Sherlock Holmes - The Blanched Soldier

<v Speaker 1>From London, we present The Blanche Sojoa, a play for
<v Speaker 1>radio by Michael Hardwick, based.
<v Speaker 2>On the short story by Sir Arthur Kernand Doyle, The
<v Speaker 2>Blanche Sojoa.
<v Speaker 3>For a long time, my friend Watson has wanted me
<v Speaker 3>to write down an experience of my own. I have
<v Speaker 3>often had occasion to point out to him how superficial
<v Speaker 3>are his own accounts, and to accuse him of pandering
<v Speaker 3>to popular taste instead of confining himself rigidly to facts
<v Speaker 3>and figures. Try it yourself, Harms, He's retorted, And yes,
<v Speaker 3>I'm compelled to admit I do begin to realize that
<v Speaker 3>the matter must be presented.
<v Speaker 2>In an interesting way.
<v Speaker 3>I find from my notebook that it was just at
<v Speaker 3>that time, January nineteen three, soon after the conclusion of
<v Speaker 3>the Boer War, that I had a visit from a
<v Speaker 3>certain mister James and dog.
<v Speaker 4>It is my headache to sit with my back to
<v Speaker 4>the window and to place my visitors in the opposite
<v Speaker 4>chair where the light falls full upon them.
<v Speaker 3>Mister James and Dodd seems somewhat at a loss how
<v Speaker 3>to begin the interview, so I gave him some of
<v Speaker 3>my conclusions from South Africa.
<v Speaker 2>Sir I perceive.
<v Speaker 3>Why, yes, sir, Imperial Yeomanry, I fancy exactly the Middlesex
<v Speaker 3>No doubt, mister Holmes not a wizard.
<v Speaker 2>When a gentleman of virile appear and senters my room with.
<v Speaker 3>Such a tan upon his face as an English son
<v Speaker 3>could never give, and with his handkerchief in his sleeve
<v Speaker 3>instead of in his pocket, it is not difficult to
<v Speaker 3>place him. You wear a short beard, which shows that
<v Speaker 3>you were not a regular. You have the cut of
<v Speaker 3>a riding man. As to Middlesex, your card has already
<v Speaker 3>shown me that you are a stockbroker from frog Marton Street.
<v Speaker 3>What other regiment could you joined? You see everything I
<v Speaker 3>see no more than you, But I have trained myself
<v Speaker 3>to notice what I see either, Mister Dard, It was
<v Speaker 3>not to discuss the science of observation that you called
<v Speaker 3>upon me this morning? What has been happening at Tuxbury
<v Speaker 3>Old Part, mister Holmes? A how, my dear sir, There
<v Speaker 3>is no mystery. Your letter came with their heady. As
<v Speaker 3>you fixed this appointment in very pressing terms, it was
<v Speaker 3>clear that something sudden and important had occurred during your
<v Speaker 3>visit there.
<v Speaker 4>Yes, indeed, but a good deal has happened since that
<v Speaker 4>letter was written. If Colonel Elmsworth hadn't.
<v Speaker 2>Kicked me out, i'd kicked you out. Perhaps, mister Dudd,
<v Speaker 2>you will exclaim.
<v Speaker 4>What I have talk you, sir, I'd got into the
<v Speaker 4>way of supposing that you knew everything.
<v Speaker 2>Without being told.
<v Speaker 4>But I will give you the facts, and I hope
<v Speaker 4>you will be able to tell me what they mean.
<v Speaker 2>Then pray proceed.
<v Speaker 4>Colonel Elmsworth was the crimean v C you now, oh, yes, yes, Well,
<v Speaker 4>when I joined up in nineteen hundred and one, young
<v Speaker 4>Godfrey has only done joined the same squadron. Well, we
<v Speaker 4>formed the kind of friendship you can only make when
<v Speaker 4>you both live the same life, share the same joys
<v Speaker 4>and sorrows. We took the rough and the smooth together
<v Speaker 4>for a year of fighting. Then outside Pretoria, he was
<v Speaker 4>wounded in the shoulder. I got one letter from the hospital.
<v Speaker 2>To Cape Town and one from Southampton. Since then, not a.
