Our breakfast table was cleared early, and Holmes waited in hisdressing-gown for the promised interview. Our clients were punctual to their appointment, for the clock had just struck ten whenDr. Mortimer was shown up, followed by the young baronet.The latter was a small, alert, dark-eyed man about thirty years ofage, very sturdily built, with thick black eyebrows and a strong,pugnacious face. He wore a ruddy-tinted tweed suit and had theweather-beaten appearance of one who has spent most of histime in the open air, and yet there was something in his steadyeye and the quiet assurance of his bearing which indicated thegentleman.

"This is Sir Henry Baskerville," said Dr. Mortimer.

"Why, yes," said he, "and the strange thing is, Mr. SherlockHolmes, that if my friend here had not proposed coming round toyou this morning I should have come on my own account. Iunderstand that you think out little puzzles, and I've had one thismorning which wants more thinking out than I am able to giveit."

"Pray take a seat, Sir Henry. Do I understand you to say thatyou have yourself had some remarkable experience since youarrived in London?"

"Nothing of much importance, Mr. Holmes. Only a joke, aslike as not. It was this letter, if you can call it a letter, whichreached me this morning."

He laid an envelope upon the table, and we all bent over it. Itwas of common quality, grayish in colour. The address, "SirHenry Baskerville, Northumberland Hotel," was printed in roughcharacters; the post-mark "Charing Cross," and the date ofposting the preceding evening.

"Who knew that you were going to the Northumberland Hotel?" asked Holmes, glancing keenly across at our visitor.

"No one could have known. We only decided after I met Dr.Mortimer."

"But Dr. Mortimer was no doubt already stopping there?"

"No, I had been staying with a friend," said the doctor."There was no possible indication that we intended to go to thishotel."

"Hum! Someone seems to be very deeply interested in yourmovements." Out of the envelope he took a half-sheet of foolscap paper folded into four. This he opened and spread flat uponthe table. Across the middle of it a single sentence had beenformed by the expedient of pasting printed words upon it. It ran:

As you value your life or your reason keep away from the moor.The word "moor" only was printed in ink.

"Now," said Sir Henry Baskerville, "perhaps you will tellme, Mr. Holmes, what in thunder is the meaning of that, andwho it is that takes so much interest in my affairs?"

"What do you make of it, Dr. Mortimer? You must allow thatthere is nothing supernatural about this, at any rate?"

"No, sir, but it might very well come from someone who wasconvinced that the business is supernatural."

"What business?" asked Sir Henry sharply. "It seems to methat all you gentlemen know a great deal more than I do aboutmy own affairs."

"You shall share our knowledge before you leave this room,Sir Henry. I promise you that," said Sherlock Holmes. "We willconfine ourselves for the present with your permission to thisvery interesting document, which must have been put togetherand posted yesterday evening. Have you yesterday's Times,Watson?"

"It is here in the corner."

"Might I trouble you for it -- the inside page, please, with theleading articles?" He glanced swiftly over it, running his eyes upand down the columns. "Capital article this on free trade. Permitme to give you an extract from it.

Dr. Mortimer looked at Holmes with an air of professionalinterest, and Sir Henry Baskerville turned a pair of puzzled darkeyes upon me.

"I don't know much about the tariff and things of that kind,"said he, "but it seems to me we've got a bit off the trail so far asthat note is concerned."

"On the contrary, I think we are particularly hot upon thetrail, Sir Henry. Watson here knows more about my methodsthan you do, but I fear that even he has not quite grasped thesignificance of this sentence."

"No, I confess that I see no connection."

"And yet, my dear Watson, there is so very close a connection that the one is extracted out of the other. 'You,' 'your,''your,' 'life,' 'reason,' 'value,' 'keep away,' 'from the.' Don'tyou see now whence these words have been taken?"

"By thunder, you're right! Well, if that isn't smart!" cried SirHenry.

"If any possible doubt remained it is settled by the fact that'keep away' and 'from the' are cut out in one piece."

"Well, now -- so it is!"

"Really, Mr. Holmes, this exceeds anything which I couldhave imagined," said Dr. Mortimer, gazing at my friend inamazement. "I could understand anyone saying that the wordswere from a newspaper; but that you should name which, andadd that it came from the leading article, is really one of themost remarkable things which I have ever known. How did youdo it?"

"I presume, Doctor, that you could tell the skull of a negrofrom that of an Esquimau?"

"Most certainly."

"But how?"

