Latest / Luke's English Podcast / 901. Sherlock Holmes_ The Adventure of The Speckled Band (Learn English with a Short Story)(M4A_128K)
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Hello listeners, Welcome back to Luke's English podcast. How are
- 0:02Speaker 1: you doing. I hope you're doing fine today. Now in
- 0:05Speaker 1: this episode, it's story time again. I'm going to read
- 0:07Speaker 1: you a story, so this will be your chance, hopefully
- 0:11Speaker 1: to understand and enjoy a story in English. There's a
- 0:14Speaker 1: PDF for this one which you can download either from
- 0:17Speaker 1: my website on the episode page for this episode, or
- 0:20Speaker 1: you can download it directly using the link that you
- 0:23Speaker 1: will find in the description of this episode in your
- 0:26Speaker 1: podcast app that you're using, or on YouTube if you're
- 0:29Speaker 1: watching there. Okay, so check out the PDF if you'd
- 0:33Speaker 1: like to be able to read the story that you're
- 0:35Speaker 1: listening to me read to you in this episode. Okay.
- 0:40Speaker 1: In fact, we're going to start looking at the PDF
- 0:42Speaker 1: right now, so let me go to that. Here we go, right, So,
- 0:47Speaker 1: this episode is called The Adventure of the Speckled Band
- 0:52Speaker 1: by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Here are some things I
- 0:55Speaker 1: should say first before I start reading out the story
- 0:57Speaker 1: to you. First of all, the English that you'll hear,
- 1:01Speaker 1: so this is fairly complex, old fashioned English. This story
- 1:05Speaker 1: was published in eighteen ninety two, and so the English
- 1:08Speaker 1: is pretty old fashioned compared to today's English. The main
- 1:12Speaker 1: difference is that everything seems more formal in style Victorian society,
- 1:17Speaker 1: which is, you know, this story was written in the
- 1:21Speaker 1: Victorian era. Victorian society was generally a lot more formal
- 1:25Speaker 1: than ours is today, and this is reflected in the language,
- 1:29Speaker 1: with its long, complex sentences and vocabulary. But overall, it's
- 1:34Speaker 1: not too different to the English we use today. It's
- 1:36Speaker 1: not like Shakespeare, for example, which is very difficult for
- 1:40Speaker 1: most people to understand fully these days. I think the
- 1:45Speaker 1: vast majority of the vocabulary used here is still applicable today,
- 1:48Speaker 1: and in fact, a lot of it is beautiful and
- 1:52Speaker 1: descriptive language, which I find very enjoyable to read and
- 1:55Speaker 1: hopefully you will find enjoyable to listen to. But I
- 1:58Speaker 1: understand that it might be difficult to understand. Hopefully my quick
- 2:03Speaker 1: explanations and synonyms and things will help you understand everything
- 2:09Speaker 1: and will help you convert the more old fashioned language
- 2:13Speaker 1: into more contemporary English. So let's begin right now. If
- 2:16Speaker 1: you feel you're getting lost at any point, don't worry.
- 2:19Speaker 1: Just keep listening and I will clarify things for you
- 2:22Speaker 1: regularly as you listen. Can you solve the mystery? Okay?
- 2:28Speaker 1: Can you solve the mystery, listen to the evidence and
- 2:30Speaker 1: descriptions and try to work out who committed the crime, why,
- 2:35Speaker 1: and crucially how they did it. And then just you
- 2:39Speaker 1: can just marvel at the way Sherlock Holmes almost perfectly
- 2:44Speaker 1: solves this case. So let's go back in time to
- 2:47Speaker 1: London at the end of the nineteenth century for a
- 2:49Speaker 1: Gothic mystery. Now, remember just a reminder for those of
- 2:54Speaker 1: you who maybe aren't so familiar with the with Sherlock Holmes.
- 2:59Speaker 1: So Charlocke Holmes is a professional private detective with a
- 3:02Speaker 1: particular set of skills. He's a very very observant man.
- 3:07Speaker 1: He notices everything, and he's able to use logic and
- 3:11Speaker 1: deductive reasoning to understand things deeply and solve problems which
- 3:16Speaker 1: other people can't. When we talk about deductive reasoning, deducing
- 3:21Speaker 1: things and being deductive, it means basically looking at looking
- 3:28Speaker 1: at evidence, seeing things, and then making conclusions based on
- 3:33Speaker 1: what you can see. So those conclusions that you make
- 3:36Speaker 1: based on the things you can see, these are called deductions,
- 3:38Speaker 1: and these help you. These deductions are when you work
- 3:42Speaker 1: out something that you can't actually see, something that you
- 3:45Speaker 1: don't know, but you work it out from the evidence.
- 3:49Speaker 1: For example, I don't know what it would be like.
- 3:51Speaker 1: For example, I don't know, just thinking of an example.
- 3:55Speaker 1: So you come home from work and you go into
- 3:57Speaker 1: your living room and you see that a newspaper has
- 4:01Speaker 1: been completely ripped to pieces, that there's pieces of newspaper
- 4:06Speaker 1: all over the living room. It's just been this newspaper
- 4:09Speaker 1: has been ripped to shreds. And you see your dog
- 4:13Speaker 1: sitting in the middle of the room with bits of
- 4:16Speaker 1: newspaper sticking out of its mouth and with a guilty
- 4:19Speaker 1: look on its face. Now, obviously you don't need to
- 4:22Speaker 1: be Sherlock Holmes to work out what has happened here,
- 4:25Speaker 1: But nevertheless, you could deduce that your dog basically has
- 4:29Speaker 1: ripped this newspaper to pieces while you were not there.
- 4:32Speaker 1: The dog was having a wonderful time playing with his
- 4:34Speaker 1: newspaper and decided to rip it to shreds in your absence.
- 4:38Speaker 1: So that's obviously you know you didn't see the dog
- 4:40Speaker 1: doing it, but you can just see the evidence in
- 4:42Speaker 1: front of you and you basically work out what has happened.
- 4:45Speaker 1: That is a basic form of deductive reasoning, Although what
- 4:49Speaker 1: Sherlock Holmes does is a lot more sophisticated than that.
- 4:53Speaker 1: You know, he notices all sorts of little clues and
- 4:57Speaker 1: is able to put them together very brilli alliantly. This
- 5:00Speaker 1: is one of the great things about Sherlock Holmes. So
- 5:04Speaker 1: he lives at two to one B Baker Street in
- 5:07Speaker 1: London with his companion, doctor John Watson. Watson accompanies homes
- 5:13Speaker 1: on his investigations and writes accounts of what happens each time.
- 5:17Speaker 1: These accounts of what have happened, These descriptions are what
- 5:21Speaker 1: we read in these short stories. So the story is
- 5:25Speaker 1: narrated by Watson. Okay, all right then, so let's let's begin.
- 5:31Speaker 1: The story is called the Adventure of the Speckled Band.
- 5:35Speaker 1: This is actually a crucial detail the Speckled Band. Now,
- 5:39Speaker 1: a band has two meanings. One meaning of band is
- 5:44Speaker 1: a group of people, like a group of musicians could
- 5:48Speaker 1: be called a band, but really a group of people,
- 5:51Speaker 1: maybe a group of soldiers or another group of people
- 5:53Speaker 1: sometimes that could be referred to as a band. That's
- 5:56Speaker 1: one meaning of the word band. Another meaning of the
- 5:58Speaker 1: word band would be like a kind of a strip
- 6:00Speaker 1: of fabric, like maybe a headband. You know, you see
- 6:04Speaker 1: people when they do sports, like if you know, people
- 6:07Speaker 1: who play tennis sometimes would wear a headband around their
- 6:10Speaker 1: head and it absorbs sweat and stops the sweat dripping
- 6:14Speaker 1: down into their eyes. That's a headband for tennis players,
- 6:17Speaker 1: for example. But a band, yes, can be a strip
- 6:20Speaker 1: of fabric like that. That's another meaning of the word band,
- 6:24Speaker 1: And that double meaning does kind of come into the story.
- 6:27Speaker 1: A little bit speckled refers to a sort of pattern,
- 6:32Speaker 1: let's say, like a design. Speckled would be a design
- 6:35Speaker 1: which has lots of little spots on it. For example,
- 6:39Speaker 1: lots of little spots could be described as speckled, like
- 6:43Speaker 1: certain birds eggs. Certain birds eggs, not chicken eggs. Chicken
- 6:47Speaker 1: eggs are normally just white or kind of a tan
- 6:51Speaker 1: brown reddish brown color. But some bird eggs are speckled.
- 6:55Speaker 1: They've got little sort of speckled spots on them or something.
- 6:59Speaker 1: So the speckle band, what does that mean? That's part
- 7:01Speaker 1: of the mystery, really what the speckled band actually is,
- 7:05Speaker 1: And you'll find out as the story progresses. So, okay,
- 7:08Speaker 1: it's time to start the story. These are the words
- 7:11Speaker 1: of John Watson. Then, and here we go on glancing
- 7:15Speaker 1: over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which
- 7:18Speaker 1: I have, during the last eight years studied the methods
- 7:21Speaker 1: of my friend Sherlock Holmes. I find many tragic, some comic,
- 7:26Speaker 1: a large number merely strange, but none commonplace For working
- 7:32Speaker 1: as he did rather for the love of his art
- 7:34Speaker 1: than for the acquirement of wealth. He refused to associate
- 7:38Speaker 1: himself with any investigation which did not tend towards the
- 7:42Speaker 1: unusual and even the fantastic. Of all these varied cases, however,
- 7:48Speaker 1: I cannot recall any which presented more singular features than
- 7:52Speaker 1: that which was associated with the well known Surrey family
- 7:56Speaker 1: of the Roylets of Stoke, Moran. The events in question
- 8:01Speaker 1: occurred in the early days of my association with Homes,
- 8:04Speaker 1: when we were sharing rooms as bachelors in Baker Street.
- 8:09Speaker 1: It is possible that I might have placed them upon
- 8:11Speaker 1: record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at
- 8:15Speaker 1: the time, from which I have only been freed during
- 8:18Speaker 1: the last month by the untimely death of the lady
- 8:21Speaker 1: to whom the pledge was given. It is perhaps as
- 8:25Speaker 1: well that the facts should now come to light, for
- 8:28Speaker 1: I have reasons to know that there are widespread rumors
- 8:31Speaker 1: as to the death of mister grimesby Roylet which tend
- 8:35Speaker 1: to make the matter even more terrible than the truth. Okay,
- 8:40Speaker 1: so I'm actually going to pause here already. It's lovely,
- 8:43Speaker 1: isn't it lovely writing? But let me just explain what
- 8:47Speaker 1: we've had. So Watson is talking about when he is
- 8:50Speaker 1: glancing over the notes of the seventy odd cases which
- 8:54Speaker 1: he has during the last eight years studied. So he's
- 8:57Speaker 1: looking at all of his notes, and there are about
- 8:59Speaker 1: seventy different cases which he has written down while studying
- 9:07Speaker 1: the methods of Sherlock Holmes. And looking at all of
- 9:10Speaker 1: these cases, he notices that many of them are tragic,
- 9:14Speaker 1: some of them are comic, meaning kind of funny. A
- 9:17Speaker 1: large number are merely strange, just odd, just bizarre, strange.
- 9:23Speaker 1: But none of them are commonplace, so commonplace meaning just
- 9:28Speaker 1: usual or the sort of thing that often happens, So
- 9:30Speaker 1: they're all all of them are unusual. So none of
- 9:34Speaker 1: them are commonplace commonplace meaning usual or common four meaning
- 9:40Speaker 1: because working as he did rather for the love of
- 9:43Speaker 1: his art. So the fact that Charlock Holmes works for
- 9:46Speaker 1: the love of the work, the love of his art
- 9:49Speaker 1: in this case, because he does that, he tends to
- 9:51Speaker 1: accept cases because they're interesting rather than because they pay well.
- 9:57Speaker 1: And as a result, most of the cases that Sherlock
- 9:59Speaker 1: Holmes works on are particularly interesting ones. He's attracted to
- 10:04Speaker 1: the interesting, strange, bizarre, unusual cases. And yet of all
- 10:11Speaker 1: of these cases, all of these seventy cases, Watson can't remember.
- 10:15Speaker 1: He can't recall any which were more singular than this one.
- 10:23Speaker 1: Singular meaning basically unique. So this one is really unique
- 10:28Speaker 1: compared to the other ones. And this is a story
- 10:32Speaker 1: associated with the well known Surrey family of the Roylets
- 10:36Speaker 1: of Stoke Moran. So this story features a family based
- 10:42Speaker 1: in Surrey called the Roylets of this town called Stoke Moran.
- 10:46Speaker 1: It's a made up town, it doesn't actually exist. The
- 10:50Speaker 1: Roylets would be a sort of a noble family from
- 10:54Speaker 1: this part of southeast England. The events in question occurred
- 10:59Speaker 1: in the early days of my association with Holmes. So
- 11:02Speaker 1: Watson is saying that this story is from the early days,
- 11:06Speaker 1: and he hasn't published it before because he had to
- 11:08Speaker 1: keep it secret. But the woman who he promised this
- 11:14Speaker 1: oath of secrecy to she has died, and so now
- 11:17Speaker 1: he's able to publish the story. And also he thinks
- 11:21Speaker 1: is important because there were lots of rumors about one
- 11:24Speaker 1: of the main characters in the story, rumors which are
- 11:27Speaker 1: kind of strange and not true, and so he thinks
- 11:29Speaker 1: it's time to publish this story in order to actually
- 11:31Speaker 1: reveal finally the truth of what happened to this man.
- 11:35Speaker 1: Dr grimesby Roylet okay, let's continue. So it was early
- 11:41Speaker 1: in April in the year eighty three that I woke
- 11:44Speaker 1: one morning to find Sherlock Holmes standing fully dressed by
- 11:47Speaker 1: the side of my bed. He was a late riser
- 11:50Speaker 1: as a rule, and as the clock on the mantelpiece
- 11:53Speaker 1: showed me that it was only a quarter past seven,
- 11:56Speaker 1: I blinked up at him in some surprise and perhaps
- 11:59Speaker 1: just a little resentment, for I was myself regular in
- 12:02Speaker 1: my habits. Very sorry to knock you up, Watson said he,
- 12:07Speaker 1: but it's the common lot this morning. Missus Hudson has
- 12:10Speaker 1: been knocked up, she retorted upon me, and I on you.
