Sherlock Holmes

Arthur Conan Doyle
The Hound of the Baskervilles

Chapter 1. Mr Sherlock Holmes has a visitor
Mr Sherlock Holmes, who usually got up very late, except on those quite frequent occasions when he did not go to bed all night, was sitting  at the breakfast table.
I was standing in front of the fire, examining a walking stick which a visitor had left behind the day before.
   "To Dr James Mortimer, from his friends," was engraved upon it, with the date "1884."
Sherlock Holmes suddenly turned to me and said:
   "The owner of that stick, Watson, has got a dog which is larger than a terrier and smaller than a mastiff".
    "How do you know?" I asked in surprise.
    "I examined that stick carefully and noticed the marks of a dog's teeth on it", answered Holmes.
    "They are too broad for a terrier and not broad enough for a mastiff.
Probably the dog often carries the stick behind its master. I think it must be a spaniel, in fact it is a spaniel."
    He had left the breakfast table and was standing near the window as he said this. I looked at him in surprise and asked: 
    "How can you be so sure of that?"
    "For the simple reason that I see the dog at our door and I hear the bell which its master is ringing. I wonder why Dr Mortimer wishes to see Mr Sherlock Holmes. Well, we'll soon know. Come in," he added, for there was a knock at the door.
A gentleman entered the room followed by a brown spaniel.
The visitor was a very tall, thin man, with a long nose like a beak, and grey eyes that sparkled brightly from behind a pair of glasses.
Though he was still young, his long back was already bowed. As he entered, his eyes fell upon the stick in Holmes's hand, and he ran towards it with an exclamation of joy.
    "I am so glad," he said. "I didn't know where I had left it. Are you Mr Sherlock Holmes?"
    "Yes, Dr Mortimer, and this is my friend Dr Watson."
    "I am very glad to meet you, Mr Holmes. I have heard much about you and your friend. I called...