[00:02.78]Chart 2
[00:05.49]The Baskerville Papers
[00:08.74]"These papers were given to me by Sir Charles Baskerville"
[00:14.15]said Dr Mortimer.
[00:16.38]"He asked me to take good care of them.
[00:19.44]You may remember that Sir Charles died suddenly three months ago.
[00:23.88]His death caused much excitement in Devonshire,
[00:27.15]the county where Baskerville Hall is.
[00:31.33]Sir Charles was a sensible man,
[00:34.02]but he believed the story which is told in these papers."
[00:38.73]Dr Mortimer went on:"The story is about the Baskerville family.
[00:46.47]I have come to see you because I need your help.
[00:50.38]I think that something terrible is going to happen in the next
[00:54.91]twenty-four hours.
[00:56.10]But you can't help me unless you know the story in these papers.
[00:58.81]May I read them to you?"
[01:04.03]"Please continue,Dr Mortimer,"said Holmes,and sat back
[01:07.91]in his chair with his eyes shut.
[01:11.62]Mortimer began to read in his high,rather strange,voice:
[01:19.23]I William Baskerville,write this for my sons in the year 1742.
[01:28.52]My father told me about the Hound of the Baskervilles.
[01:33.16]He told me when it was first seen,and I believe his story was true.
[01:39.78]I want you ,my sons,to read this story carefully.
[01:44.62]I want you to know that God punishes those who do evil.
[01:49.23]But never forget that He will forgive those who are sorry for any evil
[01:53.12]they have done.
[01:56.29]Over a hundred years ago,in 1640,the head of the Baskerville family
[02:02.71]was Sir Hugo Baskerville.
[02:04.97]He was a wild and evil man.He was cruel and enjoyed hurting people.
[02:11.64]Sir Hugo fell in love with the daughter of a farmer who
[02:16.45]was a neighbour of his.
[02:18.77]The young woman was afraid of the evil Hugo,and avoided him.
[02:23.05]One day,Hugo heard that her father and brothers were away.
[02:28.72]He knew that she would be alone.
[02:32.53]So he rode to the farm with five or six of his evil friends.
[02:38.00]They made the girl go back to Baskerville Hall with them,
[02:44.77]and locked her in a room upstairs.
[02:46.30]Then they sat down in the great dining hall to drink.As usual,
[02:50.17]they drank bottle after bottle and soon they began to
[02:55.27]sing and laugh and shout evil words.
[02:59.19]The girl upstairs,who was already very frightened,felt desperate
[03:29.49]when she heard the terrible things they were shouting.
[03:32.73]So she did a very brave thing.
[03:35.70]She opened the window,climbed out of the room
[03:40.99]and down the ivy on the wall.
[03:43.24]Then she started to run across the moor towards her home.
[03:47.43]A little while later,Hugo left his friends and went upstairs to the room
[03:52.06]to take her some food and drink.
[03:56.89]When he found an open window and an empty room,he behaved
[04:01.17]like a man who was mad.
[04:04.33]He ran down the stairs.He screamed that
[04:16.00]he would give himself to the Devil if he caught the girl
[04:20.08]before she reached home.
[04:22.41]Some of Hugo's drunken friends told him to let the hounds chase her,
[04:26.41]and so he ran from the house and unlocked the dogs.
[04:31.71]Then he jumped onto his black horse,and rode off over the moor
[04:36.09]with the hounds running and crying around him.
[04:40.33]Hugo's friends fetched their horses and followed him.
[04:45.06]There were thirteen of them.
[04:47.30]After a mile or two they passed an old farmer and
[04:50.75]asked him if he had seen Sir Hugo and the hounds.
[04:55.50]The man looked half mad with fear and spoke with difficulty.
[05:00.25]He said that he had seen the girl and the hounds running close behind her.
[05:06.26]Sir Hugo had been riding just behind the hounds.
[05:11.20]"But I have seen more than that,"the old man said.
[05:14.32]"Behind Sir Hugo I saw a huge and terrible hound running silently.
[05:22.23]May God keep me safe from that hound of the hell."
[05:26.70]The thirteen men laughed at the old man and rode on.
[05:32.71]But their laughter soon stopped when they saw Sir Hugo's horse running
[05:37.27]wildly towards them without a rider.
[05:41.07]The thirteen men moved closer together as they rode on.They were suddenly afraid.
[05:47.85]over the moor they went until,at last,they caught up with the hounds.
[05:54.56]Everyone in the county knew that the Baskerville hounds were brave and strong.
[05:59.58]But now they were standing at the head of a deep valley in the moor with their ears and tails down.
[06:07.08]They were very frightened.Hugo's friends stopped.
[06:13.42]Most of them would not go on,but three were brave enough to go down into the valley.
[06:19.62]The valley had a wide flat floor.In the middle of the flat ground stood two great stones.
[06:26.07]They had stood there for thousands of years.The moon was shining brightly on the great stones,
[06:33.39]and between them,on the flat ground,lay the girl.
[06:42.75]She had fallen there,dead of fear and exhaustion.
[06:47.57]Sir Hugo's body was lying near her.
[06:51.86]But it was not the sight of Sir Hugo or the girl
[06:56.89]that filled the men with fear.
[06:59.42]It was the sight of the huge animal
[07:03.02]that was standing over Sir Hugo.
[07:05.80]Its teeth were at his throat.
[07:08.23]It was a great black creature that looked like a hound.
[07:12.19]But it was larger than any hound they had ever seen.
[07:16.65]As they watched,it tore out Hugo Baskerville's throat.
[07:23.62]Then it turned towards them.Its eyes were burning brightly.
[07:26.60]Its body shone with a strange light.Blood ran from its mouth.
[07:33.09]The men screamed and kicked their horses.
[07:39.53]They rode back up the valley as fast as they could go.
[07:44.26]Later that night one died from the horror he had seen.
[07:49.90]The other two were mad for the rest of their lives.
[07:54.50]That was the first time the Hound appeared,my sons.
[07:59.22]It has been seen many times since then,and many of the Baskervilles
[08:00.36]have died in strange and terrible ways.
[08:00.36]Because of this I warn you not to cross the moors at night.
[08:00.36]The Devil finds it easy to do his work when the world is dark.
[08:00.36]