<v Speaker 4>Word, not one word, mister Holmes for six months or more,
<v Speaker 4>and she was my closest pal. And but then when
<v Speaker 4>the war was over we all got back. I wrote
<v Speaker 4>to his father and asked where Godfrey was.
<v Speaker 2>No answer.
<v Speaker 4>I wasted bit and wrote again this time I had
<v Speaker 4>a reply, short and gruff. Godfrey had gone on a
<v Speaker 4>voyage round the world and it wasn't likely that he'd
<v Speaker 4>be back for a year. Though, mister Holmes, I wasn't satisfied.
<v Speaker 4>The whole things seemed so damned unnatural. I wasn't like
<v Speaker 4>him to drop a pal in such a manner.
<v Speaker 2>What did you do? Well?
<v Speaker 4>My own affairs took quite a time to straighten out,
<v Speaker 4>so I haven't been able to do anything about it
<v Speaker 4>till this week. My first move was to go down
<v Speaker 4>to his home, Tuckxbury, o Park. I had to walk
<v Speaker 4>five miles from the station, and it was nearly dark
<v Speaker 4>when I got there, but at iter rate. When I
<v Speaker 4>told the old butt of my business, he went away
<v Speaker 4>and then came back and showed me straight into Colonel
<v Speaker 4>Demsworth's study.
<v Speaker 2>Those, sirs, I.
<v Speaker 5>Should be interested to know the reasons for this visit,
<v Speaker 5>I explained to you in my letters.
<v Speaker 2>Sir, I knew God for in Africa.
<v Speaker 4>Yes, yes, I know that. Of course we've only your
<v Speaker 4>word for it. Or I have his letters to me
<v Speaker 4>in my pocket. Kindly let me see them. We were
<v Speaker 4>the closest of friends, sir. Is it not natural that
<v Speaker 4>I should wonder at his sudden silence and wish to
<v Speaker 4>know what has become of him. I have some recollection, sir,
<v Speaker 4>that I had already explained that in replying to your letters.
<v Speaker 2>He's gone upon a voyage around the world.
<v Speaker 4>His health was in a poor way after his African experiences,
<v Speaker 4>and I was of the opinion that complete rest and
<v Speaker 4>change when he did. Kindly passed that explanation on to
<v Speaker 4>any other friends who may be interested in the matter. Certainly,
<v Speaker 4>but perhaps you would have the goodness to let me
<v Speaker 4>have the name of the steamer and the shipping line.
<v Speaker 2>I have no doubt I should be able to get
<v Speaker 2>a letter through to him.
<v Speaker 3>Many people, Missed DoD, would take offense at your infernal persinacity.
<v Speaker 3>They would consider this insistence to a beach the point
<v Speaker 3>of damnibulence.
<v Speaker 2>And you must put it down to my real love
<v Speaker 2>for your son.
<v Speaker 4>Mister Dodd. I have already made every allowance upon that score.
<v Speaker 4>I must ask you, however, to drop these inquiries.
<v Speaker 2>But why, sir.
<v Speaker 4>Every family has its own inner knowledge and its own motives.
<v Speaker 4>It can't always be made clear to outsiders, however well intentioned.
<v Speaker 2>I would ask you to let the present and the
<v Speaker 2>future alone. And now say you have gone a long
<v Speaker 2>way and you are.
<v Speaker 4>Welcome to stay the night here. My butler Ralph will
<v Speaker 4>see to your needs.
<v Speaker 2>We dine at eight o'clock.
<v Speaker 1>I mean.
<v Speaker 2>You've been partner, sir.
<v Speaker 3>I just brought you some more coals britter cold. It is, sir,
<v Speaker 3>Iger Ralph.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, sir, now, sir, will there be anything more tonight?
<v Speaker 2>Pello Ralph? That's all? Thanks?
<v Speaker 4>Oh before you, Oh, is this one thing, sir? You've
<v Speaker 4>been in service here for a long time? I suppose Oh, yes, sir,
<v Speaker 4>me and the missus both, and you've known Master Godfrey
<v Speaker 4>for many years. Nor unless you said my missus nursed him,
<v Speaker 4>you could say, in a manner of speaking, i'm his
<v Speaker 4>foster father. Well, I can tell you you've both been
<v Speaker 4>very proud to see him in South Africa.
