Sherlock Holmes Complete Works 2

Chapter 80 The Hound of the Baskervilles 19
Sir Henry and Dr. Mortimer came to London one afternoon towards the end of November. They called on Holmes and me.We talked about the Baskerville estate case.

"As to the case of the Hound," said Holmes, "as it is so obscure, I shall gladly give you as much accuracy as possible. If I have omitted anything, you may add to it.

"The portrait of the Baskervilles did not lie. The fellow was the son of Sir Charles' brother Roger Baskervilles. Roger fled to South America because of his disrepute. He married and had a son. , his son had the same name as him, and later his son married Belle Caroline, and after stealing a large amount of public money, fled to England and changed his name to Vandale. Here, he set up a business in Yorkshire. Later, the couple changed their surnames to Staple Valley. With the rest of their property, they traveled thousands of miles to the south of England with their good plans for the future and their love of entomology.

"The fellow investigated and found that there were only two persons standing in the way of his access to the great wealth of the Baskervilles. Judging from the fact that he had his wife as his sister, he had no good intentions from the beginning, but apparently he was prepared to Using his wife as bait for a beauty trap, he was determined to get back what he thought was his property. His first move, therefore, was to make it easy for him to live not far from Baskerville Hall himself. Get in touch with the manor, cultivate friendship and goodwill with Sir Charles and others.

"Lord Childs told him the family legend about the hounds in a chat, and that foreshadowed his own death. Staple Valley--as we shall call him--knew the function of the old man's heart. Not healthy, and will go wrong at the slightest fright. I learned this from my conversation with Dr. Mortimer--he had heard that Sir Childs was superstitious, and he believed in that terrible legend. So he immediately He came up with a way to kill the baron and prevent others from discovering the real murderer.

"It was his genius and ingenuity to artificially transform that dog into a fiend. The dog was bought from Ross and Mangles, the dog dealers in Flame Street, London, and was the best of their stock. A vicious one. He learned how to go into the Grimpen Mire while catching insects. He also found the disused mine, so he had a safe place to feed the hounds. There he fed the hounds and waited. Opportunity arises.

"But good opportunities are hard to find, because old gentlemen don't come out at night. Several times, Staple Valley took his dog to ambush outside the manor, but always found nothing. In the midst of ambushes, he was accidentally caught in the swamp. The farmer saw it. So the legend of the family was corroborated again, and Sir Childs became more careful. He hoped that his wife might lead Childs to ruin. But his wife would not cooperate with him. , she didn't want to kill the old gentleman. For a while, Staple Valley even thought that there was no way to proceed with his plan.

"At last the opportunity came when Sir Childs asked him to administer the charity in the matter of helping Mrs Laura Lyons. He appeared as a bachelor, and he told her that after her divorce from her husband , the two of them could marry and live together forever. But his plan was about to be aborted, because Sir Childs was going to London to rest for a few months. He was so anxious that he had to act immediately to end Sir Childs life, otherwise Sir As soon as he left the estate he had no chance. So he had Mrs. Lyons write a letter to Sir Childs asking him to make an appointment with her at ten o'clock in the evening before he left for London, and then Staple Valley used another set Reasons kept her from attending the appointment. So, at last, a great opportunity presented itself!

"In the evening, when he came back from Coombe Tracy, he went to the mines to play with his hound, and painted it with luminous paint, and then he took the beast to wait for Sir Childs by the gate. When he saw Sir Childs, the dog leaped over the gate and gave chase to the Baron, who was being pursued, screaming, and galloping down the yew-tree lane, where in that dark lane he saw the big dog. It was a dreadful thing indeed, and he was frightened by the dark, glowing thing chasing after him. The hound ran along the grassy side of the road, and Sir ran the lane, So we can only see human footprints and no trace of other people. When the dog saw him lying on the ground, he probably came and smelled it, and then turned away after finding that he was indeed dead. It left a trail of paw prints. It was discovered by Dr. Mortimer. The Hound was then driven back to the kennel in Staple Valley by Staple Valley. This mysterious incident baffled the authorities. Nothing could be done, and the country folk were horrified by the marvelous legend, and at last we took up the strange case.