- 12:16Speaker 1: What is it then? A fire? No, a client. It
- 12:21Speaker 1: seems that a young lady has arrived in a considerable
- 12:24Speaker 1: state of excitement, who insists, upon seeing me she is
- 12:28Speaker 1: waiting now in the sitting room. Now when young ladies
- 12:32Speaker 1: wander about the metropolis at this hour of the morning
- 12:36Speaker 1: and knock sleepy people up out of their beds. I
- 12:39Speaker 1: presume that it is something very pressing which they have
- 12:42Speaker 1: to communicate. Should it prove to be an interesting case,
- 12:46Speaker 1: you would, I am sure, wish to follow it from
- 12:48Speaker 1: the outset. I thought, at any rate that I should
- 12:51Speaker 1: call you and give you the chance, My dear fellow,
- 12:54Speaker 1: I would not miss it for anything, said Watson. I
- 12:59Speaker 1: had no keener pleasure than in following homes in his
- 13:02Speaker 1: professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid deductions, as swift
- 13:07Speaker 1: as intuitions, and yet always founded on a logical basis
- 13:11Speaker 1: with which he unraveled the problems which were submitted to him.
- 13:16Speaker 1: So let's pause again and just clarify all that. So
- 13:20Speaker 1: this starts basically with it's early April, so the beginning
- 13:24Speaker 1: of spring. One morning, early Watson wakes up and Sherlock
- 13:30Speaker 1: Holmes is standing fully dressed by the side of his bed. Okay,
- 13:35Speaker 1: and Watson's like thinking, what what's going on? Because Watson
- 13:40Speaker 1: is a late riser someone who gets up late. As
- 13:43Speaker 1: a rule, generally speaking, he's a late riser. He tends
- 13:47Speaker 1: to get up late, and the clock on the mantelpiece.
- 13:51Speaker 1: He looked at the clock and it showed that it
- 13:52Speaker 1: was only quarter past seven in the morning. So Watson
- 13:56Speaker 1: was a bit surprised and maybe a bit annoyed, like,
- 13:59Speaker 1: you know, what is it, Holmes. He's annoyed because he
- 14:03Speaker 1: was regular in his habits, meaning that he, you know,
- 14:08Speaker 1: normally liked to get up at the same time every day,
- 14:11Speaker 1: no doubt later than this early time. Watson says, I'm
- 14:16Speaker 1: very sorry to wake you up. He says, I'm sorry,
- 14:18Speaker 1: very sorry to knock you up, which is a phrasal
- 14:20Speaker 1: verb that we don't really use anymore. We would say
- 14:24Speaker 1: wake you up, sorry to wake you up, Watson. Right
- 14:28Speaker 1: in the story, it's knock you up. We do have
- 14:31Speaker 1: a phrasal verb which is to knock someone up, but
- 14:33Speaker 1: these days it's a kind of very informal phrase which
- 14:36Speaker 1: means to make someone pregnant, to get someone pregnant. It's
- 14:40Speaker 1: a slightly rude sounding phrase, you know, it's not a
- 14:44Speaker 1: not very polite sounding Fraser verb. You know, get to
- 14:49Speaker 1: be knocked up means to be you know, to be pregnant.
- 14:52Speaker 1: But that's not how it's used here. So here it's
- 14:55Speaker 1: I mean, thankfully, I don't think Sherlock Holmes made Watson pregnant.
- 14:59Speaker 1: If that's the case, then there's like a whole other
- 15:01Speaker 1: subtext which I wasn't aware of. Although well, anyway, so
- 15:06Speaker 1: very sorry to wake you up, Watson, but it's the
- 15:08Speaker 1: common lot this morning. So Missus Hudson got woken up
- 15:12Speaker 1: by the visitor. Missus Hudson woke up Sherlock Holmes, and
- 15:16Speaker 1: Sherlock Holmes has gone to Watson to wake him up,
- 15:19Speaker 1: and he reveals that it's a client and it looks
- 15:21Speaker 1: like it's an interesting case. So he wanted to know
- 15:23Speaker 1: if Watson was interested in, you know, finding out the story,
- 15:27Speaker 1: and Watson says, yes, absolutely, of course, I love following
- 15:31Speaker 1: Sherlock Holmes's cases, and so on. Right, let's move on.
- 15:35Speaker 1: So again, remember my focus here is on getting through
- 15:40Speaker 1: the story. There are lots and lots of details, lots
- 15:43Speaker 1: of vocab pieces of vocab, which I could be dealing
- 15:47Speaker 1: with more in a more detailed way, but I'm choosing
- 15:50Speaker 1: not to, And I'm just hoping that my general summaries
- 15:54Speaker 1: are helping you follow the story. If you want to
- 15:56Speaker 1: look up specific words, be my guest you can find
- 15:59Speaker 1: the pdf. You can check the words and phrases in
- 16:02Speaker 1: a decent online dictionary Collins Dictionary dot com, Oxford Learner's Dictionaries,
- 16:07Speaker 1: Dictionaries dot Cambridge dot org, and so on and so forth. Okay,
- 16:12Speaker 1: but we're focusing on story here first and foremost, so
- 16:16Speaker 1: let's continue. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was
- 16:19Speaker 1: ready in a few minutes to accompany my friend down
- 16:22Speaker 1: to the sitting room. A lady dressed in black and
- 16:26Speaker 1: heavily veiled, who'd been sitting in the window rose as
- 16:29Speaker 1: we entered. So she's heavily veiled, which means she's got
- 16:33Speaker 1: a veil over her face. This is something that covers
- 16:36Speaker 1: women used to wear veils. Of course, some women still do, right.
- 16:42Speaker 1: It's associated sort of with some religious sort of communities,
- 16:47Speaker 1: right as we know. But this kind of veil, it's
- 16:49Speaker 1: kind of like a made of a fabric that you
- 16:53Speaker 1: can see through it, but when it's worn close over
- 16:57Speaker 1: someone's face, you can't really see their face, you know.
- 17:01Speaker 1: In weddings, in traditional wedding dresses might have a veil
- 17:06Speaker 1: as well that the woman would wear while she's walking
- 17:09Speaker 1: down the aisle. This would be a white veil. The
- 17:11Speaker 1: veil gets lifted during the wedding ceremony. Right, so that's
- 17:16Speaker 1: a veil. So this lady is dressed in black and
- 17:19Speaker 1: she's got a veil over her face. She's been sitting
- 17:24Speaker 1: in the window. This woman rose as we entered. She
- 17:27Speaker 1: stood up as we entered the room. Good morning, madam,
- 17:30Speaker 1: said Holmes cheerily. My name is Sherlock Holmes. This is
- 17:34Speaker 1: my intimate friend and associate, doctor Watson, before whom you
- 17:38Speaker 1: can speak as freely as before myself. Ha. I'm glad
- 17:42Speaker 1: to see that missus Hudson has had the good sense
- 17:45Speaker 1: to light the fire. Pray, draw up to it, and
- 17:48Speaker 1: I shall order you a cup of hot coffee. For
- 17:50Speaker 1: I observe that you are shivering. It is not cold,
- 17:54Speaker 1: which makes me shiver, said the woman, in a low voice,
- 17:57Speaker 1: changing her seat, as requested. Well what then it is fear,
- 18:02Speaker 1: mister Holmes, it is terror. She raised her veil as
- 18:07Speaker 1: she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed
- 18:10Speaker 1: in a pitiable state of agitation, her face all drawn
- 18:14Speaker 1: and gray, with restless, frightened eyes like those of some
- 18:18Speaker 1: hunted animal. Her features and figure were those of a
- 18:22Speaker 1: woman of thirty, but her hair was shot with premature
- 18:26Speaker 1: gray and her expression was weary and haggard. Okay, so
- 18:31Speaker 1: the woman wearing the veil, Holmes is very cheerful, but she,
- 18:36Speaker 1: in contrast, is not, and she seems to be in
- 18:39Speaker 1: a very upset state. She's shivering, which means shaking when
- 18:46Speaker 1: your body shakes. Normally we shiver when we are cold,
- 18:49Speaker 1: but this woman is shivering because she's terrified. Okay, she
- 18:55Speaker 1: removes the veil. She raises the veil, and we can
- 18:57Speaker 1: see that she is in a pitiable state of anaeation, pitiable
- 19:01Speaker 1: meaning a very sorry state, a very bad bad condition,
- 19:08Speaker 1: probably bad mental state, where she's in a lot of fear.
- 19:13Speaker 1: She has frightened eyes, like some kind of hunted animal.
- 19:17Speaker 1: She you know, she looks basically like a woman of thirty,
- 19:23Speaker 1: but her hair is going gray, and the expression on
- 19:26Speaker 1: her face looks weary, like, very tired and haggard like exhausted.
- 19:31Speaker 1: You know, you're the way you might look if you've
- 19:34Speaker 1: just been through some horrible, horrible experience. You would look tired,
- 19:37Speaker 1: but you'd look haggard like, kind of very tired and
- 19:43Speaker 1: extremely kind of extremely sort of stressed and badly affected
- 19:51Speaker 1: by what's been happening. Let's continue. Sherlock Holmes ran her
- 19:56Speaker 1: over with one of his quick, all comprehensive glances, so
- 20:00Speaker 1: he kind of gave her a quick look. You must
- 20:04Speaker 1: not fear, said said he, soothingly, bending forward and patting
- 20:08Speaker 1: her forearm. We shall soon set matters right. I have
- 20:12Speaker 1: no doubt you have come in by train this morning.
- 20:15Speaker 1: I see you know me then no, but I observed
- 20:20Speaker 1: the second half of a return ticket in the palm
- 20:22Speaker 1: of your left glove. You must have started early, and
- 20:26Speaker 1: yet you had a good drive in a dog cart
- 20:28Speaker 1: along heavy roads before you reached the station. The lady
- 20:33Speaker 1: gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my companion.
- 20:40Speaker 1: She can't believe what he's just said. Ah, there is
- 20:45Speaker 1: no mystery, my dear madam, said he smiling. The left
- 20:48Speaker 1: arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no
- 20:51Speaker 1: less than seven places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There
- 20:56Speaker 1: is no vehicle save a dog cart, which throws up
- 20:59Speaker 1: mud in the way, and then only when you sit
- 21:02Speaker 1: on the left hand side of the driver. Whatever your
- 21:05Speaker 1: reasons may be, you are perfectly correct, said she. I
- 21:10Speaker 1: started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at twenty past
- 21:14Speaker 1: and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir,
- 21:18Speaker 1: I can stand this strain no longer. I shall go
- 21:21Speaker 1: mad if it continues. I have no one to turn to,
- 21:25Speaker 1: none save only one who cares for me, and he,
- 21:29Speaker 1: poor fellow, can be of little aid. Okay, So Holmes
- 21:34Speaker 1: does a bit of his deductive reasoning. He works out
- 21:37Speaker 1: that she's come in early this morning on a train,
- 21:41Speaker 1: and that she also had a trip on a dog
- 21:45Speaker 1: cart that's a small wooden cart that would have been
- 21:49Speaker 1: pulled by a horse through the countryside. She's surprised that
- 21:56Speaker 1: he knows all these things, and he says, it's pretty easy. Look,
- 21:59Speaker 1: you've got half a train ticket in your hand, and
- 22:02Speaker 1: you've been splattered by mud on your left arm. I
- 22:07Speaker 1: think it is. And the only way that you could
- 22:12Speaker 1: be spattered with mud in that way would be is
- 22:14Speaker 1: if you had been traveling in a dog cart, one
- 22:17Speaker 1: of these small carts. Dog carts are the only sorts
- 22:20Speaker 1: of vehicle that throw up mud in that way. So anyway,
- 22:24Speaker 1: he's already worked out, you know, like a lot about
- 22:27Speaker 1: the journey that she's had that morning, and she confirms
- 22:31Speaker 1: it by telling him that she came from Leatherhead, which
- 22:34Speaker 1: is a town, you know, outside London. Let's continue. I
- 22:41Speaker 1: have heard of you, mister Holmes. I have heard of
- 22:43Speaker 1: you from Missus Farintosh, whom you helped in the hour
- 22:46Speaker 1: of her sore need. It was from her that I
- 22:49Speaker 1: had your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that
- 22:52Speaker 1: you could help me too? And at least throw a
- 22:55Speaker 1: little light through the dense darkness which surrounds me. At
- 22:59Speaker 1: present it is out of my power to reward you
- 23:01Speaker 1: for your services. But in a month or six weeks
- 23:04Speaker 1: I shall be married, with the control of my own income,
- 23:08Speaker 1: and then at least you shall not find me ungrateful.
- 23:12Speaker 1: Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out
- 23:16Speaker 1: a small case book which he consulted. M Farinosh said,
- 23:21Speaker 1: he ah, yes, I recall the case. It was concerned
- 23:25Speaker 1: with an Opal Tiara. I think it was before your time, Watson.
- 23:30Speaker 1: I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy
- 23:32Speaker 1: to devote the same care to your case as I
- 23:35Speaker 1: did to that of your friend. As to reward, my
- 23:38Speaker 1: profession is its own reward. But you are at liberty
- 23:42Speaker 1: to defray whatever expenses I may be put to at
- 23:45Speaker 1: the time which suits you best. So this woman, she
- 23:51Speaker 1: knows about Holmes from a friend of hers who also
- 23:54Speaker 1: used Holmes's services to solve some other case which involved
- 23:59Speaker 1: an opal tiara, some sort of you know jewelry that
- 24:04Speaker 1: you wear on the head, that women wear on their head,
- 24:09Speaker 1: right sort of thing a princess would wear, or someone
- 24:12Speaker 1: in a ball gown would wear, like a little it's
- 24:14Speaker 1: kind of like a little crown that just goes, just
- 24:18Speaker 1: goes around the front, and girls might wear one on
- 24:22Speaker 1: their head, and it might they might have jewels in them.
- 24:26Speaker 1: So I suppose homes maybe help to find this stolen
- 24:31Speaker 1: piece of jewelry or something for the woman's friend, Missus Farintosh.
- 24:36Speaker 1: And the woman who's visited Holmes says that she's unable
- 24:41Speaker 1: to what is it? She's unable to pay. It's out
- 24:47Speaker 1: of she says, it's out of my power to reward
- 24:49Speaker 1: you for your services. But in a month or six
- 24:51Speaker 1: weeks I shall be married, so and then I'll have
- 24:54Speaker 1: the control of my own income. So she says she
- 24:57Speaker 1: can't pay him now, but when she's married later on,
- 25:00Speaker 1: she will have control of her own money. She'll be
- 25:02Speaker 1: able to do it then, And Holmes says, don't worry.
