The Complete Novels of Sherlock Holmes

Chapter 8 The police trial had passed, in which the case of John Douglas was referred to a higher court. So had the Quarter Sessions, at which he was acquitted as having acted in self-defense.“Get him out of England at any cost,” wrote Holmes to the wife. “There are forces here which may be more …

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Chapter 7 As McMurdo had said, the house in which he lived was a lonely one and very well suited for such a crime as they had planned. It was on the extreme fringe of the town and stood well back from the road. In any other case the conspirators would have simply called out …

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Chapter 6 It was the height of the reign of terror. McMurdo, who had already been appointed Inner Deacon, with every prospect of some day succeeding McGinty as Bodymaster, was now so necessary to the councils of his comrades that nothing was done without his help and advice. The more popular he became, however, with …

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Chapter 5 If anything had been needed to give an impetus to Jack McMurdo’s popularity among his fellows it would have been his arrest and acquittal. That a man on the very night of joining the lodge should have done something which brought him before the magistrate was a new record in the annals of …

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Chapter 4 When McMurdo awoke next morning he had good reason to remember his initiation into the lodge. His head ached with the effect of the drink, and his arm, where he had been branded, was hot and swollen. Having his own peculiar source of income, he was irregular in his attendance at his work; …

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Chapter 3 On the day following the evening which had contained so many exciting events, McMurdo moved his lodgings from old Jacob Shafter ’s and took up his quarters at the Widow MacNamara’s on the extreme outskirts of the town. Scanlan, his original acquaintance aboard the train, had occasion shortly afterwards to move into Vermissa, …

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Chapter 2 McMurdo was a man who made his mark quickly. Wherever he was the folk around soon knew it. Within a week he had become infinitely the most important person at Shafter’s. There were ten or a dozen boarders there; but they were honest foremen or commonplace clerks from the stores, of a very …

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Chapter 1 It was the fourth of February in the year 1875. It had been a severe winter, and the snow lay deep in the gorges of the Gilmerton Mountains. The steam ploughs had, however, kept the railroad open, and the evening train which connects the long line of coal-mining and iron-working settlements was slowly …

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Chapter 7 Next morning, after breakfast, we found Inspector MacDonald and White Mason seated in close consultation in the small parlour of the local police sergeant. On the table in front of them were piled a number of letters and telegrams, which they were carefully sorting and docketing. Three had been placed on one side.“Still …

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Chapter 6 The three detectives had many matters of detail into which to inquire; so I returned alone to our modest quarters at the village inn. But before doing so I took a stroll in the curious old-world garden which flanked the house. Rows of very ancient yew trees cut into strange designs girded it …

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Chapter 5 “Have you seen all you want of the study?” asked White Mason as we reentered the house.“For the time,” said the inspector, and Holmes nodded.“Then perhaps you would now like to hear the evidence of some of the people in the house. We could use the dining-room, Ames. Please come yourself first and …

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Chapter 4 At three in the morning the chief Sussex detective, obeying the urgent call from Sergeant Wilson of Birlstone, arrived from headquarters in a light dog-cart behind a breathless trotter. By the five-forty train in the morning he had sent his message to Scotland Yard, and he was at the Birlstone station at twelve …

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Chapter 3 Now for a moment I will ask leave to remove my own insignificant personality and to describe events which occurred before we arrived upon the scene by the light of knowledge which came to us afterwards. Only in this way can I make the reader appreciate the people concerned and the strange setting …

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Chapter 2 It was one of those dramatic moments for which my friend existed. It would be an overstatement to say that he was shocked or even excited by the amazing announcement. Without having a tinge of cruelty in his singular composition, he was undoubtedly callous from long over-stimulation. Yet, if his emotions were dulled, …

Part one–Sherlock Holmes Discourses (The Valley of Fear) Read More »

Chapter 1 Sam inclined to think—” said I.“I should do so,” Sherlock Holmes remarked impatiently.I believe that I am one of the most long-suffering of mortals; but I’ll admit that I was annoyed at the sardonic interruption.“Really, Holmes,” said I severely, “you are a little trying at times.”He was too much absorbed with his own …

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Chapter 15 It was the end of November and Holmes and I sat, upon a raw and foggy night, on either side of a blazing fire in our sitting-room in Baker Street. Since the tragic upshot of our visit to Devonshire he had been engaged in two affairs of the utmost importance, in the first …