"His methods are extremely cunning. Indeed, we have no means of indicting Staple Valley. His only accomplice will not speak, and will not reveal his secrets. His queer methods make his The plot went off without a hitch. Both Mrs. Stapledale and Mrs. Laura Lyons suspected him. Mrs. Stapledale knew all along that he was plotting against the poor old man, and of the existence of the hound. Mrs. Lyons All I know is that the time when the old man died violently was the time with her, and this date was known only to Staple Valley. However, both women were under his control, and he had nothing to fear from them. All The first half of the plot was successfully carried out, but the remaining second half was more difficult.

"Staple Valley did not know that the Baskerville estate had an heir in Italy, but he soon found out from Dr. Mortimer, who told him that Henry Baskerville was coming. No. One idea that came into Staple Hole's head was to kill him secretly in London. He didn't trust his wife since she refused to help him murder the old man. He didn't even trust her to grow up. Time away from himself, he was afraid that she would reveal the secret, so he took her to London together. They lived in the Max Poor Private Hotel in Craven Street. I sent people there to collect evidence. That While he shut his wife up in his room, he disguised himself and followed Dr. Mortimer, first to Baker Street, then to the station, and to the Northumberland Hotel—his wife's conspiracy against him. Plan knew a little. But she was terribly frightened of him—so she dared not write to that innocent young man, because if that letter fell into the hands of Staple Valley, it would have cost her her life. She took an expedient measure and made up the letter from newspaper clippings, giving the Baron his first warning of danger.

"A suit of Sir Henry's was especially important to the Staple Valley project. As he had to have something for the dogs to recognize scents, the servants and maids at the hotel accepted a good deal of money from him to help him achieve his purpose. But the first shoe he got was new. Sir Henry hadn't worn it yet, and it was of no use to him. Then he gave it back and stole the other--it was a big deal. We helped the most because it confirmed in my mind that we were dealing with a really good hound.

"Then, next morning, our friends came to visit us again. They were followed by Staple Valley.

"We had learned his tact and daring that morning when he managed to escape from us and give me my name through his coachman. From that moment on he knew I was going to take over This case. Knowing, therefore, that he would have no chance of killing Sir Henry in London, he returned to the moor to wait for the baronet."

After listening for so long, I finally had a chance to speak. "Wait a minute! No, you've told the truth what happened, but you haven't explained one thing. What happens to the hound while the master is in London?"

"At that time Staple Valley had a confidant, and that was Anthony. He was very closely connected with the Staple Valley family, so he must have known that their master and mistress were indeed husband and wife, and this man has now escaped from the moor. The He speaks excellent English, but with an uncomfortably strange accent, and I have also seen the old man come out of Grimpen Mire by the marked path in Staple Valley. When his master has no time to take care of the hound, he will take care of and raise the hound, although he does not know what the dog is for.

"Later the Stapledales returned to Devonshire, and Sir Henry and you soon caught up with them there. You may recall, when I examined the letter Mrs. When I put together the letter made of type, I carefully checked the watermark on it. When I checked, I smelled a scent of white winter jasmine on the letter, which indicated that a lady was involved in this case At that time, I began to suspect the Staple Valley couple in my heart. Before I went to the western countryside, I confirmed the existence of the hound and guessed who the real murderer was. I came to Baskerville Manor just to look for evidence .

"The measure I've taken is to keep an eye on Staple Valley. But I can't do that if I'm with you, because he'll be careful to keep me on guard, so I put everyone— - including you - all lied to. When people thought I was in London on a case, I had crept into the swamp. I spent most of my time in Coombe Tracy, only had to get close to the crime I went to the hut on the moor when I was on the spot. Cartley and I went there together. He dressed up as a country boy, and with his help I got food and clean clothes. While I watched Staple When I was in Gu, Cartley was watching you as I ordered, so I know everything about you.