- 25:05Speaker 1: The work itself is the payment that I look for.
- 25:11Speaker 1: But when it's convenient for you, you can just pay my expenses.
- 25:16Speaker 1: That's probably the money that he's going to spend to
- 25:19Speaker 1: track if there's any traveling involved, or any other money
- 25:22Speaker 1: which Homes spends while covering this case. Okay, let's continue,
- 25:30Speaker 1: Holmes says, And now I beg that you will lay
- 25:32Speaker 1: be before us everything that may help us in forming
- 25:35Speaker 1: an opinion upon the matter. So this is the bit
- 25:38Speaker 1: where the client explains what's happened. So these are important
- 25:44Speaker 1: parts of the story. This is the backstory, Alas replied
- 25:48Speaker 1: our visitor. The very horror of my situation lies in
- 25:51Speaker 1: the fact that my fears are so vague, and my
- 25:54Speaker 1: suspicions depend so entirely upon small points which might seem
- 25:58Speaker 1: trivial to another, that even he to whom of all
- 26:02Speaker 1: others I have a right to look for help and advice,
- 26:05Speaker 1: looks upon all that I tell him about it as
- 26:07Speaker 1: the fancies of a nervous woman. So basically, she's saying,
- 26:12Speaker 1: all the information she has is very vague, she doesn't
- 26:15Speaker 1: understand the situation. It's all based on very small pieces
- 26:19Speaker 1: of information that she doesn't really understand. And when she
- 26:21Speaker 1: talks to this other person, who I am assuming is
- 26:24Speaker 1: her fiance, the man she's engaged to be married to.
- 26:27Speaker 1: When she tries to talk to him about it, he
- 26:30Speaker 1: just he doesn't it doesn't take it seriously, which is
- 26:35Speaker 1: a pity. He does not say so, but I can
- 26:39Speaker 1: read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But
- 26:43Speaker 1: I've heard, mister Holmes, that you can see deeply into
- 26:46Speaker 1: the manifold wickedness of the human heart. You may advise
- 26:50Speaker 1: me how to walk amid the dangers which encompass me.
- 26:53Speaker 1: I am all attention, madam. Okay, let's continue. My name
- 26:59Speaker 1: is Helen Stone, and I'm living with my stepfather, who
- 27:02Speaker 1: is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon
- 27:05Speaker 1: families in England, the Roylets of Stoke, Moran on the
- 27:09Speaker 1: western border of Surrey. Holmes nodded his head. The name
- 27:14Speaker 1: is familiar to me, he said. The family was at
- 27:18Speaker 1: one time among the richest in England, and the estates
- 27:22Speaker 1: extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north and
- 27:26Speaker 1: Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four
- 27:30Speaker 1: successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, and
- 27:34Speaker 1: the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in
- 27:39Speaker 1: the days of the regency. Nothing was left save a
- 27:42Speaker 1: few acres of ground and the two hundred year old house,
- 27:46Speaker 1: which is itself crushed under a heavy mortgage. The last
- 27:50Speaker 1: squire dragged out his existence there, living the horrible life
- 27:54Speaker 1: of an aristocratic pauper, but his only son, my stepfather,
- 28:00Speaker 1: that he must adapt himself to the new conditions, obtained
- 28:03Speaker 1: an advance from a relative which enabled him to take
- 28:06Speaker 1: a medical degree, and went out to Calcutta, where, by
- 28:11Speaker 1: his professional skill and his force of character, he established
- 28:15Speaker 1: a large practice. So I think I need to stop
- 28:18Speaker 1: and explain here. So basically, this woman, Helen Stoner, she
- 28:26Speaker 1: is part of this family. In fact, it's her stepfather's
- 28:31Speaker 1: family stepfather. That means her mother married, so it's not
- 28:36Speaker 1: her natural biological father, but it's her mother's husband. Right.
- 28:44Speaker 1: So let's say the mother had Helen with another man.
- 28:50Speaker 1: She was probably previously married to him, something may have
- 28:53Speaker 1: happened to him, and then she ended up getting married
- 28:56Speaker 1: to this other person, and this is Helen's stepfather, And
- 29:00Speaker 1: Helen's stepfather is the head of this family. In fact,
- 29:06Speaker 1: he's the only surviving member of this old family. Is
- 29:11Speaker 1: it the oldest the oldest Saxon family in England. The
- 29:16Speaker 1: Saxons were a tribe of people who traveled to England
- 29:21Speaker 1: from is it like Denmark, Germany? Right? Okay, and settled
- 29:27Speaker 1: in England. So this is like, this is a very
- 29:31Speaker 1: very old aristocratic family. Okay, the Roylets of Stoke, Moran
- 29:36Speaker 1: on the western border of Surrey down in southeast England.
- 29:40Speaker 1: So her stepfather, yes, is the last remaining member of
- 29:45Speaker 1: this family line, okay. Helen describes how the family used
- 29:51Speaker 1: to be rich, but over four successive generations, the wealth
- 29:58Speaker 1: of the family has been lost, I guess by the
- 30:01Speaker 1: heads of each generation, the main male heir of each
- 30:06Speaker 1: generation not managing the estate very well. The estate that
- 30:10Speaker 1: refers to the land and all of the money that
- 30:12Speaker 1: the family owns. And as a result, the state of
- 30:19Speaker 1: this family has gone really bad. All the money's gone. Previously,
- 30:26Speaker 1: the family owned a lot of land which stretched into
- 30:29Speaker 1: other counties. All that land is gone and the only
- 30:33Speaker 1: thing that the family has left is two hundred acres
- 30:36Speaker 1: of land. So that's kind of like a very big
- 30:38Speaker 1: garden and the house itself one of these old stately homes.
- 30:44Speaker 1: This is a bit like Downton Abbey, you can think
- 30:46Speaker 1: of it like that, but Downton Abbey in really bad condition,
- 30:51Speaker 1: where the head of the house, Lord Crawley. In this case,
- 30:55Speaker 1: his name is what's his name again, Royler is you know,
- 31:04Speaker 1: he's the only one left, and the house is in disrepair.
- 31:10Speaker 1: There's also a heavy mortgage on the house. A mortgage
- 31:12Speaker 1: that means basically a bank loan, so a debt okay,
- 31:20Speaker 1: So the house has beat is crushed under a mortgage,
- 31:22Speaker 1: which means that that a lot of money was borrowed
- 31:27Speaker 1: against the house, so there's no money, there's no cash
- 31:31Speaker 1: the house. The family is poor, even though they're an
- 31:34Speaker 1: aristocratic family, they're very poor. And it's really the male
- 31:38Speaker 1: heir of this that seems that's in charge of this.
- 31:41Speaker 1: His name is yeah, his name is Roylett, and Roylett's
- 31:46Speaker 1: father lived the life of an aristocratic pauper. A pauper
- 31:52Speaker 1: is someone who's poor with no money. But then Roylet,
- 31:55Speaker 1: the stepfather, decided that he had to adapt himself to
- 31:59Speaker 1: these cos and he borrowed money from a member of
- 32:02Speaker 1: the family and used it to get a medical degree.
- 32:05Speaker 1: He trained to become a doctor, and he went to
- 32:07Speaker 1: Calcutta in India, traveled to India. This is during the
- 32:10Speaker 1: time of the British occupation of India. So he went
- 32:14Speaker 1: and lived in India and established a medical practice there.
- 32:18Speaker 1: So he worked in India as a doctor, and with
- 32:21Speaker 1: his professional skill and force of character, he set up
- 32:25Speaker 1: a medical practice in India. Right, so let's continue. In
- 32:28Speaker 1: a fit of anger is the next line. In a
- 32:31Speaker 1: fit of anger, however, caused by some robberies which had
- 32:37Speaker 1: been perpetrated in the house, he beat his native butler
- 32:41Speaker 1: to death and narrowly escaped to capital sentence. As it was,
- 32:46Speaker 1: he suffered a long term of imprisonment and afterwards returned
- 32:49Speaker 1: to England a morose and disappointed man. So, while he
- 32:54Speaker 1: was in India, roilet the stepfather in a moment of anger,
- 33:01Speaker 1: because he's a very angry man. In a moment of
- 33:05Speaker 1: anger which was caused by some robberies in the house.
- 33:09Speaker 1: So some people have been stealing things from his house.
- 33:12Speaker 1: In a fit of anger, he attacked his Indian butler.
- 33:17Speaker 1: A butler is a person who sort of serves the
- 33:21Speaker 1: head of the house. You can imagine him in a
- 33:24Speaker 1: black suit holding a tray. You know, and visiting the
- 33:29Speaker 1: man of the house and saying, you know, would you
- 33:31Speaker 1: like me to serve tea sir? You know that sort
- 33:34Speaker 1: of thing a butler does the head of the servants
- 33:38Speaker 1: in the house. So the stepfather attacked his Indian butler
- 33:43Speaker 1: and beat him to death and killed him over this
- 33:47Speaker 1: problem with the robberies in the house, which is you know, terrible.
- 33:50Speaker 1: This stepfather seems like an absolute monster. He narrowly escaped
- 33:56Speaker 1: a capital sentence. A capital sentence would be the death senter.
- 34:00Speaker 1: So he only just avoided being killed for this murder
- 34:03Speaker 1: as a punishment. But he did suffer a long term
- 34:07Speaker 1: of imprisonment. So he spent a long time in jail,
- 34:09Speaker 1: in prison, and after that he returned to England, and
- 34:14Speaker 1: he was a morose and disappointed man. Morose means in
- 34:18Speaker 1: a bad mood, very moody, very angry, unhappy and disappointed
- 34:25Speaker 1: because of all of these experiences. Let's continue when doctor Roylett.
- 34:30Speaker 1: This is still Helen, the stepdaughter, describing the story. When
- 34:34Speaker 1: doctor Roylett was in India, he married my mother, Missus Stoner,
- 34:38Speaker 1: the young widow of Major General Stoner of the Bengal Artillery.
- 34:43Speaker 1: My sister Julia and I were twins and we were
- 34:47Speaker 1: only two years old at the time of my mother's remarriage.
- 34:51Speaker 1: She had a considerable sum of money, not less than
- 34:54Speaker 1: one thousand pounds a year, and this she bequeathed to
- 34:58Speaker 1: doctor Roylet entirely while we resided with him, with a
- 35:02Speaker 1: provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to
- 35:05Speaker 1: each of us in the event of our marriage. All right,
- 35:09Speaker 1: So Helen the one telling the story. Her mum was
- 35:14Speaker 1: married to this military man, Major General Stoner. I guess
- 35:21Speaker 1: something happened to him and he died and she ended
- 35:23Speaker 1: up remarrying, and she married doctor Roylett. Okay, and this
- 35:28Speaker 1: is when Helen and her twin sister, So there's a
- 35:32Speaker 1: twin sister, Julia. Helen and Julia were two years old
- 35:36Speaker 1: when the marriage happened, and the girls had a lot
- 35:41Speaker 1: of money. They had one thousand pounds a year, which
- 35:43Speaker 1: is a lot of money in those days. No, sorry,
- 35:47Speaker 1: the mum, the girl's mum, had a lot of money
- 35:50Speaker 1: and she bequeathed it to doctor Roylett. She gave she
- 35:54Speaker 1: promised to give it all to him while while they
- 36:01Speaker 1: lived with him. Part of the arrangement of her giving
- 36:07Speaker 1: him the money was that some of that money would
- 36:11Speaker 1: be given to each of the girls if they got married. Okay,
- 36:16Speaker 1: so she gave him all the money. Dr Royleert all
- 36:19Speaker 1: the money, but if one of the two daughters gets married,
- 36:22Speaker 1: they would have the right to take a lot of
- 36:24Speaker 1: that money away. Okay, all right, let's continue. Shortly after
- 36:30Speaker 1: our return to England, my mother died. She was killed
- 36:34Speaker 1: eight years ago in a railway accident near Crewe. Dr
- 36:39Speaker 1: Roylett then abandoned his attempts to establish himself in practice
- 36:43Speaker 1: in London and took us to live with him in
- 36:45Speaker 1: the old ancestral house at Stoke, Moran. The money which
- 36:49Speaker 1: my mother had left was enough for all our wants,
- 36:52Speaker 1: and there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness.
- 36:56Speaker 1: But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time.
- 37:00Speaker 1: Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our neighbors,
- 37:04Speaker 1: who had at first enjoyed to see a roylet of
- 37:07Speaker 1: Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut
- 37:10Speaker 1: himself up in his house and seldom came out, save
- 37:13Speaker 1: to indulge in ferocious quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Okay,
- 37:20Speaker 1: so they moved to England. The mother unfortunately died in
- 37:24Speaker 1: a railway accident, and at that point doctor Roylet and
- 37:28Speaker 1: the two daughters lived together, and doctor Roylett decided he
- 37:33Speaker 1: would give up trying to establish himself and he just
- 37:36Speaker 1: lived in the house with the girls, and they all
- 37:40Speaker 1: lived on the money that the girls had inherited from
- 37:42Speaker 1: their mother. So at this point doctor Roylet and the
- 37:45Speaker 1: two girls are living on the inheritance from the mother.
- 37:48Speaker 1: At this point something changed in him. In the doctor
- 37:53Speaker 1: as well, he'd stayed in the house all the time.
- 37:56Speaker 1: He shut himself up. He seldom came out, so he
- 37:59Speaker 1: rarely came out save to indulge in quarrels. So the
- 38:03Speaker 1: only time he came out was to have big arguments,
- 38:08Speaker 1: very angry arguments with anyone with whoever might cross his path,
- 38:13Speaker 1: whoever he met. The only reason he go outside would
- 38:16Speaker 1: be to get involved in some angry, aggressive argument with someone.
- 38:22Speaker 1: So he's very angry and violent man. Violence of temper
- 38:26Speaker 1: approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of
- 38:29Speaker 1: the family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe,
- 38:33Speaker 1: been intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A
- 38:37Speaker 1: series of disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended
- 38:41Speaker 1: in the police court, until at last he became the
- 38:44Speaker 1: terror of the village and the folks would fly at
- 38:47Speaker 1: his approach, for he is a man of immense strength
- 38:50Speaker 1: and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. So the guy sounds
- 38:54Speaker 1: like he's totally out of control. He's got major anger
- 38:58Speaker 1: management issues, and he's been involved in several brawls, several
- 39:05Speaker 1: physical fights with other people which ended in him going
- 39:11Speaker 1: to the police station. And he finally has become the
- 39:15Speaker 1: terror of the village. Everyone in the village is afraid
- 39:17Speaker 1: of him. People would escape when he approached. He's a
- 39:22Speaker 1: man of immense strength, he's completely out of control and
- 39:25Speaker 1: totally angry all the time. All right, he's a nightmare.
