Skip to main content

What is the summary of chapters 1-6 of The Hound of the Baskervilles?

In chapter 1, Sherlock Holmes meets Dr. Mortimer, who has come to get his assistance with a problem. Holmes shows off his skills in deduction to Watson. 


In chapter 2, Dr. Mortimer shares the legend of the hound of the Baskervilles and shares the circumstances of Sir Charles Baskerville's death. Mortimer relates that he personally witnessed "a glimpse of something" that caused Sir Charles to become terrified. Mortimer explains his findings when he examined Sir Charles within an hour of his death--including the footprints of "a gigantic hound." 


In chapter 3, Mortimer explains that the new owner of Baskerville Hall, Sir Charles' only known heir, will be arriving in London shortly. Holmes tells Mortimer he will decide within 24 hours whether to take the case. Holmes smokes and considers the case and briefs Watson on some of his theories. He decides to take the case.


In chapter 4, Sir Henry Baskerville and Dr. Mortimer come to call on Holmes. Sir Henry has received a warning note made up of words clipped from the paper. Holmes garners some information from the note via his powers of perception, including that the source of the letter was a London hotel. Sir Henry lets Holmes know that one of his boots was stolen from his hotel room. Holmes suggests Sir Henry may not want to go to Baskerville Hall due to the danger, but Sir Henry insists he will go. Holmes follows Sir Henry after he leaves Holmes' rooms, and he notices a bearded man in a hansom cab trailing the baronet, but they lose him. Holmes sets Watson to the task of tracking down the paper from which the warning note was cut. 


In chapter 5, Holmes and Watson pursue three leads in the case and end up empty-handed: They don't find the cut-up newspaper; it turns out Barrymore (the butler) was at home, so he wasn't the spy; and the cabman tells Holmes that the man with the black beard was named Sherlock Holmes. Sir Henry's stolen boot is returned and an old black one goes missing instead. Holmes learns more about the descendants of the Baskervilles to try to identify who might want Sir Henry dead. Holmes assigns Watson to accompany Sir Henry to Baskerville Hall. 


In chapter 6, Watson and Sir Henry arrive at Baskerville Hall. They learn there is an escaped murderer named Selden at large. They meet the butler and his wife. Baskerville Hall "isn't a very cheerful place," Sir Henry observes. Watson hears a woman sobbing in the house late at night. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

A man has a garden measuring 84 meters by 56 meters. He divides it into the minimum number of square plots. What is the length of the square plots?

We wish to divide this man's garden into the minimum number of square plots possible. A square has all four sides with the same length.Our garden is a rectangle, so the answer is clearly not 1 square plot. If we choose the wrong length for our squares, we may end up with missing holes or we may not be able to fit our squares inside the garden. So we have 84 meters in one direction and 56 meters in the other direction. When we start dividing the garden in square plots, we are "filling" those lengths in their respective directions. At each direction, there must be an integer number of squares (otherwise, we get holes or we leave the garden), so that all the square plots fill up the garden nicely. Thus, our job here is to find the greatest common divisor of 84 and 56. For this, we prime factor both of them: `56 = 2*2*2*7` `84 = 2*2*3*7` We can see that the prime factors and multiplicities in common are `2*2*7 = 28` . This is the desired length of the square plots. If you wi...
Post a Comment
Read more

What warning does Chuchundra issue to Rikki?

Chuchundra, the sniveling, fearful muskrat who creeps around walls because he is too terrified to go into the center of a room, meets Rikki in the middle of the night. He insults Rikki by begging him not to kill him. He then insults him by suggesting that Nag might mistake Chuchundra for Rikki. He says, "Those who kill snakes get killed by snakes."  He issues this warning to Rikki not to help keep Rikki safe but as a way of explaining why Rikki's presence gives him, Chuchundra, more reason to fear.  Chuchundra starts to tell Rikki what Chua the rat told him--but breaks it off when he realizes he might be overheard by Nag. He says, "Nag is everywhere, Rikki-Tikki." Rikki threatens to bite Chuchundra to get him to talk. Even then, Chuchundra won't overtly reveal any information. But he does say, "Can't you hear, Rikki-Tikki?" This is enough of a clue for the clever mongoose. He listens carefully and can just make out the "faintest scratch-s...
Post a Comment
Read more