"Your reports have been of great help to me, especially the one on Staple Valley. I have established that the culprits are this couple, and know exactly what I should know. The fugitive Seldan and The Barrymore connection did complicate the case, and you have cleared it up in an effective manner. Although I have also obtained a report from my own observations that is exactly in line with yours. Watson, you have done a good job. !

"When you found me on the moor, I knew all the facts, but I didn't have enough evidence to convict him before a jury, even Staple Valley tried to murder Sir Henry with the hounds that night, but it turned out But the fact that he killed the fugitive does not prove that he committed a crime. It seemed that we had no other way but to catch him on the spot, and to succeed we would have to use Sir Henry as a bait, so we pretended to go to London on business. We Although the client was greatly frightened by this, we finally found out the evidence and drove Staple Valley to the road of death. Exposing Sir to danger, I admit, this can only be said It was a great shortcoming in my handling of the case, but we never expected that the hound that appeared was so terrible that we were petrified on the spot. And there was also a big white fog that day, which made us a little I was not prepared. We accomplished our mission and paid for it. But expert Dr. Mortimer assured me that a round-the-world trip would not only restore our friend's overwrought nerves, but heal his emotional wounds as well. His affection for Mrs. Staple Valley was genuine, and to him the saddest thing in this unfortunate business was that he, too, should have been deceived by her. .

"What needs to be said now is Mrs. Staple Valley's role in the play. There is no doubt that she is strictly controlled by her husband. Perhaps another reason is love, or fear, or both. In his She agreed to pose as his sister at the behest of his father, and although he asked her to join him directly in his murder plot, she refused, which made him discover that his power over her was not absolute. As long as her She was ready to seduce Sir Henry if her husband was involved, and she had always intended to do so. It seemed that Staple Valley was still jealous of Sir Henry. When he saw the baronet proposing to the lady, he Finally came out to intervene, he used the method of winning over affection to make Sir Henry come to the Melissa Mansion frequently, so that sooner or later he would have a good opportunity to kill Sir Henry, but when the opportunity came, his wife firmly refused to cooperate with him. Sir Henry.

She had known about the sudden death of the fugitive, and she knew that Sir Henry's hound had been shut up in the outer room on the night he came to his appointment.She denounced her husband for the premeditated crime, he was angry, he told her for the first time that he had another love, and her old obedience to him turned into a deep hatred for him.So he tied her up, lest she should have a chance of revealing the whole plot to Sir Henry.Doubtless he wished that the death of the whole Baskerville family should be attributed to his family's legend--as the unreasonable peasants certainly thought--so that he could make his wife accept the fact as it was, and coerce her into keeping it. secret.In this matter, I think, however, his wishful thinking is misplaced, and even if we do not go to the estate, his fate is also sealed, and a woman of Spanish blood will not easily forgive the insult he inflicted on her. .My dear Watson, I don't know if there is anything of importance left unexplained, what else do you have to explain?"

He went on, when there was no question: "He cannot hope to frighten the strong and brave Sir Henry with his dreadful hound as he frightened old uncle Sir Childs.

"So Staple Valley does not feed the beast, whose appearance will scare Sir Henry out of his defenses, if not to death. Then the hungry hounds will open their jaws at Sir Henry.

"Of course, after all these things are done, the remaining problem is that if Staple Valley inherits the property, how will he explain the fact that, as an heir, why has he been living in seclusion so close to the property under a different name? place? How could he claim the inheritance without being suspected?

"Mrs. Staple Valley has heard her husband talk about the solution to this problem several times: one is that he may have to claim the inheritance from South America, and let the local British authorities prove his identity, so that he can easily and legally claim the property. To get the property; second, to conceal his identity for a short time in London; third, to find an accomplice, with papers, to prove his heirship, and claim only a part of the inheritance. At any rate, from what we know of him , he has a way of getting the property. Ah! My dear Watson, we have been working hard for some weeks. Let us change our minds and think of something pleasant today. I have reserved a box today. Please change your clothes within half an hour, and we will have dinner on the way."

(End of this chapter)