"Because that is my special hobby. The differences are obvious. The supra-orbital crest, the facial angle, the maxillary curve,the --"

"But this is my special hobby, and the differences are equallyobvious. There is as much difference to my eyes between theleaded bourgeois type of a Times article and the slovenly print ofan evening half-penny paper as there could be between yournegro and your Esquimau. The detection of types is one of themost elementary branches of knowledge to the special expert incrime, though I confess that once when I was very young Iconfused the Leeds Mercury with the Western Morning News.But a Times leader is entirely distinctive, and these words couldhave been taken from nothing else. As it was done yesterday thestrong probability was that we should find the words in yesterday's issue."

"So far as I can follow you, then, Mr. Holmes," said SirHenry Baskerville, "someone cut out this message with ascissors --"

"Nail-scissors," said Holmes. "You can see that it was avery short-bladed scissors, since the cutter had to take two snipsover 'keep away.' "

"That is so. Someone, then, cut out the message with a pairof short-bladed scissors, pasted it with paste --"

"Gum," said Holmes.

"With gum on to the paper. But I want to know why the word'moor' should have been written?"

"Because he could not find it in print. The other words wereall simple and might be found in any issue, but 'moor' would beless common."

"Why, of course, that would explain it. Have you read anything else in this message, Mr. Holmes?"

"There are one or two indications, and yet the utmost painshave been taken to remove all clues. The address, you observeis printed in rough characters. But the Times is a paper which isseldom found in any hands but those of the highly educated. Wemay take it, therefore, that the letter was composed by aneducated man who wished to pose as an uneducated one, and hiseffort to conceal his own writing suggests that that writing mightbe known, or come to be known, by you. Again, you willobserve that the words are not gummed on in an accurate line,but that some are much higher than others. 'Life,' for exampleis quite out of its proper place. That may point to carelessness orit may point to agitation and hurry upon the part of the cutter. Onthe whole I incline to the latter view, since the matter wasevidently important, and it is unlikely that the composer of sucha letter would be careless. If he were in a hurry it opens up theinteresting question why he should be in a hurry, since any letterposted up to early morning would reach Sir Henry before hewould leave his hotel. Did the composer fear an interruption -- and from whom?"

"We are coming now rather into the region of guesswork,"said Dr. Mortimer.

"Say, rather, into the region where we balance probabilitiesand choose the most likely. It is the scientific use of the imagination, but we have always some material basis on which to startour speculation. Now, you would call it a guess, no doubt, but Iam almost certain that this address has been written in a hotel."

"How in the world can you say that?"

"If you examine it carefully you will see that both the pen andthe ink have given the writer trouble. The pen has splutteredtwice in a single word and has run dry three times in a shortaddress, showing that there was very little ink in the bottle.Now, a private pen or ink-bottle is seldom allowed to be in sucha state, and the combination of the two must be quite rare. Butyou know the hotel ink and the hotel pen, where it is rare to getanything else. Yes, I have very little hesitation in saying thatcould we examine the waste-paper baskets of the hotels aroundCharing Cross until we found the remains of the mutilated Timesleader we could lay our hands straight upon the person who sentthis singular message. Halloa! Halloa! What's this?"

He was carefully examining the foolscap, upon which thewords were pasted, holding it only an inch or two from his eyes.

"Well?"

"Nothing," said he, throwing it down. "It is a blank halfsheet of paper, without even a water-mark upon it. I think wehave drawn as much as we can from this curious letter; and now,Sir Henry, has anything else of interest happened to you sinceyou have been in London?"

"Why, no, Mr. Holmes. I think not."

"You have not observed anyone follow or watch you?"

"I seem to have walked right into the thick of a dime novel,"said our visitor. "Why in thunder should anyone follow or watchme?"

"We are coming to that. You have nothing else to report to usbefore we go into this matter?"

"Well, it depends upon what you think worth reporting."

"I think anything out of the ordinary routine of life well worthreporting."

Sir Henry smiled.

"I don't know much of British life yet, for I have spent nearlyall my time in the States and in Canada. But I hope that to loseone of your boots is not part of the ordinary routine of life overhere."

"You have lost one of your boots?"

"My dear sir," cried Dr. Mortimer, "it is only mislaid. Youwill find it when you return to the hotel. What is the use oftroubling Mr. Holmes with trifles of this kind?"

"Well, he asked me for anything outside the ordinary routine."

"Exactly," said Holmes, "however foolish the incident mayseem. You have lost one of your boots, you say?"

"Well, mislaid it, anyhow. I put them both outside my doorlast night, and there was only one in the morning. I could get nosense out of the chap who cleans them. The worst of it is that Ionly bought the pair last night in the Strand, and I have neverhad them on."

"If you have never worn them, why did you put them out tobe cleaned?"

"They were tan boots and had never been varnished. That waswhy I put them out."