<v Speaker 2>He bought himself well, said I am this sent no
<v Speaker 2>braver man in the regiment. He pulled me at once
<v Speaker 2>from one of the boy's rifles. Or maybe I shouldn't
<v Speaker 2>be here now, Yes, yes, that's Master Godfrey Curry, sir.
<v Speaker 2>Why there's not a tree in this park. He hadn't climbed,
<v Speaker 2>Nothing would stop him. He was a fine boy all right,
<v Speaker 2>and he was a fine.
<v Speaker 4>Man, sir, was you say he was? Look here, what
<v Speaker 4>is all this mystery about to it? What has become
<v Speaker 4>of Godfrey Hamsworth?
<v Speaker 2>I don't know what you mean, Sir.
<v Speaker 3>Ask the Master about Master Godfrey.
<v Speaker 2>It's not for me to interfere. Let go leave.
<v Speaker 4>How listen to me, rough, You're going to answer one
<v Speaker 4>question before you will leave this room.
<v Speaker 2>If I have to hold you all night. He is
<v Speaker 2>Godfrey Elmsworth dead? I wish he was, Sir, I wish
<v Speaker 2>to god he was well. After that, I seemed to
<v Speaker 2>be only one interpretation, mister Holmes.
<v Speaker 4>My poor friend had evidently become involved in something criminal,
<v Speaker 4>or at least something disreputable, that had touched the family honor.
<v Speaker 4>His stern old father has sent me away for fear
<v Speaker 4>of some scandal coming to light. Well, that was what
<v Speaker 4>I thought. Just then.
<v Speaker 3>Your problem presents them very unusual features, mister Dudd.
<v Speaker 2>Pray continue for after.
<v Speaker 4>The butler had gone, I must have stood there pondering all.
<v Speaker 2>This for some time.
<v Speaker 4>Then something made me look up and there was Godfrey
<v Speaker 4>Elmsworth in the room. No, he was outside the window.
<v Speaker 4>It was a ground floor room. I'd let the curtains open,
<v Speaker 4>and there he was looking at me through the glass.
<v Speaker 4>He was deadly pale. I've never seen a man so white.
<v Speaker 4>I reckon ghosts may look like that. His eyes met mine,
<v Speaker 4>and they were the eyes of a living man. Did
<v Speaker 4>he give any sign when he saw me looking at him?
<v Speaker 4>And he sprang back into the darkness. Mister Holmes, there
<v Speaker 4>was something shocking about that man. It wasn't just that
<v Speaker 4>ghastly face. It was something, something slinking and furtive, something guilty.
<v Speaker 2>He left a feeling of horror in my mind.
<v Speaker 3>I assume, however, that when a man has been soldiering
<v Speaker 3>a year or two with brother boas his claimate, he
<v Speaker 3>keeps his nerve on nets quickly exactly, I.
<v Speaker 2>Got very hardly banished. Before I was out of that window.
<v Speaker 2>I ran down the garden path and the way I
<v Speaker 2>thought he might have gone. It seemed to me that
<v Speaker 2>something was moving ahead of me. I called his name.
<v Speaker 2>It was no use.
<v Speaker 4>When I got to the end of the path, there
<v Speaker 4>were several others branching in different directions to some outhouses.
<v Speaker 4>But as I stood there, hesitating, I distinctly heard the
<v Speaker 4>sound of a closing door.
<v Speaker 2>It wasn't behind me. In the house.
<v Speaker 4>It was somewhere ahead in the darkness. I knew then,
<v Speaker 4>mister Holmes, but what I had.
<v Speaker 2>Seen was no vision.
<v Speaker 3>Well, then, mister darg what else did you do? Nothing
<v Speaker 3>more I could do.
<v Speaker 2>I I spent none.
<v Speaker 4>Easy night trying to find some theory to cover the fact.
<v Speaker 4>For next I found the colonel rather more conciliatory.
<v Speaker 2>His wife remarked, there were some places of interest in
<v Speaker 2>the neighborhood, and I saw an hoping to ask that
<v Speaker 2>I might stay there one more night.
