Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong Read Online Free Page A
Author: Pierre Bayard
Realizing that Sir Charles was terrified of the legend about the hound, he decided to use this fear
to commit his first murder. He procured in London a giant hound that he hid in the mire as he waited for a favorable occasion.
But before the right time presented itself, he learned that Sir Charles was on the point of leaving the Hall, so he convinced
Laura Lyons to ask him for a meeting on the eve of his departure.
After painting his dog with phosphorus, he took it to the meeting place and stood near the wicket-gate giving onto the moor.
The hound, incited by its master, leapt over the fence and rushed at Sir Charles:
In that gloomy tunnel it must indeed have been a dreadful sight to see that huge black creature, with its flaming jaws and
blazing eyes, bounding after its victim. He fell dead at the end of the alley from heart disease and terror. The hound had
kept upon the grassy border while the baronet had run down the path, so that no track but the man’s was visible. On seeing
him lying still the creature had probably approached to sniff at him, but finding him dead had turned away again. It was then
that it left the print which was actually observed by Dr. Mortimer. The hound was called off and hurried away to its lair
in the Grimpen Mire. 16
Stapleton then turns his attention to the second person who stands in his path to fortune: Henry Baskerville. Accompanied
by his wife, he sets out to keep watch on him as soon as he arrives in London. Stapleton locks Beryl into a hotel room, and
disguises himself with a fake beard as he shadows Dr. Mortimer. The vital thing for him is to procure some piece of clothing
belonging to Henry. Stapleton’s wife, terrified, doesn’t dare write directly to Henry; instead she resorts to an anonymous
letter in hopes of putting him on his guard.
With the help of the shoe stolen in the hotel, Stapleton can carry out the second murder by putting the hound onto the scent
of the new heir. This time it will be less a matter of provoking a heart attack than of weakening him psychologically, to
put him at the monster’s mercy. The death of the second Baskerville would open his way to the fortune.
With the double disappearance of the animal and its master, the riddle of the Hound of the Baskervilles is resolved, at least
in Holmes’s mind, and the detective, triumphant and completely free of doubt, can declare the mystery solved and the case
closed.
* After arriving in Devonshire, Watson tries without success to find out if the telegram was hand-delivered to Barrymore.
III
The Holmes Method
T HE METHOD USED by Sherlock Holmes in the four novels and fifty-six stories Conan Doyle devoted to him is the primary reason
that these texts have become famous. But not only that: The method itself had such success that it is often referred to, well
beyond the realm of literature, as a model of intelligence and rigorous thinking.
Even though Holmes appears only rarely in The Hound of the Baskervilles , his method pervades the book: it is this that allows him to arrive at the truth, or to what he regards as the truth. Thus
it is fitting to point out a few of the method’s guiding principles before looking into the way it is applied in Conan Doyle’s
masterpiece. Then we can form our own conclusions.
Holmes’s method is revealed, in both theory and practice, in the detective’s first case, A Study in Scarlet , which provides a kind of working outline for all the other texts to come.
It is during this investigation that Watson meets Holmes. The doctor is looking for someone with whom to share the rent on
a London flat; having heard of a scientist with a similar wish, he presents himself at his flat, accompanied by a mutual friend:
“Dr. Watson, Mr. Sherlock Holmes,” said Stamford, introducing us.
“How are you?” he said cordially, gripping my hand with a strength for which I should hardly have given him credit.
“You have been in
to commit his first murder. He procured in London a giant hound that he hid in the mire as he waited for a favorable occasion.
But before the right time presented itself, he learned that Sir Charles was on the point of leaving the Hall, so he convinced
Laura Lyons to ask him for a meeting on the eve of his departure.
After painting his dog with phosphorus, he took it to the meeting place and stood near the wicket-gate giving onto the moor.
The hound, incited by its master, leapt over the fence and rushed at Sir Charles:
In that gloomy tunnel it must indeed have been a dreadful sight to see that huge black creature, with its flaming jaws and
blazing eyes, bounding after its victim. He fell dead at the end of the alley from heart disease and terror. The hound had
kept upon the grassy border while the baronet had run down the path, so that no track but the man’s was visible. On seeing
him lying still the creature had probably approached to sniff at him, but finding him dead had turned away again. It was then
that it left the print which was actually observed by Dr. Mortimer. The hound was called off and hurried away to its lair
in the Grimpen Mire. 16
Stapleton then turns his attention to the second person who stands in his path to fortune: Henry Baskerville. Accompanied
by his wife, he sets out to keep watch on him as soon as he arrives in London. Stapleton locks Beryl into a hotel room, and
disguises himself with a fake beard as he shadows Dr. Mortimer. The vital thing for him is to procure some piece of clothing
belonging to Henry. Stapleton’s wife, terrified, doesn’t dare write directly to Henry; instead she resorts to an anonymous
letter in hopes of putting him on his guard.
With the help of the shoe stolen in the hotel, Stapleton can carry out the second murder by putting the hound onto the scent
of the new heir. This time it will be less a matter of provoking a heart attack than of weakening him psychologically, to
put him at the monster’s mercy. The death of the second Baskerville would open his way to the fortune.
With the double disappearance of the animal and its master, the riddle of the Hound of the Baskervilles is resolved, at least
in Holmes’s mind, and the detective, triumphant and completely free of doubt, can declare the mystery solved and the case
closed.
* After arriving in Devonshire, Watson tries without success to find out if the telegram was hand-delivered to Barrymore.
III
The Holmes Method
T HE METHOD USED by Sherlock Holmes in the four novels and fifty-six stories Conan Doyle devoted to him is the primary reason
that these texts have become famous. But not only that: The method itself had such success that it is often referred to, well
beyond the realm of literature, as a model of intelligence and rigorous thinking.
Even though Holmes appears only rarely in The Hound of the Baskervilles , his method pervades the book: it is this that allows him to arrive at the truth, or to what he regards as the truth. Thus
it is fitting to point out a few of the method’s guiding principles before looking into the way it is applied in Conan Doyle’s
masterpiece. Then we can form our own conclusions.
Holmes’s method is revealed, in both theory and practice, in the detective’s first case, A Study in Scarlet , which provides a kind of working outline for all the other texts to come.
It is during this investigation that Watson meets Holmes. The doctor is looking for someone with whom to share the rent on
a London flat; having heard of a scientist with a similar wish, he presents himself at his flat, accompanied by a mutual friend:
“Dr. Watson, Mr. Sherlock Holmes,” said Stamford, introducing us.
“How are you?” he said cordially, gripping my hand with a strength for which I should hardly have given him credit.
“You have been in
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