- 39:29Speaker 1: But this is certainly a very suspicious character. Anyway, let's continue.
- 39:35Speaker 1: Last week, he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet
- 39:38Speaker 1: into a stream. And it was only by paying over
- 39:41Speaker 1: all the money which I could gather together that I
- 39:44Speaker 1: was able to avert another public exposure. So he actually
- 39:47Speaker 1: threw a man at the blacksmith, guy who works with metal.
- 39:51Speaker 1: He threw this man over a over a balcony or
- 39:55Speaker 1: over a wall into a stream into a river. He
- 39:59Speaker 1: threw a man into a ri and Helen had to
- 40:04Speaker 1: pay a lot of money to try and avoid this
- 40:06Speaker 1: becoming a big public exposure. He had no friends at
- 40:11Speaker 1: all save the wandering Gypsies, and he would give these
- 40:14Speaker 1: vagabonds leave to encamp upon a few acres of bramble
- 40:18Speaker 1: covered land which represent the family estate, and would accept
- 40:22Speaker 1: in return the hospitality of their tents, wandering away with them,
- 40:26Speaker 1: sometimes for weeks on end. So doctor Roylet has no
- 40:31Speaker 1: friends except for a group of gypsies. Gypsies are traveling people, right,
- 40:39Speaker 1: It's like a whole culture. We have gypsies in the UK,
- 40:44Speaker 1: and yeah, these are people who travel. They don't actually
- 40:47Speaker 1: have any fixed place to live, but they move from
- 40:50Speaker 1: place to place. And Gypsies are often sort of people
- 40:59Speaker 1: often have for a negative opinions of Gypsies, you know,
- 41:05Speaker 1: because of the way that they live, and they're often
- 41:09Speaker 1: considered to be trouble and people don't trust them. That's
- 41:13Speaker 1: that's the kind of stereotype. That's the way that gypsies
- 41:17Speaker 1: are often treated. And I suppose at this time in particular,
- 41:19Speaker 1: it would have been certainly the case that Gypsies are
- 41:22Speaker 1: often looked upon with suspicion because people maybe are threatened
- 41:29Speaker 1: by them because they, you know, their lifestyle, and they
- 41:31Speaker 1: are concerned that they might commit crime. They kind of
- 41:35Speaker 1: live outside of society in a ways, and that makes
- 41:37Speaker 1: them kind of a little bit of a threat, it
- 41:40Speaker 1: seems to most people's ordinary way of life, and they
- 41:44Speaker 1: might be associated with like crime and stuff. You might
- 41:49Speaker 1: have seen the film Snatch Brad Pitt. It's a it's
- 41:55Speaker 1: a guy Ritchie film with Brad Pitt and Jason and
- 41:59Speaker 1: Jason Statham it. In that film, Brad Pitt plays an
- 42:02Speaker 1: Irish gypsy, and if you've seen the film, you can
- 42:05Speaker 1: see the way that gypsies have represented the you know,
- 42:08Speaker 1: the traveling lifestyle, the kind of relationship they have with
- 42:11Speaker 1: the rest of society anyway. So doctor Roylett is only
- 42:16Speaker 1: friends with a group of traveling gypsies. He lets them
- 42:19Speaker 1: stay on his land, and in fact often they return
- 42:23Speaker 1: the favor by welcoming him in to their community, and
- 42:26Speaker 1: he often goes and travels away with them for several
- 42:29Speaker 1: weeks at a time. So he's kind of like only
- 42:33Speaker 1: friends with these gypsies who are often living on his land. Continuing,
- 42:38Speaker 1: he also has a passion for Indian animals, which are
- 42:42Speaker 1: sent over to him by a correspondent, And he has
- 42:45Speaker 1: at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, which wander
- 42:49Speaker 1: freely over his grounds and are feared by the villagers
- 42:52Speaker 1: almost as much as their master. Okay, so as doctor
- 42:59Speaker 1: Roylett also owns some Indian animals, a cheetah and a baboon. Now,
- 43:06Speaker 1: cheetahs used to be I understand, used to be native
- 43:09Speaker 1: to India. We associate them normally with like the plains
- 43:14Speaker 1: of Africa. Right, Cheetahs are big cats, the fastest animal
- 43:19Speaker 1: on the land. That's a cheatah, very fast, big cat.
- 43:24Speaker 1: I think they used to be in India as well,
- 43:26Speaker 1: not sure these days. And so he's got a cheetah.
- 43:30Speaker 1: He's also got a baboon. A baboon is a type
- 43:33Speaker 1: of monkey, right, although as far as I'm aware, they
- 43:41Speaker 1: don't have baboons in India. I think baboons are baboons
- 43:49Speaker 1: can be found elsewhere anyway, It's a type of monkey.
- 43:55Speaker 1: And he lets these animals just wander freely on his grounds,
- 43:59Speaker 1: meaning on the land around the house, and everyone in
- 44:03Speaker 1: the village is terrified of these animals, as you would understand,
- 44:06Speaker 1: as you can imagine, they're almost as terrified of the
- 44:09Speaker 1: animals as they are of Doctor Royler himself, who is
- 44:12Speaker 1: even more of a monster. Not that these animals are monsters,
- 44:16Speaker 1: but I'm sure that they could be very scary. Right
- 44:19Speaker 1: if you're living in an English village and there's a
- 44:21Speaker 1: cheetah running around or a baboon in the tree, and
- 44:25Speaker 1: you know, baboons can be very frightening. They're very strong
- 44:29Speaker 1: and very wild. Now let's continue. You can imagine from
- 44:33Speaker 1: what I say that my poor sister Julia and I
- 44:36Speaker 1: had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would
- 44:39Speaker 1: stay with us, and for a long time we did
- 44:42Speaker 1: all the work of the house. She was but thirty
- 44:45Speaker 1: at the time of her death, and yet her hair
- 44:48Speaker 1: had already begun to whiten, even as mine has. Your
- 44:52Speaker 1: sister is dead. Then, she died just two years ago,
- 44:57Speaker 1: and it's of her death that I wish to speak
- 44:59Speaker 1: to you. You can understand that living the life which
- 45:02Speaker 1: I have described, we were little likely to see anyone
- 45:05Speaker 1: of our own age and position. We had, however, an aunt,
- 45:10Speaker 1: my mother's maiden sister, Miss Honorea Westphale, who lives near Harrow,
- 45:15Speaker 1: and we were occasionally allowed to pay short visits to
- 45:18Speaker 1: this lady's house. Julia went there at Christmas two years
- 45:23Speaker 1: ago and met there a half pay major of Marines,
- 45:27Speaker 1: to whom she became engaged. My stepfather learned of the
- 45:31Speaker 1: engagement when my sister returned, and offered no objection to
- 45:35Speaker 1: the marriage. But within a fortnight of the day which
- 45:38Speaker 1: had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event occurred,
- 45:42Speaker 1: which has deprived me of my only companion. All right,
- 45:46Speaker 1: So Helen and her sister lived a miserable life, very
- 45:50Speaker 1: very fearful life. She described how Julia, even though she
- 45:57Speaker 1: was only in her thirties, hair had already begun to
- 46:00Speaker 1: go white, just like Helen's has. Julia died two years ago.
- 46:05Speaker 1: Before she died, she went to visit an aunt in
- 46:10Speaker 1: another part of the country at Christmas or something, and
- 46:13Speaker 1: when she was there she met a man, this major again,
- 46:17Speaker 1: another army man, and she became engaged to marry him.
- 46:23Speaker 1: The stepfather, doctor Roylet, did not oppose it, so he
- 46:28Speaker 1: accepted it. But within a fortnight of the day which
- 46:36Speaker 1: had been fixed for the wedding, so about two weeks
- 46:39Speaker 1: before the wedding day. This terrible event happened which led
- 46:44Speaker 1: to Julia being killed, depriving Helen of her only companion.
- 46:51Speaker 1: Let's continue, Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his
- 46:54Speaker 1: chair with his eyes closed and his head sunk in
- 46:57Speaker 1: a cushion. But he half opened his lids now and
- 47:00Speaker 1: glanced across at his visitor. Pray be precise as to
- 47:05Speaker 1: the details, said he. It is easy for me to
- 47:09Speaker 1: be so, for every event of that dreadful time is
- 47:13Speaker 1: seared into my memory. The manor house is, as I
- 47:17Speaker 1: have already said, very old, and only one wing is
- 47:20Speaker 1: now inhabited. The bedrooms in this wing are on the
- 47:24Speaker 1: ground floor, the sitting rooms being in the central block
- 47:27Speaker 1: of the buildings. Of these bedrooms, the first is doctor Roylet's,
- 47:32Speaker 1: the second my sister's, and the third my own. There
- 47:36Speaker 1: is no communication between them, but they all open out
- 47:40Speaker 1: into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain? Perfectly? So,
- 47:44Speaker 1: said Holmes. The windows of the three rooms open out
- 47:49Speaker 1: upon the lawn. That fatal night, Doctor Roylet had gone
- 47:53Speaker 1: to his room early, though we knew that he had
- 47:55Speaker 1: not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled by
- 47:58Speaker 1: the smell of the strong Indian cigars, which it was
- 48:01Speaker 1: his custom to smoke. She left her room therefore, and
- 48:05Speaker 1: came into mine, where she sat for some time, chatting
- 48:09Speaker 1: about her approaching wedding. At eleven o'clock she rose to
- 48:13Speaker 1: leave me, but she paused at the door and looked back.
- 48:17Speaker 1: Tell me, Helen, she said, have you ever heard anyone
- 48:21Speaker 1: whistle in the dead of the night? Whistle? Whistle? Have
- 48:29Speaker 1: you ever heard anyone whistle in the dead of the night?
- 48:32Speaker 1: Never said I. I suppose that you could not possibly
- 48:36Speaker 1: whistle yourself in your sleep, But certainly not. But why,
- 48:41Speaker 1: Because during the last few nights I have always, about
- 48:45Speaker 1: three in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I
- 48:49Speaker 1: am a light sleeper, and it has awakened me. I
- 48:53Speaker 1: cannot tell where it came from, perhaps from the next room,
- 48:56Speaker 1: perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would ask
- 48:59Speaker 1: you whether you'd heard it. No, I have not. It
- 49:03Speaker 1: must be those wretched gypsies in the plantation, very likely.
- 49:08Speaker 1: And yet if it were on the lawn, I wondered
- 49:11Speaker 1: that you did not hear it? Also, Ah, but I
- 49:14Speaker 1: sleep more heavily than you. Well, it is of no
- 49:17Speaker 1: great consequence at any rate. She smiled back at me,
- 49:21Speaker 1: closed my door, and a few minutes later I heard
- 49:23Speaker 1: her key turn in the lock. Indeed, said Holmes, was
- 49:29Speaker 1: it your custom always to lock yourselves in at night? Always?
- 49:34Speaker 1: And why I think that I mentioned to you that
- 49:38Speaker 1: the doctor kept a cheetah and a baboon. We had
- 49:41Speaker 1: no feeling of security unless our doors were locked. Quite so,
- 49:46Speaker 1: pray proceed with your statement, right, So I need to
- 49:50Speaker 1: go back and just explain some of this stuff. So
- 49:54Speaker 1: Helen describes the details. She describes the ha it's very old.
- 50:03Speaker 1: These old houses are separating, separated into wings, just like
- 50:08Speaker 1: the White House in Washington, d C. In the USA.
- 50:10Speaker 1: You got the west wing and the different wings of
- 50:13Speaker 1: the house different sections. So this old house, I guess
- 50:17Speaker 1: there's the central part of the house, the main center
- 50:20Speaker 1: of the house, and then I think there are two
- 50:22Speaker 1: wings on this house. One of the as we'll discover
- 50:26Speaker 1: later in the story, one of those wings is in
- 50:28Speaker 1: a bad is in bad condition, and no one uses it.
- 50:33Speaker 1: The other wing of the house, though, is where the
- 50:35Speaker 1: bedrooms are, and they're on the ground floor, and there
- 50:38Speaker 1: are three bedrooms. So from the central part of the house,
- 50:42Speaker 1: the first bedroom is Dr Roylett's bedroom. The second one
- 50:47Speaker 1: was Julia's bedroom and the third one is Helen's bedroom.
- 50:52Speaker 1: She said, there's no communication between the rooms, so there
- 50:56Speaker 1: are no doors that lead from one room to the next. Okay,
- 51:00Speaker 1: the only but they but but the rooms all do
- 51:03Speaker 1: open out onto one shared corridor. So there's one corridor.
- 51:09Speaker 1: The rooms all open out onto that corridor. But other
- 51:12Speaker 1: than those doors, there are no doors that communicate the
- 51:15Speaker 1: three rooms together. And on the other side there are
- 51:19Speaker 1: those rooms have windows, and there's the lawn, the grass,
- 51:23Speaker 1: the garden. Okay, so you can imagine one of those rooms,
- 51:27Speaker 1: any one of those rooms would have a door that
- 51:28Speaker 1: leads into the corridor, and then on the other side
- 51:33Speaker 1: of the room would be a window out onto the grass,
- 51:36Speaker 1: onto the garden, right and yeah, doctor Roylett's room, then
- 51:42Speaker 1: Julia's room, then Helen's room, right, Okay, Okay, the windows
- 51:48Speaker 1: open out into the out onto the lawn. Now, one
- 51:52Speaker 1: night that the night that Julia died, they knew that
- 51:55Speaker 1: doctor Roylett had gone to his room, but he was
- 51:57Speaker 1: still awake because they because Julia could smell the smell
- 52:00Speaker 1: of him smoking in his room. She didn't like the smell,
- 52:06Speaker 1: so she came and visited Helen in the next room,
- 52:08Speaker 1: and they sat and talked until about eleven pm, and
- 52:12Speaker 1: just before Juliet left, she turned to Helen and said
- 52:16Speaker 1: something kind of strange. She said, have you ever heard
- 52:19Speaker 1: a whistling sound in the night in the middle of
- 52:22Speaker 1: the night, which is a bit creepy? And Helen says, no,
- 52:27Speaker 1: I've never heard that, And Julia saying, I don't know
- 52:30Speaker 1: where it comes from. It could come from the next room,
- 52:34Speaker 1: meaning doctor Roylett's room, or it could come from the
- 52:37Speaker 1: garden the lawn. But if it came from the garden,
- 52:41Speaker 1: then I would imagine that Helen, you would hear it too,
- 52:44Speaker 1: And Helen, but Helen sleeps more deeply than Julia, so
- 52:48Speaker 1: maybe she wouldn't. But anyway, Julia's the kind of thing,
- 52:51Speaker 1: what is this mysterious whistling sound that I've been hearing
- 52:54Speaker 1: in the middle of the night, And why doesn't why
- 52:56Speaker 1: doesn't Helen also hear the sound? Where's that sound coming from?
