A gate at Didworthy in Devon.
A grand old gatepost with Dartmoor beyond, near Didsworthy in Devon.
“FINALLY I carefully examined the body, which had not been touched until my arrival. Sir Charles lay on his face, his arms out, his fingers dug into the ground, and his features convulsed with some strong emotion to such an extent that I could hardly have sworn to his identity.
“There was certainly no physical injury of any kind. But one false statement was made by Barrymore* at the inquest. He said that there were no traces upon the ground round the body. He did not observe any. But I did — some little distance off, but fresh and clear.”
“Footprints?”
“Footprints.”
“A man’s or a woman’s?”
Dr. Mortimer looked strangely at us for an instant, and his voice sank almost to a whisper as he answered.
“Mr. Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound.”
Barrymore was Sir Charles’s butler.
Précis
After Sir Charles Baskerville was found dead at the gate of his own house on Dartmoor, Dr Mortimer was called to the scene. He told Sherlock Holmes that Sir Charles’s face had some dreadful emotion stamped on it, and that near the body were footprints — not of any man or woman, but of a gigantic hound. (57 / 60 words)
