker 1: four hours at ten o'clock to morrow, doctor Mortimer. I
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  Speaker 1: will be much obliged to you if you will call
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  Speaker 1: upon me here, and it will be of help to
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  Speaker 1: me in my plans for the future. If you will
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  Speaker 1: bring Sir Henry Baskerville with you, I will do so,
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  Speaker 1: mister Holmes. He scribbled the appointment on his shirt cuff
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  Speaker 1: and hurried off in his strange, peering, absent minded fashion.
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  Speaker 1: Holmes stopped him at the head of the stair. Only
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  Speaker 1: one more question, doctor Mortimer. You say that before Sir
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  Speaker 1: Charles Baskerville's death. Several people saw this apparition upon the moor?
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  Speaker 1: Three people did? Did any see it? After? I have
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  Speaker 1: not heard of any? Thank you, good morning. Holmes returned
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  Speaker 1: to his seat with that quiet look of inward satisfaction,
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  Speaker 1: which meant that he had a congenial task before him
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  Speaker 1: going out. Watson, unless I can help you, no, my
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  Speaker 1: dear fellow. It is at the hour of action that
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  Speaker 1: I turn to you for aid. But this is splendid,
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  Speaker 1: really unique from some points of view. When you pass Bradley's,
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  Speaker 1: would you ask him to send up a pound of
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  Speaker 1: the strongest shag tobacco? Thank you. It would be as
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  Speaker 1: well if you could make it convenient not to return
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  Speaker 1: before evening. Then I should be very glad to compare
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  Speaker 1: impressions as to this most interesting problem which has been
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  Speaker 1: submitted to us this morning. I knew that seclusion and
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  Speaker 1: solitude were very necessary for my friend in those hours
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  Speaker 1: of intense mental concentration, during which he weighed every particle
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  Speaker 1: of evidence, constructed alternative theories, balanced one against the other,
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  Speaker 1: and made up his mind as to which which points
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  Speaker 1: were essential and which immaterial. I therefore spent the day
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  Speaker 1: at my club and did not return to Baker Street
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  Speaker 1: until evening. It was nearly nine o'clock when I found
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  Speaker 1: myself in the sitting room once more. My first impression
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  Speaker 1: as I opened the door was that a fire had
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  Speaker 1: broken out, for the room was so filled with smoke
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  Speaker 1: that the light of the lamp upon the table was
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  Speaker 1: blurred by it. As I entered. However, my fears were
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  Speaker 1: set at rest, for it was the acrid fumes of strong,
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  Speaker 1: coarse tobacco which took me by the throat and set
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  Speaker 1: me coughing through the haze. I had a vague vision
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  Speaker 1: of homes in his dressing gown, coiled up in an
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  Speaker 1: arm chair with his black clay pipe between his lips.
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  Speaker 1: Several rolls of paper lay around him. Caught cold, Watson
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  Speaker 1: said he, no, it's this poisonous atmosphere. I suppose it
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  Speaker 1: is pretty thick, now that you mention it thick, it's intolerable.
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  Speaker 1: Open the window. Then you've been at your club all day,
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  Speaker 1: I perceive, my dear Holmes, am I right, certainly, But
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  Speaker 1: how he laughed at my bewildered expression. There is a
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  Speaker 1: delightful freshness about you, Watson, which makes it a pleasure
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  Speaker 1: to exercise any small powers which I possess at your expense.
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  Speaker 1: A gentleman goes forth on a showery and miry day.
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  Speaker 1: He returns immaculate in the evening, with a gloss still
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  Speaker 1: on his hat and his boots. He has been a
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  Speaker 1: fixture there for all day. He is not a man
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  Speaker 1: with intimate friends. Where then could he have been? Is
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  Speaker 1: it not obvious? Well, it is rather obvious. The world
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  Speaker 1: is full of obvious things which nobody, by any chance
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  Speaker 1: ever observes. Where do you think that I have been
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  Speaker 1: a fixture? Also? On the contrary, I have been to
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  Speaker 1: Devonshire in spirit exactly. My body has remained in this
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  Speaker 1: arm chair, and has I regret to observe consumed in
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  Speaker 1: my absence two large pots of coffee and an incredible
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  Speaker 1: amount of tobacco. After you left, I sent down to
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  Speaker 1: Stamford's for the Ordnance map of this portion of the moor,
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  Speaker 1: and my spirit has hovered over it all day. I
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  Speaker 1: flatter myself that I could find my way about a
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  Speaker 1: large scale map, I presume very large. He unrolled one
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  Speaker 1: section and held it over his knee. Here you have
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  Speaker 1: the particular district which concerns us. That is Baskerville Hall
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  Speaker 1: in the middle, with a wood around it exactly I
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  Speaker 1: fancy the eew Alley, though not marked under that name,
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  Speaker 1: must stretch along this line with the moor, as you
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  Speaker 1: perceive upon the right of it. This small clump of
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  Speaker 1: buildings here is the hamlet of Grimpen, where our friend
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  Speaker 1: doctor Mortimer has his headquarters. Within a radius of five miles,
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  Speaker 1: there are, as you see, only a very few scattered dwellings.
