(*First published in a serialized fashion by The Strand Magazine August 1901 - April 1902. SPOILERS AHEAD)
"That cold, incisive, ironical voice could belong to but one man in all the world." Now we're cooking on gas! The dynamic duo is a duo once moor. I mean more. I mean again? Nevertheless... "My footprint, I presume." Muses Watson as to how Holmes knew it was he who was in the hut. Then a funny line about H not knowing every footprint in the world, to wit: "I could not undertake to recognize your footprint amid all the footprints of the world." Or to paraphrase, 'Easy there, buddy.'
The ID was instead made via the stub of W's cigarette which read "Bradley, Oxford Street." A potentially long stub of cigarette, depending on which way and how large the lettering was run. Maybe our chain-smoking doctor did not like the taste of his new and out-of-character nervous habit and was throwing them down less than fully spent. Again and rudimentarily, Watson smoked a pipe and occasionally a cigar. Regardless, W is at first super happy to see H and then feels fairly ill-treated by his deceptive detective friend. I wonder if that footprint jab still stung?
"I think that I have deserved better at your hands, Holmes." But he is made to understand the tact H took in his secrecy. Plus, look--he kept all his letters, and even here on Brokeback Moor ruffled feathers need occasionally smoothed. Now is when we hit Warp Speed... says H: "I am giving you some information now, in return for all you have given me." The Stapletons siblings are, get this, HUSBAND AND WIFE! & it feels sort of like a too-soon crescendo played under a damp blanket. It suddenly all makes undeniable sense to all. Case solved. All that's left is perfectly nabbing the dastardly Jack Stapleton.
Why is not immediately the perfect way to do so? Well, because they need a firmer case against the man. Whether or not they procure said more-firm case is perhaps not a ruling to be made within this installment. I do, however, feel like there might well be some issue there, or why on earth would I have said this? See, that's how things work around here. They do increase their ally count via LL, a woman whom Stapleton had set-up to ill-use and probs scorn. Then, just as it's all happening so fast and maybe too fast, "A terrible scream - a prolonged yell of horror and anguish burst out of the silence of the moor."
Long story short and with again another spoiler alert warning, Selden is dead. But I get ahead of myself. Holmes and Watson first believe it to be the brutal murder of Henry that they had heard. That and with them the "musical and yet menacing" sound of the hound. If Sir is dead, vengeance will be theirs. "But, by heaven, if the worst has happened, we'll avenge him!" Let's take a moment here. Pull up a chair. Why were you standing? Vengeance. According to Gould's chronology, HOUN takes place quite close to exactly a year after The Five Orange Pips, where Holmes also takes up the cause of revenge.
He well might have fallen short of that goal in FIVE, so perhaps here he has thoughts of avenge two-fold. I'd love to tell a bad joke about Avenged Sevenfold now, but am sadly unfamiliar with their oeuvre.
More intel is garnered when they find out that the fallen man is in fact Selden and should be dead anyways. Before that though, Holmes lashes out at himself and Watson for letting their Sir down and it kinda puts H in a bad light, this tantrum. More odd Holmes behavior at the happy realization of a dead criminal: "Now he was dancing and laughing and wringing my hand." What a case! It's got Watson chain-smoking and Holmes in fits of emotion! I myself am rather ecstatic, at the at long-last solving of the boot tomfoolery. I think we all need a breather.
We get a cold breath. As the ice-cold Jack Stapleton, the evilest man on God's green earth then comes to check on the bloody scene he created. He stands there, cooler than the other side of your pillow has ever dared to be. "I told you in London, Watson, and will tell you now again, that we have never had a foeman more worthy of our steel. Natural Born Killer is an Avenged Sevenfold song that could well have had Jack Stapleton in mind. I'll never know. That sort of music just isn't at all my cup of tea. LOL (they can't all be gold.)
ADDITIONAL HOUN
Thoughts on Chapter 11
Thoughts on Chapter 13
You might also wish to read:
Sherlock Holmes The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle | Thoughts on Chapter 3 (for a bit more on Bradley's)
Sherlock Holmes The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle | Thoughts on Chapter 9 (for a bit more on Watson's usual smoking habits)
A Study in The Five Orange Pips from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (for a bit more talk of revenge)
::: very :::