What an absolutely delightful book!
At the end of the second chapter, the tension escalates unbearably.
Holmes and Watson have just been told how Sir Charles Baskerville has
been found dead, apparently running
away from the safety of his
own house. Their informant Dr. Mortimer pauses, then adds, hesitantly,
that near the body he had spotted footprints on the damp ground. A man's
or a woman's? eagerly inquires the great detective, to which question he
receives the most thrilling answer in all of twentieth-century literature:
"Mr. Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound!"
You can read online or download a pdf of "The Hound of the Baskervilles"
for free here:
http://books.google.com/books?id=3wkOAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=intitle:hound+intitle:baskervilles&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false