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Chapter 14 One of Sherlock Holmes’s defects—if, indeed, one may call it a defect—was that he was exceedingly loath to communicate his full plans to any other person until the instant of their fulfilment. Partly it came no doubt from his own masterful nature, which loved to dominate and surprise those who were around him. …

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Chapter 13 “We’re at close grips at last,” said Holmes as we walked together across the moor. “What a nerve the fellow has! How he pulled himself together in the face of what must have been a paralyzing shock when he found that the wrong man had fallen a victim to his plot. I told …

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Chapter 12 For a moment or two I sat breathless, hardly able to believe my ears. Then my senses and my voice came back to me, while a crushing weight of responsibility seemed in an instant to be lifted from my soul. That cold, incisive, ironical voice could belong to but one man in all …

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Chapter 11 The extract from my private diary which forms the last chapter has brought my narrative up to the 18th of October, a time when these strange events began to move swiftly towards their terrible conclusion. The incidents of the next few days are indelibly graven upon my recollection, and I can tell them …

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Chapter 10 So far I have been able to quote from the reports which I have forwarded during these early days to Sherlock Holmes. Now, however, I have arrived at a point in my narrative where I am compelled to abandon this method and to trust once more to my recollections, aided by the diary …

Part Four–Extract from the Diary of Dr. Watson (The Hound of the Baskervilles) Read More »

Chapter 9 [SECOND REPORT OF DR. WATSON] Baskerville Hall, Oct. 15th. My dear Holmes:If I was compelled to leave you without much news during the early days of my mission you must acknowledge that I am making up for lost time, and that events are now crowding thick and fast upon us. In my last …

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Chapter 8 From this point onward I will follow the course of events by transcribing my own letters to Mr. Sherlock Holmes which lie before me on the table. One page is missing, but otherwise they are exactly as written and show my feelings and suspicions of the moment more accurately than my memory, clear …

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Chapter 7 The fresh beauty of the following morning did something to efface from our minds the grim and gray impression which had been left upon both of us by our first experience of Baskerville Hall. As Sir Henry and I sat at breakfast the sunlight flooded in through the high mullioned windows, throwing watery …

Part Four–The Stapletons of Merripit House (The Hound of the Baskervilles) Read More »

Chapter 6 Sir Henry Baskerville and Dr. Mortimer were ready upon the appointed day, and we started as arranged for Devonshire. Mr. Sherlock Holmes drove with me to the station and gave me his last parting injunctions and advice.“I will not bias your mind by suggesting theories or suspicions, Watson,” said he; “I wish you …

Part Four–Baskerville Hall (The Hound of the Baskervilles) Read More »

Chapter 5 Sherlock Holmes had, in a very remarkable degree, the power of detaching his mind at will. For two hours the strange business in which we had been involved appeared to be forgotten, and he was entirely absorbed in the pictures of the modern Belgian masters. He would talk of nothing but art, of …

Part Four–Three Broken Threads (The Hound of the Baskervilles) Read More »

Chapter 4 Our breakfast-table was cleared early, and Holmes waited in his dressing-gown for the promised interview. Our clients were punctual to their appointment, for the clock had just struck ten when Dr. Mortimer was shown up, followed by the young baronet. The latter was a small, alert, dark-eyed man about thirty years of age, …

Part Four–Sir Henry Baskerville (The Hound of the Baskervilles) Read More »

Chapter 3 I confess at these words a shudder passed through me. There was a thrill in the doctor ’s voice which showed that he was himself deeply moved by that which he told us. Holmes leaned forward in his excitement and his eyes had the hard, dry glitter which shot from them when he …

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Chapter 2 “I have in my pocket a manuscript,” said Dr. James Mortimer.“I observed it as you entered the room,” said Holmes.“It is an old manuscript.”“Early eighteenth century, unless it is a forgery.”“How can you say that, sir?”“You have presented an inch or two of it to my examination all the time that you have …

Part Four–The Curse of the Baskervilles (The Hound of the Baskervilles) Read More »

Chapter 1 Mr. Sherlock Holmes, who was usually very late in the mornings, save upon those not infrequent occasions when he was up all night, was seated at the break-fast table. I stood upon the hearth-rug and picked up the stick which our visitor had left behind him the night before. It was a fine, …

Part Four–Mr. Sherlock Holmes (The Hound of the Baskervilles) Read More »