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.

45965    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.

45966    'The moor is very sparsely inhabited, and those who live near each other are thrown very much together.

45967    For this reason I saw a good deal of Sir Charles Baskerville.

45968    With the exception of Mr Frankland, of Lafter Hall, and Mr Stapleton, the naturalist, there are no other men of education within many miles.

45969    Sir Charles was a retiring man, but the chance of his illness brought us together, and a community of interests in science kept us so.

45970    He had brought back much scientific information from South Africa, and many a charming evening we have spent together discussing the comparative anatomy of the Bushman and the Hottentot.

45971    'Within the last few months it became increasingly plain to me that Sir Charles's nervous system was strained to breaking point.

45972    He had taken this legend which I have read you exceedingly to heart - so much so that, although he would walk in his own grounds, nothing would induce him to go out upon the moor at night.

45973    Incredible as it may appear to you, Mr Holmes, he was honestly convinced that a dreadful fate overhung his family, and certainly the records which he was able to give of his ancestors were not encouraging.

45974    The idea of some ghastly presence constantly haunted him, and on more than one occasion he has asked me whether I had on my medical journeys at night ever seen any strange creature or heard the baying of a hound.

45975    The latter question he put to me several times, and always with a voice which vibrated with excitement.

45976    'I can well remember driving up to his house in the evening, some three weeks before the fatal event.