<v Speaker 4>Somewhat grudgingly he agreed, which gave you a clear day
<v Speaker 4>in which to make your observation. Yes, I felt I
<v Speaker 4>must explore the garden to see what I could find.
<v Speaker 4>There were several small outhouses, but at the end of
<v Speaker 4>the garden there was a detached building of some size.
<v Speaker 4>It was heavily curtained. I wondered if this could have
<v Speaker 4>been the place the sound of that shutting door had
<v Speaker 4>come from. I approached in a careless fashion, strolling aimlessly,
<v Speaker 4>and as I did so, a small bearded man in
<v Speaker 4>a black coat and a bowler hat came out of
<v Speaker 4>the door.
<v Speaker 2>He locked it after him. Then he looked at me
<v Speaker 2>with some surprise Good day sir. Gooday are you? Are
<v Speaker 2>you a visitor here? Yes, I am. My name is Dodd,
<v Speaker 2>James M. DoD. I see I.
<v Speaker 4>Am an old army time of mister Godfrey Emsworth's. I
<v Speaker 4>came hoping to see him. What took pity that he
<v Speaker 4>should be away on his travels.
<v Speaker 3>He would have been pleased to see you, No doubt,
<v Speaker 3>mister Dodd dis troubled exactly.
<v Speaker 2>Well, Good day, jusam. No doubt you will resume your
<v Speaker 2>visit at some more grapitious time. Good day, sir. He
<v Speaker 2>passed on. When I turned, I observed that he.
<v Speaker 4>Was standing watching me, half concealed by some laurels, at
<v Speaker 4>the far end of the garden.
<v Speaker 2>So I strolled back to the house and waited for night.
<v Speaker 4>As soon as every one had retired and everything was
<v Speaker 4>dark and quiet, I slipped out in my window and
<v Speaker 4>made my way as silently as possible to the mysterious lodge.
<v Speaker 2>The curtains were still drawn, but now there were shutters
<v Speaker 2>up as well.
<v Speaker 4>Even so, there was some light coming from one place
<v Speaker 4>I found I could see inside the room. I saw
<v Speaker 4>the little man I'd seen that morning. He was smoking
<v Speaker 4>a pipe and reading a paper. I tried to see
<v Speaker 4>more of the room. I just then, so you've become
<v Speaker 4>a spy.
<v Speaker 3>Have your kindly follow me back to the house, Sir.
<v Speaker 2>There is a train to London at eight thirty in
<v Speaker 2>the morning. Sir, if I may only matter will not
<v Speaker 2>bear discussion.
<v Speaker 4>You've made a most damnable intrusion into the privacy of
<v Speaker 4>our family.
<v Speaker 2>You were here as a guest, and you become a spy.
<v Speaker 4>I'd nothing more to say, sir, save that I have
<v Speaker 4>no wish ever to see you again. Very well, come, Emsworth,
<v Speaker 4>I have seen your son, and I am convinced that,
<v Speaker 4>for some reason of your own, you are concealing him
<v Speaker 4>from the world.
<v Speaker 2>I've no idea what your motives are in cutting off
<v Speaker 2>in this fashion, but I am sure he is no
<v Speaker 2>longer a free agent, and I warn e Colonel.
<v Speaker 4>But until I am assured of the safety of the
<v Speaker 4>well being of my friend, I shall never desist in
<v Speaker 4>my effice to get.
<v Speaker 2>The bottom of this mystery.
<v Speaker 4>However, he didn't attack me, mister Elmes, but there was
<v Speaker 4>nothing for it but to take the appointed train, after
<v Speaker 4>writing first to ask you to see me, mister Dodd.
<v Speaker 2>The servants, now, how many were there in the house.
<v Speaker 4>But the best of my belief, there were only the
<v Speaker 4>old butler and his wife. The family seemed to live
<v Speaker 4>in the simplest passion. There was no servant then in
<v Speaker 4>the detached house. None unless the little man with a
<v Speaker 4>beard acted as such.
<v Speaker 2>He seemed to be quite a superior person.
<v Speaker 3>You mentioned seeing him sitting by the fire reading of paper.
<v Speaker 2>What paper was it? Well? Can that matter? It could
<v Speaker 2>be most essential?
