A Sherlock Holmes Novel: The Hound of the Baskervilles Audiobook
Mortimer produces a manuscript which he gives to Holmes and Watson. The document dates to 1742, and is from Baskerville Hall, and reveals the myth of the Baskerville curse. Mortimer reads that at the time of the ‘Great Revolution’, Hugo Baskerville lorded over Baskerville mansion in Devonshire. He was sex-crazed and became obsessed with a local yeoman’s daughter, who he kidnapped and put in an upstairs room, but managed to escape during a raucous party, and fled across the moorlands outside.
In furious response, Hugo made a deal with the devil, and released his hounds across the moors in pursuit of the girl. His companions followed Hugo and the hounds, and then came across the bodies of both Hugo and the girl. Hugo had had his throat ripped out by a supernatural great black beast, which has haunted the family ever since. Indeed, it recently killed Sir Charles Baskerville, the last inhabitant of the hall.
Mortimer shows Holmes and Watson the Devon County Chronicle from May 14 which details the late Sir Charles’ philanthropy and the circumstances about his death. Charles made lots of money in South Africa before returning to the family estate, and giving generously to the local population. The chronicle discounts the myth, stating that some of his servants, Mr. and Mrs. Barrymore, found Charles dead on his nightly walk down Yew Alley on the edge of the haunted moorlands.
It is suspicious that Charles dawdled at the gate to the alley, and appeared to tiptoe or run down the alley itself. However, the paper states that the coroner ruled that he died of a heart attack. His next of kin, Sir Henry Baskerville, is urged in the paper to take his uncle’s post and carry on his philanthropy. Off the record, Mortimer claims that Sir Charles’ poor health was because of his fear of the curse, and that the scene of the crime also contained the footsteps of a giant hound.