- 53:00Speaker 1: It's a bit of a mysterious thing. And they kind
- 53:03Speaker 1: of they assume that it's the gypsies that are on
- 53:07Speaker 1: the plantation somewhere, that maybe one of the gypsies is
- 53:10Speaker 1: wandering around whistling or something. Like that, but it's a
- 53:14Speaker 1: bit a bit creepy. Yeah. And when Julia went back
- 53:19Speaker 1: to her room, she locked Helen's door and locked her
- 53:23Speaker 1: own door. And the reason they used to lock the
- 53:25Speaker 1: doors was because of these wild animals that were roaming around,
- 53:29Speaker 1: and they felt a lot more secure with the doors locked.
- 53:34Speaker 1: And that's the important detail. Julia's door was locked from
- 53:37Speaker 1: the inside, so we continue. I could not sleep that night.
- 53:42Speaker 1: A vague feeling of impending misfortune impressed me. My sister
- 53:47Speaker 1: and I you will recollect, were twins. And you know
- 53:50Speaker 1: how subtle are the links which bind two souls which
- 53:54Speaker 1: are so closely allied. So they're twins, they feel very close.
- 53:58Speaker 1: She knows how you know, twins are often very very close.
- 54:04Speaker 1: And Helen couldn't sleep that night. She had this feeling
- 54:08Speaker 1: that something bad was going to happen, a feeling of
- 54:10Speaker 1: impending misfortune, a feeling of bad luck that was coming.
- 54:16Speaker 1: It was a wild night. The wind was howling outside,
- 54:23Speaker 1: and the rain was beating and splashing against the windows. Suddenly,
- 54:27Speaker 1: amid all the hubbub of the gale, in the middle
- 54:31Speaker 1: of this loud noise of all of this storm outside,
- 54:35Speaker 1: there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman.
- 54:41Speaker 1: I knew that it was my sister's voice, So in
- 54:44Speaker 1: the middle of this storm, she suddenly hears this incredible scream. Ah.
- 54:51Speaker 1: I sprang from my bed, wrapped a shawl around me,
- 54:54Speaker 1: and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door,
- 54:58Speaker 1: I seemed to hear a low whistle such as my
- 55:01Speaker 1: sister described, and a few moments later, a clanging sound clang,
- 55:07Speaker 1: as if a mass of metal had fallen. As I
- 55:11Speaker 1: ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked and
- 55:15Speaker 1: revolved slowly upon its hinges. So she's run out into
- 55:20Speaker 1: the corridor in order to work out to find out
- 55:23Speaker 1: what the screen was, to check on her sister, and
- 55:28Speaker 1: she hears that strange whistle. She also hears the sound
- 55:31Speaker 1: of something metal, as if something metal, heavy metal has
- 55:35Speaker 1: fallen or something. She goes into the passage. Her sister's
- 55:40Speaker 1: door is unlocked and it swings open slowly upon its hinges.
- 55:49Speaker 1: The door swings open, and Helen continues. I stared at it,
- 55:55Speaker 1: horror stricken like that, not knowing what was about to
- 56:01Speaker 1: issue from it. So she stared at the doorway. She
- 56:04Speaker 1: didn't know what was going to come out by the
- 56:07Speaker 1: light of the corridor lamp. I saw my sister appear
- 56:11Speaker 1: at the opening. Her face blanched with terror, her hands
- 56:16Speaker 1: groping for help. Her whole figure swayed to and fro
- 56:21Speaker 1: like that like that of a drunkard. So her sister
- 56:25Speaker 1: emerged in the doorway. Her face is white with terror,
- 56:30Speaker 1: her hands are trying to grab for something to help her.
- 56:35Speaker 1: Her whole body is swaying to and fro, swaying from
- 56:38Speaker 1: side to side, like as if she's totally drunk. I
- 56:42Speaker 1: ran to her and threw my arms around her, but
- 56:45Speaker 1: at that moment her knees seemed to give way and
- 56:48Speaker 1: she fell to the ground. She writhed as one who
- 56:52Speaker 1: is in terrible pain, and her limbs were dreadfully convulsed.
- 56:56Speaker 1: At first I thought that she had not recognized me,
- 56:59Speaker 1: but as I bent over her, she suddenly shrieked out
- 57:02Speaker 1: in a voice which I shall never forget. Oh my god, Helen,
- 57:06Speaker 1: it was the band, the Speckled band. So Helen runs
- 57:13Speaker 1: to her sister, grabs her in her arms, and at
- 57:17Speaker 1: that moment, Julia's legs give way. She falls to the
- 57:23Speaker 1: ground and writhes like she's in terrible pain. Her body
- 57:26Speaker 1: is twisting, and her limbs were dreadfully convulsed. So she's
- 57:30Speaker 1: twisting and shaking uncontrollably, and suddenly she screams in a
- 57:39Speaker 1: horrible voice. She screams, Oh, my god, Helen, it was
- 57:41Speaker 1: the band, the speckled band. Helen continues, there was something
- 57:48Speaker 1: else which she would fain have said, and she stabbed
- 57:52Speaker 1: with her finger into the air in the direction of
- 57:54Speaker 1: the doctor's room. But a fresh convulsion seized her and
- 57:58Speaker 1: choked her words. So Julia wanted to say something else,
- 58:01Speaker 1: but she couldn't manage to do it. She just managed
- 58:03Speaker 1: to point up in the air towards the doctor's room,
- 58:10Speaker 1: and then suddenly she couldn't speak. I rushed out, calling
- 58:16Speaker 1: loudly for my stepfather, and I met him hastening from
- 58:19Speaker 1: his room in his dressing gown. So she saw him
- 58:22Speaker 1: rushing from his room in his dressing gown. When he
- 58:26Speaker 1: reached my sister's side, she was unconscious, and though he
- 58:29Speaker 1: poured brandy down her throat and sent for medical aid
- 58:33Speaker 1: from the village, all efforts were in vain, for she
- 58:36Speaker 1: slowly sank and died without having recovered her consciousness. Such
- 58:41Speaker 1: was the dreadful end of my beloved sister, so she
- 58:46Speaker 1: called for the stepfather. He came rushing out. He tried
- 58:49Speaker 1: to revive her. He poured brandy down her throat, which,
- 58:52Speaker 1: of course was the solution to all problems in Victorian England.
- 58:57Speaker 1: Just give you know what's the ma at her? You know,
- 59:02Speaker 1: just give them brandy. It's like the perfect medicine to
- 59:05Speaker 1: solve all problems. But even brandy didn't help. Brandy's a
- 59:10Speaker 1: form of alcoholic, strong alcoholic drink, and so despite all
- 59:16Speaker 1: the efforts to help her, she she lost consciousness. She
- 59:22Speaker 1: never recovered consciousness, and she died. It's sad. One moment
- 59:29Speaker 1: said Holmes, are you sure about this whistle and metallic sound?
- 59:33Speaker 1: Could you swear to it? You know? Are you absolutely certain?
- 59:39Speaker 1: Would you promise that you'd heard this? That was what
- 59:44Speaker 1: the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is
- 59:47Speaker 1: my strong impression that I heard it, And yet among
- 59:50Speaker 1: the crash of the gale and the creaking of an
- 59:53Speaker 1: old house, I may possibly have been deceived. Was your
- 59:57Speaker 1: sister dressed? No, she was in her night. In her
- 1:00:01Speaker 1: right hand was found the charred stump of a match,
- 1:00:04Speaker 1: and in her left a match box, showing that she
- 1:00:08Speaker 1: had struck a light and looked about her when the
- 1:00:10Speaker 1: alarm took place. That is important, and what conclusions did
- 1:00:14Speaker 1: the coroner come to. He investigated the case with great
- 1:00:17Speaker 1: care for doctor Roylett's conduct had long been notorious in
- 1:00:21Speaker 1: the county, but he was unable to find any satisfactory
- 1:00:24Speaker 1: cause of death. Okay, So Julia was not dressed. She
- 1:00:32Speaker 1: was still in her night dress. Right that she slept
- 1:00:36Speaker 1: in in her right hand was the charred remains of
- 1:00:40Speaker 1: a match and a match box in her other hand.
- 1:00:43Speaker 1: So she struck a match to get light in the
- 1:00:46Speaker 1: room and looked about her when this had happened, right, Okay.
- 1:00:56Speaker 1: The coroner, that's the person who examines the body, investigated
- 1:01:03Speaker 1: maybe the first person to investigate the case. He said
- 1:01:06Speaker 1: he couldn't find any satisfactory cause of death. So the
- 1:01:09Speaker 1: coroner didn't know what caused Julia's death. Julie Helen says,
- 1:01:17Speaker 1: my evidence showed that the door had been fastened upon
- 1:01:20Speaker 1: the inner side, so it had been locked from the inside,
- 1:01:24Speaker 1: and the windows were blocked by old fashioned shutters with
- 1:01:27Speaker 1: broad iron bars, which were secured every night. The walls
- 1:01:32Speaker 1: were carefully sounded and were shown to be quite solid.
- 1:01:35Speaker 1: All round, and the flooring was also thoroughly examined with
- 1:01:38Speaker 1: the same result. So Helen is saying that, you know,
- 1:01:42Speaker 1: when the room was examined, they noticed it had been
- 1:01:45Speaker 1: locked from the inside. The windows were blocked by old
- 1:01:48Speaker 1: fashioned shutters. These are things that cover the windows with
- 1:01:53Speaker 1: broad iron bars, so strong metal bars that covered the windows,
- 1:01:58Speaker 1: and these things were cured, meaning closed every single night.
- 1:02:02Speaker 1: The walls were carefully sounded, so the walls were checked
- 1:02:08Speaker 1: like that and were found to be solid everywhere. And
- 1:02:11Speaker 1: the flooring was also examined with the same results. So
- 1:02:14Speaker 1: there are no secret doors, no secret trap doors or anything.
- 1:02:19Speaker 1: The chimney this is where you would have a fire.
- 1:02:21Speaker 1: The fire the smoke goes up the chimney, so the
- 1:02:24Speaker 1: fireplace in the chimney. The chimney is wide, but it's
- 1:02:27Speaker 1: barred up by four large staples. This means there were
- 1:02:31Speaker 1: big metal bars in the chimney, which means that no
- 1:02:35Speaker 1: one could get down, no one could climb through the chimney.
- 1:02:40Speaker 1: It is certain therefore, that my sister was quite alone
- 1:02:42Speaker 1: when she met her end. Besides, there were no marks
- 1:02:46Speaker 1: of any violence upon her. Okay, So this is one
- 1:02:50Speaker 1: of those locked room mysteries, A bit like the one
- 1:02:53Speaker 1: with my mobile phone recently, where I came back into
- 1:02:55Speaker 1: the room that had been locked and discovered my phone
- 1:02:58Speaker 1: and suddenly smashed to pieces by unknown forces. Although that's
- 1:03:04Speaker 1: a little easier to work out, though is basically the
- 1:03:06Speaker 1: battery expanded and PSH caused the phone to break, So
- 1:03:10Speaker 1: not so much of a mystery. This one is a
- 1:03:12Speaker 1: bit more curious. Don't you think what happened? How did
- 1:03:18Speaker 1: she die? What's going on? So Holmes continues, how about poison?
- 1:03:24Speaker 1: The doctors examined her for it, but without success. What
- 1:03:27Speaker 1: do you think that this unfortunate lady died of? Then?
- 1:03:32Speaker 1: It is my belief that she died of pure fear
- 1:03:35Speaker 1: and nervous shock. Though what it was that frightened her
- 1:03:39Speaker 1: I cannot imagine. Were there gypsies in the plantation at
- 1:03:43Speaker 1: the time, Yes, there are nearly always some there. Ah,
- 1:03:48Speaker 1: And what did you gather from this allusion to a band,
- 1:03:52Speaker 1: a speckled band? Sometimes I've thought that it was merely
- 1:03:56Speaker 1: the wild talk of delirium, Sometimes that it may have
- 1:04:00Speaker 1: referred to some band of people, perhaps to these very
- 1:04:03Speaker 1: gypsies in the plantation. I do not know whether the
- 1:04:06Speaker 1: spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear over their heads,
- 1:04:10Speaker 1: might have suggested the strange adjective which she used. So
- 1:04:14Speaker 1: Holmes is curious about the gypsies, and apparently they are
- 1:04:18Speaker 1: always gypsies in the plantation. And what about this illusion,
- 1:04:24Speaker 1: this reference to the speckled band, And Helen doesn't really know.