<v Speaker 3>Rarely took no notice, if possibly you observed whether it
<v Speaker 3>was a broad leaf paper or of that smaller type
<v Speaker 3>which one associates with weeklies.
<v Speaker 2>Since you mention it, it wasn't very low very well.
<v Speaker 3>Now had you any indication that food was conveyed from
<v Speaker 3>the one house to the other.
<v Speaker 4>Well, I did see old Ralph carrying a basket down
<v Speaker 4>the garden walk and going in the direction of his house.
<v Speaker 2>Did you make any local inquiries? Yes, I did. I
<v Speaker 2>spoke to the station master and the innkeeper.
<v Speaker 4>I simply asked to send you anything of my old comrade,
<v Speaker 4>Godfrey Eemsworth. Both of them assure me that he gone
<v Speaker 4>for a voyage round the world. You said nothing of
<v Speaker 4>your suspicions.
<v Speaker 2>Nothing. Yet you say that you had seen your friend's
<v Speaker 2>face quite clearly at the window, so clearly that you
<v Speaker 2>are sure of his identity. I have no doubt about it.
<v Speaker 2>Whatever the lamp light shone full upon him. It couldn't
<v Speaker 2>have been someone resembling. No, no, no, it was he.
<v Speaker 2>But you say he was changed only in color.
<v Speaker 4>His face was how shall I describe as it was
<v Speaker 4>of a fish belly whiteness, It was bleached in patches. Well,
<v Speaker 4>it was his brow that I saw, so cleared it
<v Speaker 4>was pressed against the window.
<v Speaker 2>Very well, mister Dadd.
<v Speaker 3>The matter should certainly be inquired into.
<v Speaker 2>I will go back with you to a tuxpray Old
<v Speaker 2>park to day.
<v Speaker 3>Oh, as it happens, I am carrying up another matter
<v Speaker 3>at the moment, let us say the beginning.
<v Speaker 2>Of next week. I shall be ready whenever you are,
<v Speaker 2>mister Helmes.
<v Speaker 3>Oh, I shall also ask an old friend of mine
<v Speaker 3>to accompany us. It is possible that his presence may
<v Speaker 3>be entirely unnecessary. On the other hand, it ess the
<v Speaker 3>narratives of my friend Watson have shown no doubt that
<v Speaker 3>I do not waste words or disclose my thoughts while
<v Speaker 3>the case is under consideration. In fact, my case was
<v Speaker 3>practically complete when we arrived at the strange old Ramding house.
<v Speaker 3>I asked the elderly friend who had accompanied us to
<v Speaker 3>remain in the carriage unless we should summon him. I
<v Speaker 3>had not introduced him to Dodd, who seemed surprised but
<v Speaker 3>asked no questions. The old butler, Ralph opened.
<v Speaker 2>The door to us. He wore the conventional costume of
<v Speaker 2>black coat and pepper and salt trousers, with only one
<v Speaker 2>curious variant. He had on brown leather gloves.
<v Speaker 3>He shuffled them off at the sight of us, laying
<v Speaker 3>them down on the hall table. I have, as Watson
<v Speaker 3>may sometimes have remarked, an abnormally acute set of senses,
<v Speaker 3>and a faint but incisive smell was the parent. I
<v Speaker 3>contrived to drop my hat to the floor, and in
<v Speaker 3>picking it up, brought my nose within a foot of
<v Speaker 3>the gloves. A curious cardy odor was oozing from them.
<v Speaker 3>My case was complete at last, big answer mister Dodd
<v Speaker 3>and mister Sherlock Holmes to see you, sir?
<v Speaker 2>Who the don't hold you to him? What is the
<v Speaker 2>meaning of this? You, sir?
<v Speaker 4>Have I not told you you in fellel Busyboddy, never
<v Speaker 4>s dare show your damned face here?
<v Speaker 3>Again, if you choose to endry here without my leave,
<v Speaker 3>I shall be within my rights if I use violence.
<v Speaker 3>As to you, mister Holmes, I extend the same warning
<v Speaker 3>to you. I am familiar with your ignoble profession.
<v Speaker 4>Ralph telephone at once to the County Police, asked the
<v Speaker 4>inspector to send up two constables.
