Summary: The Hound of the Baskervilles

Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson sit at their breakfast table discussing a heavy walking stick left behind by an unknown visitor the previous night. Holmes invites Dr Watson to examine the cane and deduce the character and habits of its owner. Dr Watson suggests that the visitor is a successful, elderly country practitioner who does much walking and received the stick as a presentation from a local hunt. Holmes praises Dr Watson for stimulating his own thoughts, but proceeds to correct several of his conclusions through closer observation. Holmes deduces that the inscription refers to Charing Cross Hospital rather than a hunt, and that the presentation marked the owner's departure from the hospital staff to start a private practice. By analyzing the wear on the stick and the date of eighteen eighty four, Holmes concludes that the owner is a young man under thirty, amiable, unambitious, absent-minded, and the owner of a medium-sized dog. Dr Watson checks the Medical Directory and confirms that the visitor is Dr James Mortimer, a medical officer and former house-surgeon from Dartmoor. Dr Mortimer arrives unexpectedly at their door, eager to retrieve his lost stick and expressing immense professional admiration for Sherlock Holmes. He corrects minor details regarding his presentation, explaining that he received the stick from hospital friends upon his marriage, which forced him to abandon consulting work in town for a country practice. Dr Mortimer is revealed to be a tall, thin man with a beak-like nose and an enthusiastic interest in anthropology and phrenology. After marveling at the shape of Holmes's skull, Dr Mortimer explains that he has sought out the famous detective to consult him on a serious and extraordinary problem.

Dr James Mortimer visits Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson to present a pressing and unusual case involving the recent tragic death of his close friend, Sir Charles Baskerville. To explain the deep-seated dread surrounding the family, Mortimer reads an eighteenth-century manuscript detailing the origin of the curse. According to the document, a brutal and godless ancestor named Hugo Baskerville kidnapped a yeoman's daughter, who escaped across the moor. Enraged, Hugo unleashed his hounds and vowed his soul to the powers of evil to pursue her. His companions later found the maiden dead of terror and Hugo slain by a monstrous, supernatural hound that haunted the moorland ever since. Mortimer then shares a newspaper account detailing the recent public facts surrounding Sir Charles's death. Sir Charles had returned from South Africa wealthy and generous, intending to restore Baskerville Hall and support local charities. He fell into a routine of walking nightly down the yew alley smoking a cigar. On the night of his death, he failed to return, and his body was eventually found at the far end of the alley. Although the inquest concluded he died of natural causes due to long-standing heart disease exacerbated by nervous tension, rumors and local superstitions persisted because of strange footprints and his severely distorted facial features. Moving beyond the public record, Dr Mortimer discloses private details he withheld from the coroner to protect the estate's reputation and avoid endorsing superstition. He explains that Sir Charles was genuinely terrorized by the family legend, deeply anxious, and constantly haunted by the fear of a spectral presence. Shortly before his death, Mortimer himself witnessed Sir Charles stare in terror at a dark shape near the drive. Most disturbingly, while examining the death scene and corroborating the coroner's findings, Mortimer discovered fresh, clear footprints a short distance from the body belonging to a gigantic hound.