- 1:04:29Speaker 1: She's wondering if it's maybe a reference to the handkerchiefs
- 1:04:33Speaker 1: that these gypsies often wear over their heads. They often
- 1:04:37Speaker 1: wear handkerchiefs with like with spots on them, might be
- 1:04:42Speaker 1: like red with white spots. She was wondering if it
- 1:04:44Speaker 1: would be a reference to those handkerchiefs. They're speckled kind of,
- 1:04:50Speaker 1: She's not sure. Holmes shook his head like a man
- 1:04:53Speaker 1: who is far from being satisfied. These are very deep waters,
- 1:04:58Speaker 1: he said, Go on with your narrative. Two years have
- 1:05:04Speaker 1: passed since then, and my life has been until lately
- 1:05:06Speaker 1: lonelier than ever. A month ago. However, a dear friend
- 1:05:11Speaker 1: whom I've known for many years has done me the
- 1:05:13Speaker 1: honor to ask my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage,
- 1:05:17Speaker 1: Percy Armitage, the second son of mister Armitage of Crane Water,
- 1:05:21Speaker 1: near Reading. My stepfather has offered no opposition to the match,
- 1:05:26Speaker 1: and we are to be married in the course of
- 1:05:28Speaker 1: the spring. Two days ago, some repairs were started in
- 1:05:33Speaker 1: the west wing of the building, and my bedroom wall
- 1:05:36Speaker 1: has been pierced, so that I have had to move
- 1:05:38Speaker 1: into the chamber in which my sister died, and to
- 1:05:41Speaker 1: sleep in the very bed in which she slept. Imagine then,
- 1:05:46Speaker 1: my thrill of terror when last night, as I lay awake,
- 1:05:50Speaker 1: thinking over her terrible fate, I suddenly heard, in the
- 1:05:53Speaker 1: silence of the night, the low whistle, which had been
- 1:05:57Speaker 1: the herald of her own death. I sprang up and
- 1:06:04Speaker 1: lit the lamp, but nothing was to be seen in
- 1:06:06Speaker 1: the room. I was too shaken to go to bed again, however,
- 1:06:10Speaker 1: so I dressed, and as soon as it was daylight,
- 1:06:13Speaker 1: I slipped down, got a dog cart at the Crown Inn,
- 1:06:17Speaker 1: which is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead from whence I
- 1:06:20Speaker 1: have come on this morning with the one object of
- 1:06:23Speaker 1: seeing you and asking your advice. So she says that
- 1:06:28Speaker 1: there's been some repairs being done on the wing of
- 1:06:31Speaker 1: the house, and that the wall of her room has
- 1:06:34Speaker 1: been broken open or something, so she's had to move
- 1:06:38Speaker 1: into Julia's old room, and she's had to sleep in
- 1:06:43Speaker 1: Julia's old bed. Also, she's become engaged to be married, right,
- 1:06:50Speaker 1: she was proposed an old friend of hers proposed to her,
- 1:06:55Speaker 1: and she's going to be married to him. Dr Roylet
- 1:06:58Speaker 1: agreed to it. But then yeah, then she had to
- 1:07:03Speaker 1: move into Julia's room. And then late one night she
- 1:07:07Speaker 1: heard the strange whistle. She was so disturbed by it.
- 1:07:11Speaker 1: She turned on the lamp in the room. Didn't see anything,
- 1:07:15Speaker 1: but she was so disturbed that early that morning she
- 1:07:19Speaker 1: dressed and took a cab to the station and then
- 1:07:23Speaker 1: came to London to visit Homes and Watson. So we continue.
- 1:07:30Speaker 1: You have done wisely, said my friend. But have you
- 1:07:33Speaker 1: told me all? Yes, all, miss Roylet, you have not.
- 1:07:39Speaker 1: You're screening your stepfather, meaning you're sort of protecting him,
- 1:07:43Speaker 1: not telling Homes everything in order to sort of hide
- 1:07:47Speaker 1: the stepfather. Why what do you mean for answer? Holmes
- 1:07:53Speaker 1: pushed back the frill of black lace which fringed the
- 1:07:56Speaker 1: hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. So she's wearing
- 1:07:59Speaker 1: a sort of black laced glove, I guess, and Holmes
- 1:08:03Speaker 1: pushes it back to reveal her skin. Five little livid spots.
- 1:08:08Speaker 1: The marks of four fingers and a thumb were printed
- 1:08:12Speaker 1: upon the white wrist. So there's marks of a hand
- 1:08:16Speaker 1: on her wrist. You have been cruelly used, said Holmes.
- 1:08:22Speaker 1: The lady colored deeply and covered her injured wrist. So
- 1:08:26Speaker 1: Holmes notices this sort of injury. That clearly someone has
- 1:08:30Speaker 1: grabbed her wrist very strongly and has left her a
- 1:08:33Speaker 1: mark of these fingers on her wrist. And when Holmes
- 1:08:37Speaker 1: identified it, Helen went red. She colored, she blushed and
- 1:08:44Speaker 1: covered up her wrist. He is a hard man, she said,
- 1:08:48Speaker 1: and perhaps he hardly knows his own strength. There was
- 1:08:52Speaker 1: a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin upon
- 1:08:56Speaker 1: his hands and stared into the crackling. This is a
- 1:09:03Speaker 1: very deep business, he said, at last. There are a
- 1:09:07Speaker 1: thousand details which I should desire to know before I
- 1:09:10Speaker 1: decide upon our course of action. Yet we have not
- 1:09:13Speaker 1: a moment to lose. If we were to come to
- 1:09:16Speaker 1: Stoke Moran today, would it be possible for us to
- 1:09:19Speaker 1: see over these rooms without the knowledge of your stepfather.
- 1:09:24Speaker 1: As it happens, he spoke of coming into town today
- 1:09:26Speaker 1: upon some important business. It is probable that he will
- 1:09:30Speaker 1: be away all day, and that there would be nothing
- 1:09:32Speaker 1: to disturb you. We have a housekeeper now, but she
- 1:09:35Speaker 1: is old and foolish, and I could easily get her
- 1:09:38Speaker 1: out of the way. Excellent, you are not averse to
- 1:09:42Speaker 1: this trip, Watson? What by no means then we shall
- 1:09:46Speaker 1: both come? What are you going to do yourself? I
- 1:09:50Speaker 1: have one or two things which I would wish to
- 1:09:52Speaker 1: do now that I am in town. But I shall
- 1:09:54Speaker 1: return by the twelve o'clock train so as to be
- 1:09:57Speaker 1: there in time for your coming, and you may expect
- 1:10:00Speaker 1: us early in the afternoon. I have myself some small
- 1:10:03Speaker 1: business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and breakfast? No,
- 1:10:08Speaker 1: I must go. My heart is lightened already since I've
- 1:10:11Speaker 1: confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to
- 1:10:14Speaker 1: seeing you again this afternoon. She dropped her thick black
- 1:10:18Speaker 1: veil over her face and glided from the room. Okay,
- 1:10:25Speaker 1: let's continue. And what do you think of it all?
- 1:10:27Speaker 1: Watson asked Sherlock Holmes, leaning back in his chair. It
- 1:10:31Speaker 1: seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business.
- 1:10:35Speaker 1: Dark enough and sinister enough, yet, if the lady is
- 1:10:39Speaker 1: correct in saying that the flooring and walls are sound,
- 1:10:43Speaker 1: and that the door, window and chimney are impassable, then
- 1:10:46Speaker 1: her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met
- 1:10:49Speaker 1: her mysterious end. So Holmes is saying, if Helen is
- 1:10:53Speaker 1: correct in saying that the flooring and the walls are sound,
- 1:10:56Speaker 1: meaning that they are solid and safe, and that they
- 1:10:59Speaker 1: they don't contain it hidden doors solid and safe and
- 1:11:02Speaker 1: solid is what sound means in this case, and that
- 1:11:07Speaker 1: the door, window and chimney are impassable, meaning if it's
- 1:11:10Speaker 1: not possible to get through the door, the window, or
- 1:11:13Speaker 1: the chimney, then her sister must have undoubtedly been alone.
- 1:11:17Speaker 1: So she, without doubt she must have been alone when
- 1:11:20Speaker 1: she died. What becomes then, of these nocturnal whistles, and
- 1:11:26Speaker 1: what of the very peculiar words of the dying woman?
- 1:11:30Speaker 1: I cannot think when you combine the ideas of whistles
- 1:11:34Speaker 1: at night, the presence of a band of gypsies who
- 1:11:38Speaker 1: are on intimate terms with this old doctor, the fact
- 1:11:41Speaker 1: that we have every reason to believe that the doctor
- 1:11:44Speaker 1: has an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying
- 1:11:48Speaker 1: allusion to a band, and finally, the fact that miss
- 1:11:52Speaker 1: Helen Stoner heard a metallic clang, which might have been
- 1:11:56Speaker 1: caused by one of those metal bars that secured the
- 1:11:59Speaker 1: sho utters falling back into its place. I think that
- 1:12:02Speaker 1: there is good ground to think that the mystery may
- 1:12:06Speaker 1: be cleared along those lines. So Holmes is saying that,
- 1:12:11Speaker 1: you know, he's trying to put two and two together.
- 1:12:13Speaker 1: He's trying to make his deduction all those things, what
- 1:12:18Speaker 1: the woman said at night, in the middle of the night,
- 1:12:22Speaker 1: about the speckled band, the presence the whistles at night,
- 1:12:25Speaker 1: the presence of the gypsies who are on intimate terms
- 1:12:29Speaker 1: with the old doctor, the fact that we know that
- 1:12:32Speaker 1: the doctor has a clear interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage,
- 1:12:37Speaker 1: even though he agreed to it. But now it looks
- 1:12:40Speaker 1: like he's probably it looks like he killed. A possible
- 1:12:44Speaker 1: motive would be that he killed Julia because she was
- 1:12:47Speaker 1: about to get married and he didn't want to lose
- 1:12:49Speaker 1: all that money. Right, And then Helen gets engaged, and
- 1:12:55Speaker 1: it seems that maybe he's trying to do a similar
- 1:12:57Speaker 1: thing and trying to have her killed as well, but
- 1:13:01Speaker 1: she managed to kind of avoid it this time. And
- 1:13:04Speaker 1: he's also saying that the metallic clang clang, the metallic
- 1:13:08Speaker 1: sound might have been caused by one of the metal
- 1:13:11Speaker 1: bars on the window or one of the metal shutters.
- 1:13:16Speaker 1: He thinks that. So Holmes is clearly thinking that maybe
- 1:13:20Speaker 1: it's one of the gypsies who managed to come through
- 1:13:22Speaker 1: the window. Maybe that's something to do with it. But
- 1:13:28Speaker 1: what then, did the gypsies do? I cannot imagine. I
- 1:13:32Speaker 1: see many objections to any such theory, and so do I.
- 1:13:36Speaker 1: So it's not a perfect theory. It is precisely for
- 1:13:40Speaker 1: that reason that we are going to stoke Moran this day.
- 1:13:43Speaker 1: I want to see whether the objections are fatal or
- 1:13:46Speaker 1: if they may be explained away. But what in the
- 1:13:48Speaker 1: name of the devil? Huh? But what in the name
- 1:13:51Speaker 1: of the devil? So suddenly something has happened the ejaculation.
- 1:13:57Speaker 1: Here we go again, another ejaculation in the Homes and
- 1:14:01Speaker 1: Watson's story. Not to mention the fact that we now
- 1:14:04Speaker 1: we know from this story that Watson and Holmes Watson
- 1:14:09Speaker 1: is homes his intimate friend, as he described earlier. But anyway,
- 1:14:11Speaker 1: it's not that kind of ejaculation. You can refer to
- 1:14:14Speaker 1: episode what was it? Eight three to two if you
- 1:14:16Speaker 1: want to know the other meaning of the word ejaculation.
- 1:14:18Speaker 1: In this case, it's not the sexual form of ejaculation,
- 1:14:22Speaker 1: but the more old fashioned usage of the word, meaning
- 1:14:25Speaker 1: when someone says something quickly, someone comes out with something
- 1:14:28Speaker 1: very quickly. In this case, it's when Holmes said, but
- 1:14:31Speaker 1: what in the name of the devil? Many a sort
- 1:14:34Speaker 1: of what the hell? The ejaculation had been drawn from
- 1:14:40Speaker 1: my companion by the fact that our door had been
- 1:14:42Speaker 1: suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had framed
- 1:14:47Speaker 1: himself in the aperture. So bam, the door suddenly flew open,
- 1:14:52Speaker 1: and a huge man was standing in the doorway. His
- 1:14:57Speaker 1: costume was a peculiar mixture of the professor and of
- 1:15:01Speaker 1: the agricultural having a black top hat, a long frock coat,
- 1:15:05Speaker 1: and a pair of high gaiters. I suppose those are
- 1:15:08Speaker 1: boots with a hunting crop swinging in his hand. Hunting
- 1:15:12Speaker 1: crop is a kind of a I guess, a leather
- 1:15:14Speaker 1: bound stick that you would be used to hit a
- 1:15:18Speaker 1: horse to make it run faster. I think that's what
- 1:15:21Speaker 1: it is. So tall was he that his hat actually
- 1:15:25Speaker 1: brushed the crossbar of the doorway, and his breadth his
- 1:15:29Speaker 1: width seemed to span it across from side to side.
- 1:15:34Speaker 1: So he's basically as tall as the door and as
- 1:15:37Speaker 1: wide as the doorway as well. A large face seared
- 1:15:41Speaker 1: with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun and
- 1:15:45Speaker 1: marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to
- 1:15:49Speaker 1: the other of us while his deep set, bile shot
- 1:15:52Speaker 1: eyes and his high, thin, fleshless nose gave gave him
- 1:15:56Speaker 1: somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old bird of prey. Right,
- 1:16:01Speaker 1: it's quite the descriptive paragraph. Large face seared with a
- 1:16:05Speaker 1: thousand wrinkles, so it's cracked with millions of wrinkles. There
- 1:16:11Speaker 1: thousands of wrinkles burned yellow in the sun. So his
- 1:16:15Speaker 1: face is all wrinkled and sunburned, no doubt from the
- 1:16:20Speaker 1: years he spent in India and marked with every evil passion.
- 1:16:24Speaker 1: So you know his face is that this tells the story,
- 1:16:28Speaker 1: and it's very angry, kind of evil looking face. It
- 1:16:34Speaker 1: was turned from one of us to the other. So
- 1:16:36Speaker 1: standing there looking at homes and looking at Watson like
- 1:16:39Speaker 1: this while his deep set bile shot eyes, so his
- 1:16:43Speaker 1: eyes are deep inside his head and they're shot with bile,
- 1:16:47Speaker 1: so they're kind of like yellowish eyes, and his high, thin,
- 1:16:51Speaker 1: fleshless nose so he has this sharp, kind of sharp,
- 1:16:56Speaker 1: thin bony nose, give him somewhat the resemblance to a
- 1:17:01Speaker 1: fierce old bird of prey, So it looks like a
- 1:17:04Speaker 1: hawk or a eagle or something like that. Which of
- 1:17:08Speaker 1: you is, Holmes asked this apparition. My name, sir, But
- 1:17:12Speaker 1: you have the advantage of me, said my companion quietly.
- 1:17:16Speaker 1: I am Doctor grimesby Roylot of Stoke, Moran. Indeed, doctor,
- 1:17:22Speaker 1: said Holmes, blandly. Pray take a seat. I will do
- 1:17:26Speaker 1: nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I
- 1:17:29Speaker 1: have traced her. What has she been saying to you?