<v Speaker 2>Tell him, tell him that there are burglars in the hotel. Well, moment,
<v Speaker 2>you must be aware, mister Dodd, the Colonel Msworth is
<v Speaker 2>within his right.
<v Speaker 3>On the other hand, he should recognize that your action
<v Speaker 3>is prompted entirely by solicitude for his son. I venture
<v Speaker 3>to hope that if I were allowed to have five
<v Speaker 3>minutes conversation with Colonel Msworth, I could certainly alter his
<v Speaker 3>view of the matter.
<v Speaker 2>What the devil are you waiting for? Ralph?
<v Speaker 3>Bring the police, I say, going, sir, nothing of the
<v Speaker 3>thought any police in appearance. But bring about the very
<v Speaker 3>capacity of dreads. Hand away from that door, sir, Colonel Msrath.
<v Speaker 3>On this page of my notebook, I am writing just
<v Speaker 3>one word.
<v Speaker 2>Here you are, sir, pray.
<v Speaker 3>Read it and you will know what has brought us here. Well,
<v Speaker 3>how did you know this? It is my business to
<v Speaker 3>know things. That is my traid.
<v Speaker 2>Then you forced my hand. If you wish to see Godfrey,
<v Speaker 2>you shall, but this is your doing, not mine.
<v Speaker 5>As terms, What does this mean you shall soon see
<v Speaker 5>mister Dard Ralph, Sir, go down to the garden house
<v Speaker 5>and tell mister Godfrey and mister Kent that in five
<v Speaker 5>minutes we shall be with them.
<v Speaker 2>Very good, sir, very good. But this is very sudden.
<v Speaker 2>Colonel m'sworth will disarange all our plan. I currently help it. Kent.
<v Speaker 4>Our hands have been forced. Can mister godface us now?
<v Speaker 2>Yes, he's waiting inside. Follow me, gentlemen, god fail man,
<v Speaker 2>don't touch me. You men don't come here? Yes, you
<v Speaker 2>may well stare. I don't quite look smart enough of
<v Speaker 2>bee squadron, now do I What happened?
<v Speaker 3>Those white patches are mus kind. That's why I don't
<v Speaker 3>court visitors. But you seem to have you at a disadvantage.
<v Speaker 6>I came down to see if all was well with
<v Speaker 6>you that night. You looked into my window. Old Ralph
<v Speaker 6>told me you went there. I couldn't resist taking a
<v Speaker 6>peep after you ran away.
<v Speaker 4>I couldn't let the matter rest, I asked mister Sherlock
<v Speaker 4>Holmes here to help. Oh, mister Sherlock Holmes, eh well.
<v Speaker 2>Was the home. You may as well.
<v Speaker 3>I'll hear my story too, if you please, mister Ens, don't.
<v Speaker 2>Take long to tell you remember Jimmy that morning fight
<v Speaker 2>outside Pretoria on the Eastern railway line. You heard I
<v Speaker 2>was hit, Yes, I heard about it. I never got particular.
<v Speaker 2>Three of us got separated from the rest, all the Simpson,
<v Speaker 2>Henderson and I.
<v Speaker 7>The other two were killed. I got a bullet from
<v Speaker 7>my shoulder. I stuck on my horse though, and he
<v Speaker 7>galloped several miles with me before I must have rode
<v Speaker 7>off in a fain.
<v Speaker 2>When I came to it was night. It was deadly cold,
<v Speaker 2>you remember that, that kind of numb cold, just come
<v Speaker 2>at evening, and oh deadly. It was a building nearby.
<v Speaker 2>I knew my only hope was to reach it, and
<v Speaker 2>a memory of staggering there, and there was a large
<v Speaker 2>room with many beds in it. I just fell onto
<v Speaker 2>one of them and passed out. That of you, ha
<v Speaker 2>was it? When I woke in the morning, it was
<v Speaker 2>as though I had passed from a world of sanity
<v Speaker 2>into a nightmare. Standing in front of me was a
<v Speaker 2>dwarf like man with a huge, bulbous head. He was
<v Speaker 2>jabbering in Dutch and waving his hands. They were like
<v Speaker 2>horrible brown sponges. O.
