The Hound of the Baskervilles

erlock

ich 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 lawyer." Just under the head was a broad silver band nearly an inch across

, what do you

back to me, and I had given

doing? I believe you have e

do you make of our visitor's stick? Since we have been so unfortunate as to miss him and have no notion of his er

ion, "that Dr. Mortimer is a successful, elderly medical man, well-este

d Holmes. "

vour of his being a country practitioner wh

y s

t that I can hardly imagine a town practitioner carrying it. The thick-iron ferrule

sound!" s

e the Something Hunt, the local hunt to whose members he has possibly given so

en so good as to give of my own small achievements you have habitually underrated your own abilities. It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but you are a

o give publicity to his methods. I was proud, too, to think that I had so far mastered his system as to apply it in a way which earned his approval. He now took the stick from my hands and exa

ourite corner of the settee. "There are certainly one or two indica

self-importance. "I trust that there is not

e I meant, to be frank, that in noting your fallacies I was occasionally guided towards the truth. Not that y

I was

hat e

hat wa

n to a doctor is more likely to come from a hospital than from a hunt, and that when the initials

ay be

this as a working hypothesis we have a fresh basis from

oes stand for 'Charing Cross Hospital,

mselves? You know my

clusion that the man has practised i

to give him a pledge of their good will? Obviously at the moment when Dr. Mortimer withdrew from the service of the hospital in order to start in practice for himself. We know there has been a pres

nly seems

the hospital and yet not on the staff he could only have been a house-surgeon or a house-physician-little more than a senior student. And he left five years ago-the date is on the stick. So your grave, middle-aged family practitioner vanishes

leaned back in his settee and blew little

particulars about the man's age and professional career." From my small medical shelf I took down the Medical Director

Comparative Pathology, with essay entitled 'Is Disease a Reversion?' Corresponding member of the Swedish Pathological Society. Author of 'Some Freaks o

. As to the adjectives, I said, if I remember right, amiable, unambitious, and absent-minded. It is my experience that it is only an amiable man in this world who receives testimonials

the

e, and the marks of his teeth are very plainly visible. The dog's jaw, as shown in the space between these marks, is too broa

ted in the recess of the window. There was such a ring

w can you possibly

l brother of yours, and your presence may be of assistance to me. Now is the dramatic moment of fate, Watson, when you hear a step upon the stair which is walking i

a pair of gold-rimmed glasses. He was clad in a professional but rather slovenly fashion, for his frock-coat was dingy and his trousers frayed. Though young, his long back was already bowed, and he walked with a forward thrust of his head and a general air of peering

ion, I see,"

s,

ing Cross

nds there on the occa

s bad!" said Holme

through his glasses

was i

anged our little deduction

, and with it all hopes of a consulting practi

rong, after all," said Holmes. "

Mister-a hum

precise mind

on the shores of the great unknown ocean. I presume that

s my friend

ocephalic a skull or such well-marked supra-orbital development. Would you have any objection to my running my finger along your parietal fissure? A cast of your skull

our line of thought, I perceive, sir, as I am in mine," said he. "I observe from yo

the other with surprising dexterity. He had long, quivering

ting glances showed me the interest w

y for the purpose of examining my skull that you have don

, because I recognized that I am myself an unpractical man and because I am suddenly confronted with a most

has the honour to be the first?"

ic mind the work of Monsieur Bert

u not better

practical man of affairs it is acknowledged that you stan

wisely if without more ado you would kindly tell me plainly what th