"Then I understand that on your arrival in London yesterdayyou went out at once and bought a pair of boots?"

"I did a good deal of shopping. Dr. Mortimer here went roundwith me. You see, if I am to be squire down there I must dressthe part, and it may be that I have got a little careless in my waysout West. Among other things I bought these brown boots -- gavesix dollars for them -- and had one stolen before ever I had themon my feet."

"It seems a singularly useless thing to steal," said SherlockHolmes. "I confess that I share Dr. Mortimer's belief that it willnot be long before the missing boot is found."

"And, now, gentlemen," said the baronet with decision, "itseems to me that I have spoken quite enough about the little thatI know. It is time that you kept your promise and gave me a fullaccount of what we are all driving at."

"Your request is a very reasonable one," Holmes answered."Dr. Mortimer, I think you could not do better than to tell yourstory as you told it to us."

Thus encouraged, our scientific friend drew his papers fromhis pocket and presented the whole case as he had done upon themorning before. Sir Henry Baskerville listened with the deepestattention and with an occasional exclamation of surprise.

"Well, I seem to have come into an inheritance with a vengeance," said he when the long narrative was finished. "Ofcourse, I've heard of the hound ever since I was in the nursery.It's the pet story of the family, though I never thought of takingit seriously before. But as to my uncle's death -- well, it allseems boiling up in my head, and I can't get it clear yet. Youdon't seem quite to have made up your mind whether it's a casefor a policeman or a clergyman."

"Precisely."

"And now there's this affair of the letter to me at the hotel. Isuppose that fits into its place."

"It seems to show that someone knows more than we do aboutwhat goes on upon the moor," said Dr. Mortimer.

"And also," said Holmes, "that someone is not ill-disposedtowards you, since they warn you of danger."

"Or it may be that they wish, for their own purposes, to scareme away."

"Well, of course, that is possible also. I am very muchindebted to you, Dr. Mortimer, for introducing me to a problemwhich presents several interesting alternatives. But the practicalpoint which we now have to decide, Sir Henry, is whether it is oris not advisable for you to go to Baskerville Hall."

"Why should I not go?"

"There seems to be danger."

"Do you mean danger from this family fiend or do you meandanger from human beings?"

"Well, that is what we have to find out."

"Whichever it is, my answer is fixed. There is no devil inhell, Mr. Holmes, and there is no man upon earth who canprevent me from going to the home of my own people, and youmay take that to be my final answer." His dark brows knittedand his face flushed to a dusky red as he spoke. It was evidentthat the fiery temper of the Baskervilles was not extinct in thistheir last representative. "Meanwhile," said he, "I have hardlyhad time to think over all that you have told me. It's a big thingfor a man to have to understand and to decide at one sitting. Ishould like to have a quiet hour by myself to make up my mind.Now, look here, Mr. Holmes, it's half-past eleven now and I amgoing back right away to my hotel.- Suppose you and your friend,Dr. Watson, come round and lunch with us at two. I'll be able totell you more clearly then how this thing strikes me."

"Is that convenient to you, Watson?"

"Perfectly."

"Then you may expect us. Shall I have a cab called?"

"I'd prefer to walk, for this affair has flurried me rather."

"I'll join you in a walk, with pleasure," said his companion.

"Then we meet again at two o'clock. Au revoir, and good-morning!"

We heard the steps of our visitors descend the stair and thebang of the front door. In an instant Holmes had changed fromthe languid dreamer to the man of action.

"Your hat and boots, Watson, quick! Not a moment to lose!"He rushed into his room in his dressing-gown and was backagain in a few seconds in a frock-coat. We hurried together downthe stairs and into the street. Dr. Mortimer and Baskerville werestill visible about two hundred yards ahead of us in the directionof Oxford Street.

"Shall I run on and stop them?"

"Not for the world, my dear Watson. I am perfectly satisfiedwith your company if you will tolerate mine. Our friends arewise, for it is certainly a very fine morning for a walk."

He quickened his pace until we had decreased the distancewhich divided us by about half. Then, still keeping a hundredyards behind, we followed into Oxford Street and so downRegent Street. Once our friends stopped and stared into a shopwindow, upon which Holmes did the same. An instant afterwards he gave a little cry of satisfaction, and, following thedirection of his eager eyes, I saw that a hansom cab with a maninside which had halted on the other side of the street was nowproceeding slowly onward again.

"There's our man, Watson! Come along! We'll have a goodlook at him, if we can do no more."

