[Discussion] Bonus Book || The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle || Ch. 10-15

By GlimmerBrocaded

We’re at the end of The Hound of the Baskervilles this week, with chapters 10-15, and that wraps this one up. But there’s a new book right after it, since Valley of Fear starts next week! The Marginalia post is here, and the Schedule is here. Here’s a quick run-through of this section. Please keep spoilers for other books inside > ! Spoiler text here !<, with no spaces in the tag itself. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Chapter Summaries: CHAPTER 10 - EXTRACT FROM THE DIARY OF DR. WATSON: On Oct. 16, Watson thinks the odd man he spotted out on the moor might be the same one from the London cab, but he keeps it to himself for now, even from Henry. Later, he hears Sir Henry and Mr. Barrymore snapping at each other after breakfast. Henry asks Watson what he thinks. They’re arguing about whether they should go after Mrs. Barrymore’s brother Selden, the escaped convict, when he’s supposedly about to leave for South America and won’t be a problem anymore. (South America is apparently just empty, I guess.) Watson says it’s okay to let him go, so they don’t call the police. In return, Barrymore gives up another detail about Sir Charles’ death. He got a note from Coombe Tracey, apparently from a woman, telling him to come at 10 p.m. and destroy the letter, signed L. L. Watson wants Holmes to hear about it, since Holmes is tied up with London work, and hopes it gets him back out on the moor. Oct. 17 - Watson goes out in the rain to check the tor where he saw the strange man. He gets a ride home with Mr. Mortimer, who’s upset because his spaniel is gone. Mortimer tells him the only woman nearby with those initials is Laura Lyons, whose husband left her and whose father cut her off. She’s from Coombe Tracey too, which matches the burned letter. After that, Watson talks to Barrymore and learns that Selden told the butler about the other man on the moor. This second hidden guy is staying there for his own reasons. He’s living in the old stone huts and probably gets food brought by a boy from, yep, Coombe Tracey. CHAPTER 11 - THE MAN ON THE TOR: Watson starts digging in. He wants to talk to the two biggest question marks, L.L. and the guy on the moor. First he gets Laura Lyons alone so she can tell him what happened with Sir Charles without causing a scene. Mrs. Lyons says Mr. Stapleton put her in touch with Sir Charles, and she’d been depending on his help to get by. He had offered money that would let her get a divorce from her useless husband, and that’s why she sent the strange letter. But she never showed up, because someone else helped her out before that meeting happened. Watson can’t really find a crack in what she says. Then he heads to the moor to confront the mysterious figure from the Black Tar, who he figures is also the cab watcher from London. Frankland, the local nuisance who loves lawsuits, interrupts him, but that actually helps when Frankland points out the boy delivering supplies to one of the old stone houses. Frankland thinks it’s for the escaped convict, but he isn’t about to help the police since they messed up one of his cases. Watson checks the hut and sees signs someone’s been living there recently, but not much else about who he is. He does find a note about where Watson himself has been, and realizes this man has been watching him, not Sir Henry. Watson hides with his pistol ready until the man comes back. And then it turns out to be Sherlock Holmes. CHAPTER 12 - DEATH ON THE MOOR: Holmes and Watson are finally back together, which should be great, except Watson first feels sort of played because Holmes has been nearby doing his own thing and never told him. Watson relaxes once Holmes explains he wanted to keep his own angle and only step in at the right time. They compare notes and it becomes pretty clear Stapleton is the one behind everything. His “sister” is actually his wife, and once Mrs. Lyons learns she’s been strung along, she’ll probably help Holmes and Watson build the case against him. But they may be too late, because they hear the hound and then some awful screams. They rush out looking for Sir Henry, but only find a dead body. It’s Selden, wearing Sir Henry’s old clothes as he gets ready to run. Stapleton is coming across the moor, and Holmes tells Watson not to show their hand since they still don’t have proof. Stapleton seems sure they’ve guessed nothing and is glad Holmes is headed back to London. CHAPTER 13 - FIXING THE NETS: Holmes doesn’t tell Sir Henry the whole truth, but he does tell him to follow their instructions exactly if he wants this solved. Sir Henry agrees, even