The Hound of the Baskervilles Part 4 (2/2)
Holmes returned to his seat with that quiet look of inward satisfaction whichout, Watson?”
”Unless I can help you”
”No, my dear fellow, it is at the hour of action that I turn to you for aid But this is splendid, really unique from some points of view
When you pass Bradley's, would you ask hi tobacco? Thank you It would be as well if you couldThen I should be very glad to co proble”
I knew that seclusion and solitude were very necessary for my friend in those hours of intense hed every particle of evidence, constructed alternative theories, balanced one against the other, and made up his mind as to which points were essential and which immaterial I therefore spent the day atIt was nearly nine o'clock when I found -room once more
My first impression as I opened the door was that a fire had broken out, for the rooht of the lamp upon the table was blurred by it As I entered, however, my fears were set at rest, for it was the acrid fu coarse tobacco which took h the haze I had a vague vision of Holown coiled up in an armchair with his black clay pipe between his lips Several rolls of paper lay around hiht cold, Watson?” said he
”No, it's this poisonous atmosphere”
”I suppose it is pretty thick, now that you mention it”
”Thick! It is intolerable”
”Open the , then! You have been at your club all day, I perceive”
”My dear Holht?”
”Certainly, but how?”
He laughed at htful freshness about you, Watson, which makes it a pleasure to exercise any soes forth on a showery and loss still on his hat and his boots He has been a fixture therefore all day He is not a man with intimate friends Where, then, could he have been? Is it not obvious?”
”Well, it is rather obvious”
”The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes Where do you think that I have been?”
”A fixture also”
”On the contrary, I have been to Devonshi+re”
”In spirit?”
”Exactly My body has reret to observe, consue pots of coffee and an incredible amount of tobacco After you left I sent down to Stamford's for the Ordnance map of this portion of the moor, and my spirit has hovered over it all day I flatter e-scale e”
He unrolled one section and held it over his knee ”Here you have the particular district which concerns us That is Baskerville Hall in the middle”
”With a wood round it?”
”Exactly I fancy the yew alley, though notthis line, with the ht of it This ss here is the hamlet of Grimpen, where our friend Dr Mortimer has his headquarters Within a radius of five miles there are, as you see, only a very few scattered dwellings