In The Hound of the Baskerville, the hound strikes fear in the heart of the Devonshire residents and the Baskerville heirs. Watson narrates the story explaining how he and Holmes both deal with fear. Holmes' relationship with fear is not that of the average person, but Watson's fear is common placed. Holmes believes that fear is no more than an obstacle that simply needs to be analyzed in order to eliminate it.
Holmes knowing the curse of the Baskerville pretends that it truly may be something supernatural, by telling Sir Henry to stay away from the moor after dark. Yet, he is living on the moor in one of the decaying stone huts. Holmes is obviously not fearful of a legendary supernatural hound that is said to reside on the moor. Watson on the other hand claims not to be afraid of the superstition of the moor, but when he hear the howling of the unknown it chills him.
Both Holmes and Watson are men of action. Even when Watson knows that there is a reason for fear he approaches it. Watson attaches fear without thinking it through, a good example is when he finds the lair of the mysterious man of the moor. He enters the hut not knowing what he may encounter, fortunately it was only Holmes. Holmes on the other hand is very observant and thinks everything through and devises a plan. A great example of this is when Watson wants to charge in and take Stapleton, but Holmes explains that they must have evidence otherwise Stapleton will know that they are on to him.
Although Watson is a charge through your fears and ask questions later kind of guy and Holmes is a work out the puzzle to eliminate fear type of guy the work perfectly together, like the two sides of the brain, different functions by needed to make things work.
I really liked how you pointed out that Watson is a man of immediate action while Holmes likes to sit and look at all of the evidence before formulating a plan. However, I would add that Watson tends to allow himself to get caught up in his fear; rationally he knows that there is no curse however there are times in the novel when Watson thinks that maybe it's possible.
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