Arthur Conan Doyle · 1902
Questions on the text, each answered in the book’s own words, with the minute you hear it.
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Answer 1884
“To James Mortimer, M.R.C.S., from his friends of the C.C.H.,” was engraved upon it, with the date “1884.”
Answer A curly-haired spaniel
“It may have been—yes, by Jove, it is a curly-haired spaniel.”
Answer Monsieur Bertillon
“To the man of precisely scientific mind the work of Monsieur Bertillon must always appeal strongly.”
Answer 1742
“The exact date is 1742.” Dr. Mortimer drew it from his breast-pocket.”
Answer Thirteen
“the whole of them, thirteen in number, took horse and started in pursuit.”
Answer Murphy, a gipsy horse-dealer
“One Murphy, a gipsy horse-dealer, was on the moor at no great distance at the time, but he appears by his own confession to have been the worse for drink.”
Answer The footprints of a gigantic hound
“Mr. Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound!”
Answer The ash had twice dropped from his cigar
“Because the ash had twice dropped from his cigar.”
Answer Running
“He was running, Watson—running desperately, running for his life, running until he burst his heart—and fell dead upon his face.”
Answer “moor”
“The word “moor” only was printed in ink.”
Answer The Times
“There is as much difference to my eyes between the leaded bourgeois type of a Times article and the slovenly print of an evening half-penny paper as there could be between your negro and your Esquimau.”
Answer No. 2704
“No. 2704 is our man. But that is no use to us for the moment.”
Answer Three
“I only had three pairs in the world—the new brown, the old black, and the patent leathers, which I am wearing.”
Answer Five hundred pounds
“He and his wife had five hundred pounds each.”
Answer James Desmond, an elderly clergyman
“James Desmond is an elderly clergyman in Westmoreland.”
Answer Mr. Sherlock Holmes
“It might interest you to know that you have been driving Mr. Sherlock Holmes.’ That’s how I come to know the name.”
Answer Selden, the Notting Hill murderer
“It is Selden, the Notting Hill murderer.” I remembered the case well, for it was one in which Holmes had taken an interest on account of the peculiar ferocity of the crime”
Answer A row of electric lamps
“I’ll have a row of electric lamps up here inside of six months, and you won’t know it again, with a thousand candle-power Swan and Edison right here in front of the hall door.”
Answer The sob of a woman
“It was the sob of a woman, the muffled, strangling gasp of one who is torn by an uncontrollable sorrow.”
Answer Go straight back to London
“Go straight back to London, instantly.” I could only stare at her in stupid surprise.”
Answer A Cyclopides
“Yes, I was chasing a Cyclopides. He is very rare and seldom found in the late autumn. What a pity that I should have missed him!”
Answer An epidemic broke out and three of the boys died
“A serious epidemic broke out in the school and three of the boys died.”
Answer A prehistoric skull
“He has been excavating a barrow at Long Down and has got a prehistoric skull which fills him with great joy.”
Answer Some four miles to the south
“This is Mr. Frankland, of Lafter Hall, who lives some four miles to the south of us.”
Answer Three months
“He would withdraw all opposition upon his part if I would promise for three months to let the matter rest and to be content with cultivating the lady’s friendship during that time without claiming her love.”
Answer Selden, the escaped convict
“Yes, sir, my name was Selden, and he is my younger brother. We humoured him too much when he was a lad and gave him his own way in everything”
Answer The figure of a man upon the tor
“There, outlined as black as an ebony statue on that shining background, I saw the figure of a man upon the tor.”
Answer L. L.
“I can’t give you the name, sir, but I can give you the initials. Her initials were L. L.”
Answer His little spaniel
“I found him much troubled over the disappearance of his little spaniel. It had wandered on to the moor and had never come back.”
Answer Frankland’s
“She is Frankland’s daughter.” “What! Old Frankland the crank?” “Exactly. She married an artist named Lyons, who came sketching on the moor.”
Answer A Remington typewriter
“a lady, who was sitting before a Remington typewriter, sprang up with a pleasant smile of welcome.”
Answer Through his telescope upon the roof
“I see him every day through my telescope upon the roof. He passes along the same path at the same hour, and to whom should he be going except to the convict?”
Answer “Dr. Watson has gone to Coombe Tracey.”
“I raised it, and this was what I read, roughly scrawled in pencil: “Dr. Watson has gone to Coombe Tracey.”
Answer The stub of a cigarette marked Bradley, Oxford Street
“for when I see the stub of a cigarette marked Bradley, Oxford Street, I know that my friend Watson is in the neighbourhood.”
Answer Stapleton’s wife
“The lady who has passed here as Miss Stapleton is in reality his wife.”
Answer The man has a beard
“A beard! A beard! The man has a beard!”
Answer Stapleton’s
“The face of Stapleton had sprung out of the canvas.”
Answer Lestrade
“Wire received. Coming down with unsigned warrant. Arrive five-forty. Lestrade.”
Answer Vandeleur
“It is indorsed ‘Mr. and Mrs. Vandeleur,’ but you will have no difficulty in recognizing him, and her also, if you know her by sight.”
Answer Five
“But the next instant Holmes had emptied five barrels of his revolver into the creature’s flank.”
Answer Phosphorus
“I placed my hand upon the glowing muzzle, and as I held them up my own fingers smouldered and gleamed in the darkness. “Phosphorus,” I said.”
Answer An old tin mine on an island in the heart of the mire
“There is an old tin mine on an island in the heart of the mire. It was there that he kept his hound and there also he had made preparations so that he might have a refuge.”
Answer Meyers, Toronto
“He held an old black boot in the air. “Meyers, Toronto,” was printed on the leather inside.”
Answer White jessamine
“In doing so I held it within a few inches of my eyes, and was conscious of a faint smell of the scent known as white jessamine.”
Answer Les Huguenots
“I have a box for Les Huguenots. Have you heard the De Reszkes?”
“The Hound of the Baskervilles,” serialised in The Strand Magazine, August 1901 – April 1902; published in book form by George Newnes, London, 1902. This text follows the Project Gutenberg transcription (#2852). Public domain.