The Hound of the Baskervilles

Cited transcript

I suggest that we put it in one of the huts until we can communicate with the police. Exactly. I have no doubt that you and I could carry it so far. Hello, Watson, what's this? It's the man himself, by all that's wonderful and audacious. Not a word to show your suspicions. Not a word, or my plans crumble to the ground. A figure was approaching us over the moor, and I saw the dull red glow of a cigar.

Cited transcript

A terrible scream, a prolonged yell of horror and anguish, burst out of the silence of the moor. That frightful cry turned the blood to ice in my veins. Oh my God, I gasped. What is it? What does it mean? Holmes had sprung to his feet and I saw his dark athletic outline at the door of the hut, his shoulders stooping, his head thrust forward, his face peering into the darkness.

Cited transcript

"Holmes!" I cried. "Holmes!" "Come out," said he, "and please be careful with the revolver." I stooped under the rude lintel, and there he sat upon a stone outside, his gray eyes dancing with amusement as they fell upon my astonished features. He was thin and worn, but clear and alert, his keen face bronzed by the sun and roughened by the wind. In his tweed suit and cloth cap, he looked like any other tourist upon the moor.

Cited transcript

and he had contrived with that cat-like love of personal cleanliness which was one of his characteristics that his chin should be as smooth and his linen as perfect as if he were in Baker Street. "I never was more glad to see anyone in my life," said I as I wrung him by the hand. "Or more astonished, eh?" "Well, I must confess to it." "The surprise was not all on one side, I assure you. I had no idea that you had found my occasional retreat, still less that you were inside it, until I was within twenty paces of the door."

Cited transcript

I think that I deserve better at your hands, Holmes. My dear fellow, you have been invaluable to me in this as in many other cases, and I beg that you will forgive me if I have seemed to play a trick upon you. In truth, it was partly for your own sake that I did it, and it was my appreciation of the danger which you ran which led me to come down and examine the matter for myself. Had I been with Sir Henry and you, it is confident that my point of view would have been the same as yours, and my presence would have warned our very formidable opponents to be on their guard.

Cited transcript

We must send for help, Holmes we cannot carry him all the way to the Hall Good heavens, are you mad? He had uttered a cry and bent over the body Now he was dancing and laughing and wringing my hand Could this be my stern, self-contained friend? These were hidden fires, indeed A beard! a beard! The man has a beard! A beard? It is not the baronet It is why, it is my neighbor, the convict

Cited transcript

I heard a sharp intake of his breath, and the cigar fell from his fingers. Who? Who's this? he stammered. It is Selden, the man who escaped from Princetown. Stapleton turned a ghastly face upon us, but by a supreme effort he had overcome his amazement and his disappointment. He looked sharply from Holmes to me. Dear me, what a very shocking affair! How did he die?

Cited transcript

I am more to blame than you, Watson. In order to have my case well rounded and complete, I have thrown away the life of my client. It is the greatest blow which has befallen me in my career. But how could I know? How could I know that he would risk his life alone upon the moor in the face of all my warnings? That we should have heard the screams, my God, those screams, and yet have been unable to save him. Where is this brute of a hound which drove him to his death? It may be lurking among those rocks at this instant. And Stapleton, where is he? He shall answer for this deed.

Cited transcript

Exactly. I thought as much, and knowing your admirable tenacity, I was convinced that you were sitting in ambush, a weapon within reach, waiting for the tenant to return. So you actually thought that I was the criminal? I did not know who you were, but I was determined to find out. Excellent, Watson. And how did you localize me? You saw me, perhaps, on the night of the convict hunt when I was so imprudent as to allow the moon to rise behind me.