s jury returned a verdict in accordance with the medical
        evidence. It is well that this is so, for it is obviously of the utmost
        importance that Sir Charles's heir should settle at the Hall and
        continue the good work which has been so sadly interrupted. Had the
        prosaic finding of the coroner not finally put an end to the romantic
        stories which have been whispered in connection with the affair, it
        might have been difficult to find a tenant for Baskerville Hall. It is
        understood that the next of kin is Mr. Henry Baskerville, if he be still
        alive, the son of Sir Charles Baskerville's younger brother. The young
        man when last heard of was in America, and inquiries are being
        instituted with a view to informing him of his good fortune.«
 
Dr. Mortimer refolded his paper and replaced it in his pocket.
    »Those are the public facts, Mr. Holmes, in connection with the death of Sir
Charles Baskerville.«
    »I must thank you,« said Sherlock Holmes, »for calling my attention to a
case which certainly presents some features of interest. I had observed some
newspaper comment at the time, but I was exceedingly preoccupied by that little
affair of the Vatican cameos, and in my anxiety to oblige the Pope I lost touch
with several interesting English cases. This article, you say, contains all the
public facts?«
    »It does.«
    »Then let me have the private ones.« He leaned back, put his fingertips
together, and assumed his most impassive and judicial expression.
    »In doing so,« said Dr. Mortimer, who had begun to show signs of some strong
emotion, »I am telling that which I have not confided to anyone. My motive for
withholding it from the coroner's inquiry is that a man of science shrinks from
placing himself in the public position of seeming to indorse a popular
superstition. I had the further motive that Baskerville Hall, as the paper says,
would certainly remain untenanted if anything were done to increase its already
rather grim reputation. For both these reasons I thought that I was justified in
telling rather less than I knew, since no practical good could result from it,
but with you there is no reason why I should not be perfectly frank.
    The moor is very sparsely inhabited, and those who live near each other are
thrown very much together. For this reason I saw a good deal of Sir Charles
Baskerville. With the exception of Mr. Frankland, of Lafter Hall, and Mr.
Stapleton, the naturalist, there are no other men of education within many
