It was the end of November,more than a month after ourreturn from Baskerville Hall. Holmes and I were sitting on either side of a bright fire in our sitting room in Baker Street. Since our return, Holmes had been working hard on two other cases, and he had been too busy to discuss the Baskerville case. But now the other cases were finished, and he had beensuccessful inboth of them. I decided it was a good time to ask him the final questions about Stapleton and the hound.

"The picture showed us that Stapleton was indeed a Baskerville, "Holmes began. "He was the son of Roger Baskerville, who was Sir Charles'younger brotner. Roger was a criminal whoescaped fromprison and ran away to South America. Everyone thought he had died unmarried, but that was not true. He had one son, also called Roger, whom we knew as Stapleton. Stapleton married a beautiful South American, and came to England, where he started a school in the north. He discovered that he would inherit the Baskerville lands and fortune if Sir Charles and Sir Henry both died. That is why he moved to Devonshire when the school closed."

"When he met Sir Charles, he heard the story of the hellhound. He also learned that Sir Charles believed these supernatural stories, and that he had a weak heart."

"Stapleton had the idea of buying a huge hound, and of using the phosphorus to make it shine like the hound in the story. I have found the place where he bought the animal. He took it by train to Devonshire and walked many miles over the moors with it so that it would not be seen near Baskerville Hall."