<v Speaker 4>God, there are others behind him watching me, and as
<v Speaker 4>I looked at them, I realized that not one of
<v Speaker 4>them was a normous human being.
<v Speaker 2>Everyone was twisted or swollen or disfigured in some way
<v Speaker 2>and were laughing at me. God, I can hear them now.
<v Speaker 8>Well that then that that little beast laid his horrible,
<v Speaker 8>deformed hands on me and began pulling me off the bit.
<v Speaker 8>My wound was bleeding, but he went on. It was
<v Speaker 8>a swung of bull I don't know what he was
<v Speaker 8>going to do. But an elderly man suddenly came in
<v Speaker 8>and shouted an order and Dutch, and the little monster
<v Speaker 8>moved away. This is fantastic, It is a little true.
<v Speaker 7>Well, the elderly man spoke to me in English.
<v Speaker 2>I'm a doctor, he said. That shoulder of yours once
<v Speaker 2>fixing up quickly, but man alive. Do you know where
<v Speaker 2>you are?
<v Speaker 1>Oh?
<v Speaker 2>A hospital?
<v Speaker 3>I said, yes, He said, the leper hospital.
<v Speaker 2>You're lying in a leopard's spad.
<v Speaker 9>My god, now you'll have the truth, mister Dodd. Thanks
<v Speaker 9>to the British advance. I was in the General Hospital
<v Speaker 9>of Pretoria within a week. Apart from my shoulder, seem
<v Speaker 9>to be all right. It wasn't until they got me home.
<v Speaker 2>When I came here, but these terrible science began to
<v Speaker 2>appear on my face, and you then that I hadn't escaped.
<v Speaker 4>What was I to do, mister Dodd. We had two
<v Speaker 4>servants we could trust completely. There was this house where
<v Speaker 4>he could live. Mister Kent here, he's a surgeon, was
<v Speaker 4>prepared to stay and care for.
<v Speaker 2>Him in secrets. But why surely a hospital, don't you see?
<v Speaker 4>It would have meant segregation for the rest of his life,
<v Speaker 4>to live forever amongst strangers, without any hope.
<v Speaker 2>Of release, even in these quiet parts. If one word
<v Speaker 2>had got out, he would have been dragged away to
<v Speaker 2>that even you had to be kept on at Doug Jimmy.
<v Speaker 2>But what I don't understand, father, is why you relent enough.
<v Speaker 4>It was mister Sherlock Holmes who forced my hand with
<v Speaker 4>this scrap of paper.
<v Speaker 2>He wrote one word on it, leprosy.
<v Speaker 4>After that I realized that if he knew so much,
<v Speaker 4>it was safer that he should know it all.
<v Speaker 2>So it was, and.
<v Speaker 3>Who knows what good may come of it. How I
<v Speaker 3>understand that only you, mister Kent, have attended the patient there.
<v Speaker 2>I asked, sir, if.
<v Speaker 3>You are an authority on such tropical or semi tropical complaints,
<v Speaker 3>I have the ordinary knowledge they ducated medical man.
<v Speaker 2>I have no doubt, sir, that you are fully competent.
<v Speaker 3>But I am sure you will agree that in such
<v Speaker 3>a case a second opinion is valuable. It would have
<v Speaker 3>meant pressure being put on us to segregate him. I
<v Speaker 3>foresaw this situation, and I brought with us a friend
<v Speaker 3>whose discretion may be absolutely trusted. I was able once
<v Speaker 3>to do him a professional service, and he is ready
<v Speaker 3>to advise as a friend rather than as a specialist.
<v Speaker 3>His name is Sir James Saunders. Sir James, he is
<v Speaker 3>a present of the carriage outside the door, and I
<v Speaker 3>should be proud, mister Holmes good.
<v Speaker 2>I will ask him to step this way.
<v Speaker 3>Meanwhile, Colonel Msworth, we may perhaps assemble in your study.