when Holmes says he and Watson are leaving him alone and going back to London. Sir Henry is supposed to take the Stapletons’ dinner invite and send along a message that Holmes and Watson wish they could have stayed but got called away on urgent business. He’s also meant to walk home the same way across the moor. After Sir Henry leaves, Holmes points out to Watson that one of the old Baskerville portraits, the one of Hugo, looks a lot like Stapleton. He’s clearly tied to the family and probably wants the estate by getting rid of Sir Henry, just like he likely did with Charles. Holmes and Watson go to the station in Coombe Tracey, but first they speak with Mrs. Lyons. She’s furious that Stapleton is married, since he promised to marry her if she could get her divorce. So she spills everything she knows, linking him to the letters to Sir Charles and the meeting that led to his death. Then Holmes sends the delivery boy back to London with a telegram for Sir Henry, pretending Holmes is out of the way. Finally, they pick up Lestrade from the afternoon train, since Holmes has asked for backup, and he’s brought an unsigned warrant with him. CHAPTER 14 - THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES: Holmes and Watson watch the dinner so they can keep an eye on Sir Henry and Stapleton. They plan to step in when it gets dangerous, but Holmes is worried the fog might ruin everything if it covers Sir Henry’s route home. They see Stapleton open a shed outside his house right before Sir Henry leaves, and Mrs. Stapleton isn’t around. Holmes and Watson head out onto the moor to wait for the hound while Sir Henry, still clueless about the setup, starts home. Then they hear it and see it coming. The dog is enormous and disgusting, all glowing and vicious. They both fire at it, but it keeps going. It jumps at Sir Henry, and they have to rush over and shoot it at close range. Luckily Sir Henry is fine. Holmes thinks Stapleton probably heard the gunshots and ran, but they search the house anyway. Inside, they find Mrs. Stapleton tied up, gagged, and badly bruised. She isn’t really worried about her husband, who’s been cruel to her for years, but about Sir Henry. She tells them where Stapleton may have gone, so they follow him to a ruined old hut where he’d been keeping the hound between killings. There they figure out he used phosphorus to make the dog glow and seem supernatural so it would scare people to death more easily. They also find the remains of Mortimer’s missing spaniel. Even after searching the moor at real risk to themselves, they never find Stapleton and assume he sank into the bog and died. They do get one of Sir Henry’s missing boots, which Stapleton used to give the hound the right scent. Holmes is satisfied the case is done and the dangerous man is gone. CHAPTER 15 - A RETROSPECTION: Later on, Watson asks Holmes to go back over the Baskerville case. By then Holmes has learned a lot more. Stapleton really was part of the Baskerville line, the nephew of Sir Charles, and he had been in South America before coming to England. He came here planning to get the money by arranging his uncle’s death. After hearing the curse story from the superstitious Sir Charles, Stapleton secretly got the hound, but he still needed a way to lure the old man out at night. His connection with Mrs. Lyons gave him that opening. After Charles was dealt with, he had to go after Henry too, and at first he meant to target him in London. That gets harder, especially once he realizes Holmes is involved. He got the boots for tracking by scent, and he needed two because the first one he took was new and useless for the plan. Holmes knew Stapleton would act differently if he suspected him, so he kept things from everyone, even Watson, and investigated without tipping him off. Stapleton’s wife was onto him too, and even though she was scared of him, she wouldn’t help him commit murder. He realized she might betray him to Sir Henry, so he tied her up the night of the attack. After that she talked with Holmes several times and explained more, including how Stapleton was thinking about getting the inheritance without drawing attention, since a surprise relative moving in next door after two deaths would look pretty suspicious. He might’ve done it through someone else, with a disguise, or by going back to South America and claiming it there. Holmes does regret putting Sir Henry at risk, but he’s been told Henry will recover after the long trip he’s planned with Dr. Mortimer. And that’s the end of The Hound of the Baskervilles! +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Hope you enjoy the discussion questions below. Feel free to add your own thoughts and questions too.