45950    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.

45951    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.

45952    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.

45953    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.'

45954    Dr Mortimer refolded his paper and replaced it in his pocket.

45955    'Those are the public facts, Mr Holmes, in connection with the death of Sir Charles Baskerville.'

45956    'I must thank you', said Sherlock Holmes, 'for calling my attention to a case which certainly presents some features of interest.

45957    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.

45958    This article, you say, contains all the public facts?'

45959    'It does.'

45960    'Then let me have the private ones.'

45961    He leaned back, put his finger-tips together, and assumed his most impassive and judicial expression.

45962    '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.

45963    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 endorse a popular superstition.

45964    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.