"Doyle, Arthur Conan - Hound Of The Baskervilles, The" - читать интересную книгу автора (Doyle Arthur Conan)

{HOUN, Rev 4, 3/17/96 rms, 4th proofing}
{The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Arthur Conan Doyle}
{Source: The Strand Magazine (1901-1902)}
{Etext prepared by Roger Squires [email protected]}
{Braces({}) in the text indicate textual end-notes}
{Underscores (_) in the text indicate italics}



The Hound of the Baskervilles. *
ANOTHER ADVENTURE OF
SHERLOCK HOLMES.
BY CONAN DOYLE.



CHAPTER I.
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 lawyer."
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."