<v Speaker 3>My invariable process starts upon the supposition that when you
<v Speaker 3>have eliminated all that which is impossible, then whatever remains,
<v Speaker 3>however improbable, must be the truth. As this case was
<v Speaker 3>first presented to me. There were three possible explanations of
<v Speaker 3>the seclusion or incarceration of this gentleman in an outhouse
<v Speaker 3>of his father's mansion. There was the possibility that he
<v Speaker 3>was in hiding for a crime, or that he was
<v Speaker 3>mad and they wished to avoid an asylum, or that
<v Speaker 3>he had some disease which caused his segregation. I could
<v Speaker 3>think of no other adequate explanations. The criminal solution would
<v Speaker 3>not bear inspection. No unsolved crime had been reported from
<v Speaker 3>this district. If it were some crime not yet discovered,
<v Speaker 3>then clearly it would be to the family's interest to
<v Speaker 3>send the delinquent abroad rather than keep it concealed at home.
<v Speaker 3>Insanity was more close en What's that the presence of
<v Speaker 3>the second person in the outhouse suggested the keeper. The
<v Speaker 3>fact that he locked the door when he came out
<v Speaker 3>strengthened to supposition. On the other hand, this constraint could
<v Speaker 3>not be severe, or the young man could not have
<v Speaker 3>got loose to have a look at his friend.
<v Speaker 2>You will remember, mister Dobb, that I had felt round for.
<v Speaker 4>Points and such as asking me about the paganist academy.
<v Speaker 2>Reading you were being optimistic there astones. Had it been
<v Speaker 2>a medical paper. It would have helped me.
<v Speaker 3>It is not illegal to keep a lunatic upon private predises,
<v Speaker 3>so long as there is a qualified person in attendance
<v Speaker 3>and the authorities have been notified. Then why all this
<v Speaker 3>district desire for secrecy? So you had no theory to
<v Speaker 3>hit the facts again? There remained a third possibility, rare
<v Speaker 3>and unlikely as it was. Everything seemed to fit into it.
<v Speaker 3>Leprosy is not uncommon in South Africa. Bleaching of the
<v Speaker 3>skin is a common result of the disease. By some
<v Speaker 3>extraordinary chance, this youth might have contracted it. His people
<v Speaker 3>would be placed in a very dreadful position, since they
<v Speaker 3>would desire to save him from segregation. Great secrecy would
<v Speaker 3>be needed, but he could be allowed some freedom after dark.
<v Speaker 3>A diverted medical man, if sufficiently paid, would easily be
<v Speaker 3>found to take.
<v Speaker 2>Care of him.
<v Speaker 4>You thought this case was the strongest of the three,
<v Speaker 4>in fact, so strong that I determined to act as
<v Speaker 4>if it were actually it proved. When I arrived here
<v Speaker 4>noticed that the gloves worn by Ralph, who carried the meals,
<v Speaker 4>were strongly impregnated but disinfectant. My last dads were removed.
<v Speaker 4>A single word showed you sir that your secret was discovered. Yes, yes,
<v Speaker 4>I see it now. But tell me, sir, why did
<v Speaker 4>you write it down instead of saying it?
<v Speaker 3>That was to prove to you that my discretion was
<v Speaker 3>to be trusted, I thought as much.
<v Speaker 2>Ah, here is the is well, sir, Let us know
<v Speaker 2>the west. It is often my lot to bring ill tidings,
<v Speaker 2>and seldom good.
<v Speaker 10>This occasion is the more welcome, Colonel Emsworth. It is
<v Speaker 10>not leprosy, not a well not case of pseudo leprosy ethosis.
<v Speaker 10>It's a scale like affection of the skin and slightly
<v Speaker 10>not but possibly curable and certainly non infective.
<v Speaker 2>Then heaven be thanked.
<v Speaker 4>But surely if he got it from contact with those
<v Speaker 4>leper fellows, no, not from them.
<v Speaker 3>A coincidence, remarkable, but a coincidence. Coincidence, My dear Sir James.
<v Speaker 3>Are we assured that the apprehension from which this young
<v Speaker 3>man has suffered since his terrible experience may not have
<v Speaker 3>produced a physical effect simulating temperature fears. May there not
<v Speaker 3>be subtle forces at work of which we know very
<v Speaker 3>very little.
<v Speaker 2>That was The Blanche Soldier by Michael Hardwick, based on.
<v Speaker 1>The short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Sherlock Holmes
<v Speaker 1>was plade by Carlton Hobbs, and production for the BBC
<v Speaker 1>was by Frederick Bradner.