Selden

Selden, an escaped convict concealed on the moor, becomes an unintended victim of the plot against Sir Henry Baskerville: supplied with the baronet’s cast-off clothes, he is hunted down by the hound that has been set on Sir Henry’s scent. His death turns a mistaken identity into a grim revelation, and exposes the lethal consequence of transferring the clothes—and, apparently, the scent-bearing boot—to him.

Identity and Concealment

Selden is identified as a criminal and convict, but the account gives little of his earlier life or of the crimes for which he was imprisoned. His defining circumstances in the story are instead immediate and precarious: he has escaped custody and is hiding on the moor, where his continued presence is a secret that Barrymore and his wife are trying to protect. Barrymore tells Sir Henry Baskerville that Selden will not break into a house, promises that he will soon be sent to South America, and pleads that the police not be told he is still at large. His assurance rests on concealment: Selden, he argues, has been supplied with what he needs, and committing a new crime would reveal his hiding place.

That arrangement is not presented as secure. Watson considers the possibility that Selden might hold someone up before leaving, even as he says that Selden’s departure from the country would relieve the taxpayer of a burden. Barrymore insists that the fugitive has no reason to risk capture. The exchange shows Selden’s dependence on others as well as the limits of their control: his hosts can provide for him and ask for silence, but they cannot guarantee either his safety or his future conduct.

Dependence on Barrymore’s Help

Barrymore’s aid gives Selden food and a prospect of escape. When Watson questions him later, Barrymore says that he has not heard from Selden since leaving food for him three days earlier. He hopes the fugitive has gone, describing his presence as a source of trouble, but cannot confirm that he has left the moor. The interval matters: the last known act of assistance is a food delivery, not a meeting or an exchange that establishes Selden’s whereabouts. His hiding place and condition remain uncertain even to the person helping him.

The help also draws the household into danger. Barrymore fears that disclosure to the police would bring trouble upon both himself and his wife. Watson, in turn, understands that concealing Selden could carry a risk to others, but does not immediately insist on reporting him. Selden’s presence therefore creates a conflict between public pursuit of an escaped convict and private assistance intended to secure his eventual departure. The story does not resolve that conflict by showing a successful escape; instead, Selden’s concealment ends through an encounter with the hound.

The Clothes and the Hound

The chain of events that leads to Selden’s death begins with clothing. Sir Henry had given his old wardrobe to Barrymore, who passed the clothes on to Selden to help him escape. When a body is found after the hound’s pursuit, the clothes initially encourage the belief that the victim is the baronet. Watson and the others turn the body over in haste; the beard visible in the moonlight reveals that it is Selden, whose face Watson recognizes from the earlier sight of him by the rock in the candlelight. The identification reverses the first, terrifying impression: the man believed to be Sir Henry is the escaped convict in disguise.

The clothes are more than a superficial disguise. Holmes reasons that the hound was set on the trail by an article belonging to Sir Henry, probably the boot taken from the hotel. Because Selden is wearing the baronet’s clothes, and because the stolen boot is implicated in the scent trail, the transfer of belongings has made him the target. Holmes calls the clothes the cause of Selden’s death, while specifying that the hound was likely following Sir Henry’s scent. The distinction is important: Selden is not described as the intended victim of the original pursuit, but his borrowed outfit brings him into its path.

Death and Narrative Significance

Selden’s death is confirmed by the body and by Watson’s recognition, not by an account of the attack itself. Watson regards the outcome as tragic, while adding that Selden had deserved death under the laws of his country. That judgment holds two responses together: the man is a fugitive whose death is not treated as the loss of an innocent life, yet the circumstances remain bleak, since he has died through a misdirected pursuit while wearing clothes passed to him as assistance.

The discovery also gives the investigators a concrete explanation for the apparent threat to Sir Henry. A body in the baronet’s clothes had seemed to confirm that the hound had reached its intended victim; the beard and familiar face establish otherwise. Holmes’s explanation links the mistaken identity to the scent trail and shows how an item of clothing can redirect danger from one man to another. For Selden, however, that explanation arrives too late: the secret refuge and promised passage to South America have both become irrelevant. His role in the plot ends at the moment the disguise that helped him hide identifies him as the wrong man.