At that instant I was aware of a bushy black beard and a pairof piercing eyes turned upon us through the side window of thecab. Instantly the trapdoor at the top flew up, something wasscreamed to the driver, and the cab flew madly off down RegentStreet. Holmes looked eagerly round for another, but no-emptyone was in sight. Then he dashed in wild pursuit amid the streamof the traffic, but the start was too great, and already the cab wasout of sight.

"There now!" said Holmes bitterly as he emerged panting andwhite with vexation from the tide of vehicles. "Was ever suchbad luck and such bad management, too? Watson, Watson, ifyou are an honest man you will record this also and set it againstmy successes!"

"Who was the man?"

"I have not an idea."

"A spy?"

"Well, it was evident from what we have heard that Baskerville has been very closely shadowed by someone since he hasbeen in town. How else could it be known so quickly that it wasthe Northumberland Hotel which he had chosen? If they hadfollowed him the first day I argued that they would follow himalso the second. You may have observed that I twice strolledover to the window while Dr. Mortimer was reading his legend."

"Yes, I remember."

"I was looking out for loiterers in the street, but I saw none.We are dealing with a clever man, Watson. This matter cuts verydeep, and though I have not finally made up my mind whether itis a benevolent or a malevolent agency which is in touch with us,I am conscious always of power and design. When our friendsleft I at once followed them in the hopes of marking down theirinvisible attendant. So wily was he that he had not trustedhimself upon foot, but he had availed himself of a cab so that hecould loiter behind or dash past them and so escape their notice.His method had the additional advantage that if they were to takea cab he was all ready to follow them. It has, however, oneobvious disadvantage."

"It puts him in the power of the cabman."

"Exactly."

"What a pity we did not get the number!"

"My dear Watson, clumsy as I have been, you surely do notseriously imagine that I neglected to get the number? No. 2704is our man. But that is no use to us for the moment."

"I fail to see how you could have done more."

"On observing the cab I should have instantly turned andwalked in the other direction. I should then at my leisure havehired a second cab and followed the first at a respectful distance,or, better still, have driven to the Northumberland Hotel andwaited there. When our unknown had followed Baskerville homewe should have had the opportunity of playing his own gameupon himself and seeing where he made for. As it is, by anindiscreet eagerness, which was taken advantage of with extraordinary quickness and energy by our opponent, we have betrayedourselves and lost our man."

We had been sauntering slowly down Regent Street during thisconversation, and Dr. Mortimer, with his companion, had longvanished in front of us.

"There is no object in our following them," said Holmes."The shadow has departed and will not return. We must seewhat further cards we have in our hands and play them withdecision. Could you swear to that man's face within the cab?"

"I could swear only to the beard."

"And so could I -- from which I gather that in all probability itwas a false one. A clever man upon so delicate an errand has nouse for a beard save to conceal his features. Come in here,Watson!"

He turned into one of the district messenger offices, where hewas warmly greeted by the manager.

"Ah, Wilson, I see you have not forgotten the little case inwhich I had the good fortune to help you?"

"No, sir, indeed I have not. You saved my good name, andperhaps my life."

"My dear fellow, you exaggerate. I have some recollection,Wilson, that you had among your boys a lad named Cartwright,who showed some ability during the investigation."

"Yes, sir, he is still with us."

"Could you ring him up? -- thank you! And I should be glad tohave change of this five-pound note."

A lad of fourteen, with a bright, keen face, had obeyed thesummons of the manager. He stood now gazing with greatreverence at the famous detective.

"Let me have the Hotel Directory," said Holmes. "Thankyou! Now, Cartwright, there are the names of twenty-threehotels here, all in the immediate neighbourhood of CharingCross. Do you see?"

"Yes, sir."

"You will visit each of these in turn."

"Yes, sir."

"You will begin in each case by giving the outside porter oneshilling. Here are twenty-three shillings."

"Yes, sir."

"You will tell him that you want to see the waste-paper ofyesterday. You will say that an important telegram has miscarried and that you are looking for it. You understand?"

"Yes, sir."

"But what you are really looking for is the centre page of theTimes with some holes cut in it with scissors. Here is a copy ofthe Times. It is this page. You could easily recognize it, couldyou not?"

"Yes, sir."

"In each case the outside porter will send for the hall porter,to whom also you will give a shilling. Here are twenty-threeshillings. You will then learn in possibly twenty cases out of thetwenty-three that the waste of the day before has been burned orremoved. In the three other cases you will be shown a heap ofpaper and you will look for this page of the Times among it. Theodds are enormously against your finding it. There are tenshillings over in case of emergencies. Let me have a report bywire at Baker Street before evening. And now, Watson, it onlyremains for us to find out by wire the identity of the cabman,No. 2704, and then we will drop into one of the Bond Streetpicture galleries and fill in the time until we are due at thehotel."