- 1:17:35Speaker 1: It is a little cold for the time of year,
- 1:17:38Speaker 1: said Holmes. What has she been saying to you? Screamed
- 1:17:41Speaker 1: the old man furiously. But I have heard that the
- 1:17:45Speaker 1: crocuses promise well, continued my companion, imperturbably. So despite the
- 1:17:51Speaker 1: fact that this man is screaming and shouting and demanding
- 1:17:54Speaker 1: to know what Helen has been saying, Holmes is making
- 1:17:57Speaker 1: small talk. It is a little cold for the time
- 1:18:00Speaker 1: of year. And then he says, but I've heard that
- 1:18:02Speaker 1: the crocuses promise well, meaning I have heard that these
- 1:18:06Speaker 1: flowers are going to come up very nicely. So he's
- 1:18:09Speaker 1: making kind of polite small talk while this man is
- 1:18:11Speaker 1: so furiously demanding answers to the questions. Ha, you put
- 1:18:17Speaker 1: me off, do you, said our new visitor, taking a
- 1:18:20Speaker 1: step forward and shaking his hunting crop. I know you,
- 1:18:24Speaker 1: you scoundrel. I have heard of you before. You are
- 1:18:28Speaker 1: homes the meddler. A meddler is someone who gets involved
- 1:18:32Speaker 1: in other people's business, my friend smiled homes the busybody.
- 1:18:40Speaker 1: A busy body is someone who's always busy, maybe getting
- 1:18:43Speaker 1: involved again in things they shouldn't be getting involved in.
- 1:18:47Speaker 1: Holmes is smile broadened homes the Scotland yard jack in office.
- 1:18:53Speaker 1: Holmes chuckled heartily. Your conversation is most attaining, said he.
- 1:19:01Speaker 1: When you go out close the door for there's a
- 1:19:04Speaker 1: decided draft. I love the way that Holmes reacts to him. Here,
- 1:19:09Speaker 1: when you go out close the door because there's a
- 1:19:11Speaker 1: draft which is like cold air coming in. I will
- 1:19:14Speaker 1: go when I have said my say, don't you dare
- 1:19:17Speaker 1: meddle with my affairs. I know that miss Stoner has
- 1:19:21Speaker 1: been here. I traced her. I am a dangerous man
- 1:19:24Speaker 1: to fall foul of. See here he stepped swiftly forward
- 1:19:29Speaker 1: sees the poker. This is a long iron like metal
- 1:19:35Speaker 1: stick which is used to poke a fire, like a
- 1:19:39Speaker 1: big heavy stick of metal that you would put into
- 1:19:42Speaker 1: the fire to poke it. He sees the poker and
- 1:19:45Speaker 1: bent it into a curve with his huge brown HANDSOO
- 1:19:52Speaker 1: see that, you keep yourself out of my grip, he snarled,
- 1:19:56Speaker 1: and hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace. He strode
- 1:20:00Speaker 1: out of the room. So he's threatening and intimidating homes,
- 1:20:06Speaker 1: saying keep out of my business. And he grabs this
- 1:20:09Speaker 1: strong metal poker and bends it in his arms to
- 1:20:12Speaker 1: show how strong he is, and then throws it back
- 1:20:15Speaker 1: into the fireplace. Holmes says, he seems a very amiable person,
- 1:20:21Speaker 1: said Holmes, laughing, amiable meaning friendly. I'm not quite so bulky.
- 1:20:27Speaker 1: But if he had remained, I might have shown him
- 1:20:30Speaker 1: that my grip was not much more feeble than his own.
- 1:20:34Speaker 1: As he spoke, he picked up the steel poker and
- 1:20:37Speaker 1: with a sudden effort, straightened it out again. So this
- 1:20:41Speaker 1: is this is nice because Holmes is saying, Okay, I'm
- 1:20:45Speaker 1: not as big as him, but I'm still just as
- 1:20:48Speaker 1: strong as he is. If he'd stayed, he might have
- 1:20:51Speaker 1: discovered that actually, I'm not much weaker than him, and
- 1:20:58Speaker 1: he takes the poker and bends it back into a
- 1:21:01Speaker 1: straight position, which is very very difficult to do. These
- 1:21:05Speaker 1: metal pokers can be very, very very hard to bend.
- 1:21:11Speaker 1: Holmes is actually Holmes can take care of himself. We
- 1:21:14Speaker 1: find out about that in other stories, that he's actually
- 1:21:16Speaker 1: an excellent boxer. There's a Guy Ritchie movie talking about
- 1:21:20Speaker 1: Guy Ritchie movies and Snatch the other film I mentioned.
- 1:21:22Speaker 1: Of course, there are the Sherlock Holmes Guy Ritchie films
- 1:21:28Speaker 1: and you see Sherlock Holmes played by Robert Downey Jr.
- 1:21:32Speaker 1: In those films, and in those ones he is a
- 1:21:34Speaker 1: bare knuckle boxer, so you kind of they pushed that
- 1:21:39Speaker 1: part of his character a little bit in those films
- 1:21:41Speaker 1: to emphasize the action. But Holmes can box, he can
- 1:21:44Speaker 1: use his fists, and people underestimate him. But he's an
- 1:21:48Speaker 1: excellent boxer as well. Fancy his having the insolence to
- 1:21:54Speaker 1: confound me with the official detective force. So Holmes is
- 1:21:59Speaker 1: almost of fen by the fact that the guy confused
- 1:22:02Speaker 1: him with the police, because Holmes is kind of Holmes
- 1:22:08Speaker 1: doesn't really respect the police, so he's kind of offended
- 1:22:11Speaker 1: that this guy just confused him for a member of
- 1:22:14Speaker 1: the Scotland Yard Police Force. Fancy his having the insolence
- 1:22:19Speaker 1: to confound me with the official detective force. This incident
- 1:22:23Speaker 1: gives zest to our investigation, however, and I only trust
- 1:22:26Speaker 1: that our little friend will not suffer from her imprudence
- 1:22:29Speaker 1: in allowing this brute to trace her. So he says,
- 1:22:33Speaker 1: this incident gives zest to our investigation. It makes it
- 1:22:35Speaker 1: more exciting. But he hopes that Helen doesn't suffer from
- 1:22:42Speaker 1: her lack of care in allowing the man to follow her.
- 1:22:47Speaker 1: So he hopes that she's okay. And now Watson, we
- 1:22:51Speaker 1: shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk down to
- 1:22:54Speaker 1: Doctors Commons, where I hope to get some data which
- 1:22:57Speaker 1: may help us in this matter. So they can have breakfast,
- 1:23:00Speaker 1: and then Holmes is going to go and find out
- 1:23:02Speaker 1: some information. It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes
- 1:23:06Speaker 1: return from his excursion. He held in his hand a
- 1:23:09Speaker 1: sheet of blue paper scrawled over with notes and figures.
- 1:23:13Speaker 1: I have seen the will of the deceased wife, said
- 1:23:15Speaker 1: he to determine its exact meaning I have been obliged
- 1:23:19Speaker 1: to work out the present prices of the investments with
- 1:23:22Speaker 1: which it is concerned. The total income, which at the
- 1:23:26Speaker 1: time of the wife's death was little short of eleven
- 1:23:28Speaker 1: thousand pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural prices,
- 1:23:33Speaker 1: not more than seven hundred and fifty pounds. Each daughter
- 1:23:36Speaker 1: can claim an income of two hundred and fifty pounds
- 1:23:39Speaker 1: in case of marriage. It is evident therefore, that if
- 1:23:43Speaker 1: both girls had married, this beauty would have had a
- 1:23:46Speaker 1: mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him
- 1:23:49Speaker 1: to a very serious extent. So Holmes is worked out
- 1:23:52Speaker 1: by looking at the finances that basically, if if even
- 1:23:57Speaker 1: just one of these girls gets married, the guy is
- 1:23:59Speaker 1: going to be left with virtually nothing, virtually no money.
- 1:24:02Speaker 1: If they both get married, he's definitely going to be
- 1:24:04Speaker 1: left with next to no money. So this is clear
- 1:24:08Speaker 1: in a clear motive. My morning's work has not been wasted,
- 1:24:13Speaker 1: since it has proved that he has the very strongest
- 1:24:16Speaker 1: motives for standing in the way of anything of the sort.
- 1:24:20Speaker 1: And now, Watson, this is too serious for dawdling, especially
- 1:24:23Speaker 1: as the old man is aware that we are interesting
- 1:24:25Speaker 1: ourselves in his affairs. So if you are ready, we
- 1:24:28Speaker 1: shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. So he's
- 1:24:31Speaker 1: basically saying, let's not waste time, let's get going. I
- 1:24:36Speaker 1: should be very much obliged if you would slip your
- 1:24:38Speaker 1: revolver into your pocket. And Ely's number two is an
- 1:24:42Speaker 1: excellent argument with gentlemen who can twist steel pokers into knots.
- 1:24:47Speaker 1: That and a toothbrush are I think all that we need.
- 1:24:52Speaker 1: So he's saying, oh, it would be a good idea
- 1:24:55Speaker 1: if you brought your gun with you, because it's a
- 1:24:58Speaker 1: great way to deal, great argument to have when you're
- 1:25:02Speaker 1: faced with a man who can twist a poker, a
- 1:25:04Speaker 1: steel poker into knots. That, so bring a gun and
- 1:25:08Speaker 1: a toothbrush. At Waterloo, we were fortunate in catching a
- 1:25:14Speaker 1: train for Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the
- 1:25:17Speaker 1: station inn and drove for four or five miles through
- 1:25:20Speaker 1: the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a perfect day, with
- 1:25:24Speaker 1: a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the heavens.
- 1:25:27Speaker 1: The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out their
- 1:25:31Speaker 1: first green shoots, and the air was full of the
- 1:25:34Speaker 1: pleasant smell of the moist earth. To me, at least,
- 1:25:38Speaker 1: there was a strange contrast between the sweet promise of
- 1:25:41Speaker 1: the spring and this sinister quest upon which we were engaged.
- 1:25:47Speaker 1: My companion sat in the front of the trap, his
- 1:25:50Speaker 1: arms folded, his hat pulled down over his eyes, and
- 1:25:54Speaker 1: his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the deepest thought. Suddenly, however,
- 1:26:00Speaker 1: he started, tapped me on the shoulder and pointed over
- 1:26:03Speaker 1: the meadows. Look there, said he, a heavily timbered park
- 1:26:08Speaker 1: stretched up in a gentle slope, thickening into a grove.
- 1:26:12Speaker 1: At the highest point. From amid the branches, they're jutted
- 1:26:16Speaker 1: out the gray gables and high roof tree of a
- 1:26:19Speaker 1: very old mansion. So they're riding through the countryside on
- 1:26:23Speaker 1: this horse driven cart. I guess a taxi or something anyway,
- 1:26:31Speaker 1: and Holmes has been thinking with his eyes closed. But
- 1:26:34Speaker 1: he wakes up, opens his eyes and points towards the house,
- 1:26:38Speaker 1: and you can see the hill rising up with some trees.
- 1:26:40Speaker 1: There are more and more trees, and then through the
- 1:26:44Speaker 1: branches of the trees they can see the roof and
- 1:26:49Speaker 1: parts of the house. Stoke Moran said, he yes, sir,
- 1:26:55Speaker 1: that'd be the house of doctor Grimes. Be Roilet, remarked.
- 1:26:58Speaker 1: The driver there is some building going on there, said Holmes.
- 1:27:03Speaker 1: That is where we are going. There's the village, said
- 1:27:08Speaker 1: the driver, pointing to a cluster of roofs some distance
- 1:27:12Speaker 1: to the left. But if you want to get to
- 1:27:14Speaker 1: the house, you'll find it shorter to go over this stile.
- 1:27:17Speaker 1: And so by the footpath over the fields there, it
- 1:27:19Speaker 1: is where that lady's walking. So basically the driver is
- 1:27:24Speaker 1: telling them how to get to the house, and the lady,
- 1:27:27Speaker 1: I fancy is miss Stoner, observed Holmes, shading his eyes. Yes,
- 1:27:32Speaker 1: I think we'd better do as you suggest. We got off,
- 1:27:36Speaker 1: paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its
- 1:27:39Speaker 1: way to Leatherhead. I thought it as well, said Holmes,
- 1:27:43Speaker 1: as we climbed the stile. A stile is a kind
- 1:27:46Speaker 1: of a way to step over a fence in the countryside.
- 1:27:51Speaker 1: It's like a part of the fence where you can
- 1:27:53Speaker 1: climb over it. Okay, A style s t I l E.
- 1:27:58Speaker 1: I thought it as well that this fell. So should
- 1:28:00Speaker 1: think that we'd come here as architects or on some
- 1:28:03Speaker 1: definite business. It may stop his gossip. So Holmes decided
- 1:28:08Speaker 1: to make the driver think that they were there as
- 1:28:10Speaker 1: part of the building work to stop him gossiping. Best
- 1:28:15Speaker 1: that they try and keep a low profile. Good afternoon,
- 1:28:18Speaker 1: miss Stoner, you see that we have been as good
- 1:28:21Speaker 1: as our word. Our client of the morning had hurried
- 1:28:25Speaker 1: forward to meet us with a face which spoke her joy.
- 1:28:29Speaker 1: I've been waiting so eagerly for you, she cried, shaking
- 1:28:32Speaker 1: hands with us warmly. All has turned out splendidly. Doctor
- 1:28:36Speaker 1: Roylett has gone to town, and it's unlikely that he
- 1:28:39Speaker 1: will be back before evening. We have had the pleasure
- 1:28:44Speaker 1: of making the doctor's acquaintance, said Holmes, and in a
- 1:28:47Speaker 1: few words he sketched out what had occurred. Miss Stoner
- 1:28:51Speaker 1: turned white to the lips as she listened. Good heavens,
- 1:28:55Speaker 1: she cried, He has followed me, then, so it appears
- 1:29:00Speaker 1: he's so cunning that I never know when I'm safe
- 1:29:02Speaker 1: from him. What will he say when he returns? He
- 1:29:06Speaker 1: must guard himself, for he may find that there is
- 1:29:09Speaker 1: someone more cunning than himself upon his track. Cunning means
- 1:29:13Speaker 1: clever in a sort of slightly dark, kind of slightly
- 1:29:18Speaker 1: evil way, very very clever. So the man is cunning.
- 1:29:23Speaker 1: But Sherlock Holmes is saying he should be careful because
- 1:29:25Speaker 1: someone is following him there is more cunning. Yeah, Holmes himself.