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  Speaker 1: Here is Lafter Hall, which was mentioned in the narrative.
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  Speaker 1: There is a house indicated here which may be the
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  Speaker 1: residence of the naturalist Stapleton, if I remember right was
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  Speaker 1: his name. Here are two moorland farm houses, High Tour
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  Speaker 1: and Fowlmyre. Then, fourteen miles away the great convict prison
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  Speaker 1: of Princetown. Between and around these scattered points extends the desolate,
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  Speaker 1: lifeless moor. This, then, is the stage upon which tragedy
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  Speaker 1: has been played, and upon which we may help to
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  Speaker 1: play it again. It must be a wild place, Yes,
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  Speaker 1: the setting is a worthy one. If the devil did
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  Speaker 1: desire to have a hand in the affairs of men,
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  Speaker 1: then you are yourself inclining to the supernatural explanation. The
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  Speaker 1: devil's agents may be of flesh and blood. They not.
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  Speaker 1: There are two questions waiting for us at the outset.
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  Speaker 1: The one is whether any crime has been committed at all.
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  Speaker 1: The second is what is the crime and how was
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  Speaker 1: it committed? Of course, if Dr Mortimer's surmise should be correct,
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  Speaker 1: and we are dealing with forces outside the ordinary laws
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  Speaker 1: of nature, there is an end of our investigation, but
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  Speaker 1: we are bound to exhaust all other hypotheses before falling
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  Speaker 1: back upon this one. I think we'll shut that window
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  Speaker 1: again if you don't mind. It is a singular thing
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  Speaker 1: that I find that a concentrated atmosphere helps a concentration
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  Speaker 1: of thought. I have not pushed it to the length
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  Speaker 1: of getting into a box to think, but that is
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  Speaker 1: the logical outcome of my convictions. Have you turned the
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  Speaker 1: case over in your mind? Yes, I've thought a good
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  Speaker 1: deal of it in the course of the day. What
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  Speaker 1: do you make of it? It is very bewildering. It
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  Speaker 1: has certainly a character of its own. There are points
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  Speaker 1: of distinction about it that change in the footprints. For example,
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  Speaker 1: what do you make of that Mortimer said that the
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  Speaker 1: man had walked on tiptoe down that portion of the alley.
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  Speaker 1: He only repeated what some fool had said at the inquest,
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  Speaker 1: why should a man walk on tiptoe down the alley? What? Then?
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  Speaker 1: He was running, Watson, running, desperately, running for his life,
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  Speaker 1: running until he burst his heart and fell dead upon
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  Speaker 1: his face, running from what? There lies our problem? There
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  Speaker 1: are indications that the man was crazed with fear before
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  Speaker 1: he ever began to run. How can you say that?
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  Speaker 1: I am presuming that the cause of his fears came
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  Speaker 1: to him across the moor. If that were so, and
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  Speaker 1: it seems most probable, only a man who had lost
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  Speaker 1: his wits would have run from the house instead of
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  Speaker 1: towards it. If the gypsy's evidence meant be taken as true,
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  Speaker 1: he ran with cries for help in the direction where
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  Speaker 1: help was least likely to be. Then again, whom was
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  Speaker 1: he waiting for that night? And why was he waiting
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  Speaker 1: for him in the yw alley rather than in his
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  Speaker 1: own house? You think that he was waiting for someone.
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  Speaker 1: The man was elderly and infirm. We can understand his
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  Speaker 1: taking an evening stroll, but the ground was damp and
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  Speaker 1: the night inclement. Is it natural that he should stand
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  Speaker 1: for five or ten minutes? As doctor Mortimer with more
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  Speaker 1: practical sense than I should have given him credit for
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  Speaker 1: deduced from the cigar ash. But he went out every evening.
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  Speaker 1: I think it unlikely that he waited at the moor
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  Speaker 1: Gate every evening. On the contrary, the evidence is that
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  Speaker 1: he avoided the more. That night he waited there. It
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  Speaker 1: was the night before he made his departure for London.
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  Speaker 1: The thing takes shake, Watson, it becomes coherent. Might I
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  Speaker 1: ask you to hand me my violin, and we will
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  Speaker 1: postpone all further thought upon this business until we have
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  Speaker 1: had the advantage of meeting doctor Mortimer and Sir Henry
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  Speaker 1: Baskerville in the morning. End of Chapter three