The Hound of the Baskervilles Chapter 14 Summary

Summary

Holmes, Watson, and Inspector Lestrade drive back onto the moor at night to lie in ambush near Merripit House, but Holmes keeps his full plan to himself. They take up a concealed position among rocks and orchard walls and watch the house. Watson peers through an uncurtained window and sees Sir Henry dining with Stapleton; later Stapleton slips out to an out-house briefly. A drifting bank of Grimpen fog threatens to cut off the path, pressing the observers to relocate and wait anxiously for Sir Henry’s passage.

When a figure emerges from the fog and passes them, a monstrous black hound bursts from the mist after him — eyes and muzzle smeared with a luminous substance so that it appears to be breathing fire. Holmes and Watson fire; the hound wounds Sir Henry but is finally shot dead. They rush into Merripit to pursue Stapleton, and inside they find Mrs. Stapleton bound and abused in a room used as a moth-collection museum. She reveals that her husband kept the hound and had a refuge in an island tin-mine in the Grimpen Mire, but the fog prevents immediate pursuit. The next morning, guided by Mrs. Stapleton, Holmes and the others follow the dangerous marked path into the bog, find Sir Henry’s missing boot, remains of the mine and the dog’s skeleton, and conclude Stapleton likely perished in the mire. The chapter closes with Holmes reflecting on Stapleton’s danger and cunning and on the grimness of the Grimpen Mire.

Key events

1. Holmes, Watson and Lestrade hide near Merripit to ambush and observe the house.
2. Watson sees Sir Henry and Stapleton dining; Stapleton visits an out-house briefly.
3. A luminous, coal-black hound leaps from the fog and pursues Sir Henry; Holmes and Watson shoot it dead.
4. They find Mrs. Stapleton bound and abused in a locked bedroom and free her.
5. Mrs. Stapleton directs them to the marked path into the Grimpen Mire where they find boot, mine remains and the dog's skeleton.
6. Holmes concludes Stapleton likely died in the mire and reflects on his danger and cunning.

Analysis

This chapter delivers the novel’s climactic confrontation, combining detective method with gothic spectacle. Structurally, it shifts from patient observation and deduction to sudden physical peril, validating Holmes’s investigative patience while exposing the stakes: Sir Henry’s life and the dismantling of the mythic ‘hound.’ The apparition of the flaming hound merges rational explanation and supernatural terror — Doyle sustains the eerie moorland atmosphere while preparing the logical reveal by emphasizing artificiality (the luminous paste) and human agency behind the menace. Mrs. Stapleton’s discovery functions both as rescue and as moral illumination: she is a victim who provides crucial testimony, transforming a caricature of a threatening married pair into a more complex human tragedy. The Grimpen Mire operates as a symbol of natural danger and moral abyss; the fog that almost thwarts Holmes operates as a narrative device that increases tension and delays resolution. Narrative technique alternates close sensory description (the fog like wool, the hound’s phosphorescence) with procedural detail (searching rooms, finding the boot), keeping the reader anchored in both emotion and evidence. Themes of manipulation, theatrical deception (the fabricated ‘hell-hound’), and the crossing of scientific deduction with primal fear come to a head here, while the chapter’s ending reasserts Holmes’s authority and frames Stapleton as both brilliant and monstrous — a human villain whose cunning is more dangerous than any supernatural story.

Important quotes

“One of Sherlock Holmes’s defects—if, indeed, one may call it a defect—was that he was exceedingly loath to communicate his full plans to any other person until the instant of their fulfilment.”

NarratorOpens the chapter by explaining Holmes’s habit of secrecy, which frustrates Watson as they approach the ambush.

“Fire burst from its open mouth, its eyes glowed with a smouldering glare, its muzzle and hackles and dewlap were outlined in flickering flame.”

NarratorVivid description of the terrifying appearance of the hound as it leaps from the fog, heightening the gothic horror of the attack.

Characters in Chapter 14

• Selden
• The Hound
• Inspector Lestrade
• Laura Lyons
• Beryl Stapleton
• Hugo Baskerville
• Jack Stapleton
• Sherlock Holmes
• Mr. Frankland
• Mrs. Barrymore
• Sir Henry Baskerville
• Cartwright
• Sir Charles Baskerville
• Dr. James Mortimer
• Dr. John Watson
• Mr. Barrymore