The Hound of the Baskervilles: Looking Back

A month later, on a foggy November evening in Baker Street, Holmes finally explained the whole case to Watson.Sir Henry and Dr. Mortimer had gone on a long journey around the world so that Sir Henry’s nerves could recover.

Stapleton was really the son of Rodger Baskerville, Sir Charles’s younger brother, who had fled to South America long ago.There he had married Beryl Garcia, a beauty from Costa Rica, and after stealing public money he had come to England under a false name.When he learned that only two lives stood between him and the Baskerville fortune, he moved to the moor as a harmless naturalist.

He bought the biggest, fiercest dog he could find in London and hid it on an island in the Grimpen Mire.Knowing that Sir Charles had a weak heart and believed the old legend, he used the painted hound to frighten him to death.Laura Lyons’s letter had brought Sir Charles out to the gate at exactly the right time.

In London, Stapleton followed Sir Henry and had one of his boots stolen, so that the hound could learn his smell.The first boot was brand new and useless, so he sent it back and took an old one instead, and this told Holmes that a real dog was involved.

His wife had refused to help with murder, and it was she who had sent the warning made of words cut from a newspaper.Stapleton had made her pretend to be his sister so that a rich man like Sir Henry would fall in love with her.

When Watson asked how Stapleton could have claimed the fortune, Holmes guessed that he might have done it from South America, through a lawyer.Then he put the case away and invited Watson to the opera, saying that they had earned a little pleasure.