- 1:29:31Speaker 1: You must lock yourself up from him tonight. If he
- 1:29:34Speaker 1: is violent, we shall take you away to your aunt's
- 1:29:36Speaker 1: at Harrow. Now we must make the best use of
- 1:29:40Speaker 1: our time, so kindly take us at once to the
- 1:29:43Speaker 1: rooms which we are to examine. The building was of
- 1:29:46Speaker 1: gray lichen blotched stone, with a high central portion and
- 1:29:51Speaker 1: two curving wings like the claws of a crab, thrown
- 1:29:55Speaker 1: out on each side. So as we described before, the
- 1:29:58Speaker 1: central part of the house with its wings the parts
- 1:30:00Speaker 1: of the building on the side. In one of these wings,
- 1:30:03Speaker 1: the windows were broken and blocked with wooden boards, while
- 1:30:07Speaker 1: the roof was partly caved in a picture of ruin,
- 1:30:12Speaker 1: So this one wing is all ruined. The central portion
- 1:30:16Speaker 1: was in little better repair, but the right hand block,
- 1:30:20Speaker 1: presumably the west wing, was comparatively modern, and the blinds
- 1:30:25Speaker 1: in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up from
- 1:30:28Speaker 1: the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided.
- 1:30:32Speaker 1: Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall and
- 1:30:36Speaker 1: the stone work had been broken into, but there were
- 1:30:39Speaker 1: no signs of any workmen at the moment of our visit.
- 1:30:43Speaker 1: So this is signs of the work that has caused
- 1:30:47Speaker 1: Helen to move into the middle room. Homes walked slowly
- 1:30:51Speaker 1: up and down the ill trimmed lawn and examined with
- 1:30:54Speaker 1: deep attention the outsides of the windows. This, I take
- 1:30:58Speaker 1: it belongs to the room in which you used to sleep,
- 1:31:01Speaker 1: the center one to your sisters, and the one next
- 1:31:04Speaker 1: to the main building to doctor Roylett's chamber. Holmes is
- 1:31:07Speaker 1: talking about the windows. He's saying this windows for that room,
- 1:31:10Speaker 1: this one for that one, and this room for doctor
- 1:31:12Speaker 1: Roulett's room. Window is basically identifying which windows for which
- 1:31:17Speaker 1: rooms exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the
- 1:31:20Speaker 1: middle one, pending the alterations, as I understand. Pending meaning
- 1:31:25Speaker 1: while while we wait for something. Helen is sleeping in
- 1:31:29Speaker 1: the middle room, while we wait for the building work
- 1:31:32Speaker 1: to be done on the third room, So pending the alterations,
- 1:31:36Speaker 1: as I understand. By the way, there does not seem
- 1:31:39Speaker 1: to be any very pressing need for repairs at that
- 1:31:41Speaker 1: end wall. There were none. I believe that it was
- 1:31:45Speaker 1: an excuse to move me from my room. Ah, that
- 1:31:49Speaker 1: is suggestive. Now on the other side of this narrow
- 1:31:53Speaker 1: wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open.
- 1:31:58Speaker 1: There are windows in it, of course, yes, but very
- 1:32:01Speaker 1: small ones, too narrow for anyone to pass through. As
- 1:32:06Speaker 1: you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were
- 1:32:08Speaker 1: unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness
- 1:32:13Speaker 1: to go into your room and bar your shutters? Close
- 1:32:18Speaker 1: the shutters homes wants to see what it's like with
- 1:32:21Speaker 1: the shutters closed. Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after
- 1:32:25Speaker 1: a careful examination through the open window, endeavored in every
- 1:32:29Speaker 1: way to force the shutter open, but without success. There
- 1:32:33Speaker 1: was no slit through which a knife could be passed
- 1:32:36Speaker 1: to raise the bar. Then, with his lens he tested
- 1:32:40Speaker 1: the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built firmly
- 1:32:44Speaker 1: into the massive masonry. Humph said, he scratching his chin
- 1:32:49Speaker 1: in some perplexity. Um my theory certainly presents some difficulties.
- 1:32:54Speaker 1: No one could pass these shutters if they were bolted. Well,
- 1:32:58Speaker 1: we shall see if the inside throws any light upon
- 1:33:01Speaker 1: the matter. So basically, he's decided that the shutters. There's
- 1:33:05Speaker 1: no way anyone could get through these shutters if they
- 1:33:07Speaker 1: were closed. So he's decided, let's have a look on
- 1:33:10Speaker 1: the inside. Maybe that'll show us some something else. A
- 1:33:14Speaker 1: small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which
- 1:33:18Speaker 1: the three bedrooms opened. Homes refused to examine the third chamber,
- 1:33:23Speaker 1: so we passed at once to the second, that in
- 1:33:26Speaker 1: which miss Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her
- 1:33:29Speaker 1: sister had met with her fate. It was a homely
- 1:33:33Speaker 1: little room, sort of like cozy and comfortable. It was
- 1:33:36Speaker 1: a homely little room with a low ceiling and a
- 1:33:39Speaker 1: gaping fireplace after the fashion of old country houses. A
- 1:33:44Speaker 1: brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow,
- 1:33:48Speaker 1: white counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing table on
- 1:33:52Speaker 1: the left hand side of the window. These articles, with
- 1:33:55Speaker 1: two small wicker work chairs, made up all the furniture
- 1:33:59Speaker 1: in the room save for a square of Wilton carpet
- 1:34:02Speaker 1: in the center. So this is basic room. There's just
- 1:34:09Speaker 1: let's see, a brown chest of drawers with drawers for
- 1:34:12Speaker 1: keeping clothes in and stuff in one corner, and narrow
- 1:34:16Speaker 1: basically a small bed in the other corner. A dressing
- 1:34:20Speaker 1: table on the left hand side of the window, a
- 1:34:23Speaker 1: table with a window, a table with a mirror for
- 1:34:28Speaker 1: getting dressed. These things, these articles were, together with a
- 1:34:33Speaker 1: couple of chairs, were the only things in the room
- 1:34:36Speaker 1: except for the carpet in the center of the floor.
- 1:34:40Speaker 1: The boards and the paneling of the walls were of
- 1:34:44Speaker 1: brown worm eaten oak, so old and discolored that it
- 1:34:49Speaker 1: may have dated from the original building of the house.
- 1:34:52Speaker 1: So there's wooden panels and wooden floorboards, old wooden floorboards
- 1:34:58Speaker 1: and wooden panels. Home drew one of the chairs into
- 1:35:01Speaker 1: a corner and sat silent while his eyes traveled round
- 1:35:05Speaker 1: and round, up and down, taking in every detail of
- 1:35:09Speaker 1: the apartment. Where does that bell communicate with he asked
- 1:35:14Speaker 1: at last, pointing to a thick bell rope which hung
- 1:35:18Speaker 1: down beside the bed, the tassel actually lying upon the pillow.
- 1:35:23Speaker 1: This is an important detail. So in the in the
- 1:35:25Speaker 1: olden days, in those big houses, sometimes there would have
- 1:35:28Speaker 1: been a rope or a string hanging from the ceiling
- 1:35:34Speaker 1: which the occupant of the room could pull. And you
- 1:35:36Speaker 1: pull the rope and it's attached to a bell in
- 1:35:39Speaker 1: another room of the house. So you pull the rope
- 1:35:42Speaker 1: and tinklingkling, tinkerdinking, a bell rings somewhere in the house.
- 1:35:46Speaker 1: And it's basically a way of saying to one of
- 1:35:48Speaker 1: the members of staff, excuse me, can you know can
- 1:35:51Speaker 1: you help me? Or can I I'd like I'd like
- 1:35:53Speaker 1: a cup of tea please, or something like that. So
- 1:35:56Speaker 1: there's this there's a rope hanging down from the ceiling,
- 1:35:59Speaker 1: the sort of thing that you would be attached to,
- 1:36:02Speaker 1: a bell that you would pull and ring, ring, ring,
- 1:36:04Speaker 1: the bell would ring. Okay, So there's a rope hanging
- 1:36:07Speaker 1: down and Holmes says, where does that bell communicate with?
- 1:36:11Speaker 1: Meaning basically, where is the bell that this rope is
- 1:36:14Speaker 1: attached to? And she says it goes to the housekeeper's room.
- 1:36:19Speaker 1: It looks newer than the other things. So at this
- 1:36:22Speaker 1: rope with a tassel at the end, a sort of
- 1:36:25Speaker 1: a fabric thing that hangs down from the end, a
- 1:36:28Speaker 1: decorative thing on the end of it. He says, it
- 1:36:31Speaker 1: looks newer. It looks new. Yes, it was only put
- 1:36:34Speaker 1: there a couple of years ago. Your sister asked for it,
- 1:36:37Speaker 1: I suppose, No, I never heard of her using it.
- 1:36:42Speaker 1: We used always to get what we wanted for ourselves. Indeed,
- 1:36:46Speaker 1: it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell pull there.
- 1:36:50Speaker 1: You will excuse me for a few minutes while I
- 1:36:52Speaker 1: satisfy myself as to this floor. So he wants to
- 1:36:56Speaker 1: examine the floor. Now, after considering the bell rope, the
- 1:37:01Speaker 1: bell pulled to be sort of a bit unnecessary, he
- 1:37:05Speaker 1: threw himself down upon his face with his lens in
- 1:37:08Speaker 1: his hand. So that's a magnifying glass, a glass lens
- 1:37:11Speaker 1: that would be used to study and examine things in detail,
- 1:37:17Speaker 1: one of the things that Sherlock Holmes is famous for
- 1:37:19Speaker 1: looking through a magnifying lens or a magnifying glass. He
- 1:37:23Speaker 1: threw himself down upon his face with his lens in
- 1:37:25Speaker 1: his hand, and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining minutely
- 1:37:30Speaker 1: the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same
- 1:37:33Speaker 1: with the woodwork with which the chamber was paneled. Finally,
- 1:37:37Speaker 1: he walked over to the bed and spent some time
- 1:37:39Speaker 1: in staring at it and in running his eye up
- 1:37:43Speaker 1: and down the wall. Finally he took the bell rope
- 1:37:46Speaker 1: in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. Mean,
- 1:37:49Speaker 1: he could have pulled on the rope. Why it's a dummy,
- 1:37:53Speaker 1: said he, What won't it ring? No, it's not even
- 1:37:56Speaker 1: attached to a wire. This is very interesting. You can
- 1:38:00Speaker 1: see now that it's fastened to a hook just above
- 1:38:03Speaker 1: where the little opening for the ventilator is. How very absurd.
- 1:38:08Speaker 1: I never noticed that before, very strange, muttered Holmes, pulling
- 1:38:13Speaker 1: at the rope. There are one or two very singular
- 1:38:16Speaker 1: points about this room. For example, what a fool a
- 1:38:19Speaker 1: builder must be to open a ventilator into another room
- 1:38:24Speaker 1: when with the same trouble he might have communicated it
- 1:38:26Speaker 1: with the outside air. That is also quite modern, said
- 1:38:30Speaker 1: the lady, done about the same time as the bell rope,
- 1:38:35Speaker 1: remarked Holmes. Yes, there were several little changes carried out
- 1:38:39Speaker 1: at about that time. They seem to have been of
- 1:38:42Speaker 1: a most interesting character. Dummy bell ropes and ventilators which
- 1:38:47Speaker 1: do not ventilate. With your permission, miss Stoner, we shall
- 1:38:50Speaker 1: now carry our researches into the inner apartment, so I
- 1:38:54Speaker 1: just need to stop there, so Holmes, in exploring the room,
- 1:38:58Speaker 1: we talked about the bell rope hanging down from the ceiling,
- 1:39:01Speaker 1: which normally would be connected to a bell somewhere. Helen
- 1:39:05Speaker 1: thought it was connected to a bell in the servants room,
- 1:39:08Speaker 1: but when Holmes pulled the rope he realized it was
- 1:39:12Speaker 1: a dummy. It's a fake rope. It's a fake bell rope,
- 1:39:16Speaker 1: and it's not attached to anything. It's just attached to
- 1:39:19Speaker 1: a hook in the ceiling next to where there is
- 1:39:23Speaker 1: a ventilation shaft, so ventilation this is basically something that
- 1:39:28Speaker 1: allows air. Normally, ventilation would allow fresh air into a room,
- 1:39:33Speaker 1: and it would be maybe a little cover or a
- 1:39:36Speaker 1: little hole in the wall with a little shaft or
- 1:39:40Speaker 1: a small opening which would probably connect to the outside
- 1:39:46Speaker 1: to allow air to come into the room. It's important
- 1:39:49Speaker 1: to keep an air a room aired. But this particular
- 1:39:53Speaker 1: ventilator doesn't connect with the outside. It connects with the
- 1:39:57Speaker 1: next room. So there's a sort of little passage, as
- 1:40:02Speaker 1: very small passage that goes from the ceiling of this
- 1:40:07Speaker 1: bedroom into the next room into doctor Roylett's room, and
- 1:40:11Speaker 1: hanging down next to this little opening the ventilator. Hanging
- 1:40:16Speaker 1: down from there is this rope. Hmm, very strange, okay.
- 1:40:23Speaker 1: And it turns out Helen says that these changes, these things,
- 1:40:28Speaker 1: the ventilator the rope, were all fairly recent additions to
- 1:40:32Speaker 1: the room. Dr Grimsby Roylet's chamber was larger than that
- 1:40:38Speaker 1: of his step daughter that they're now examining. Doctor Grimsby
- 1:40:44Speaker 1: Roylet's room. It was larger than that of his stepdaughter,
- 1:40:47Speaker 1: but was as plainly furnished a camp bed, a small
- 1:40:52Speaker 1: wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character,
- 1:40:56Speaker 1: an armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against
- 1:41:01Speaker 1: the wall, a round table, and a large iron safe
- 1:41:06Speaker 1: were the principal things which met the eye. As safe,
- 1:41:10Speaker 1: by the way as a large heavy metal box that
- 1:41:12Speaker 1: would be used to keep like precious items. When you
- 1:41:18Speaker 1: have a hope, when you go to a hotel room,
- 1:41:20Speaker 1: usually there's a little metal safe in the room with
- 1:41:22Speaker 1: a like a little digital keypad on it, and you know,
- 1:41:28Speaker 1: you enter the right code and the safe opens. So
- 1:41:30Speaker 1: so this kind of safe, probably a large metal box,
- 1:41:34Speaker 1: heavy metal door. There's a safe in there as well.
- 1:41:38Speaker 1: These are the first things that you can see. Homes
- 1:41:40Speaker 1: walked slowly round and examined each and all of them
- 1:41:43Speaker 1: with the keenest interest. What's in here, he asked, tapping
- 1:41:49Speaker 1: the safe. My stepfather's business papers. Oh you've seen inside then,
- 1:41:55Speaker 1: only once, some years ago. I remember that it was
- 1:41:59Speaker 1: full of pain. There isn't a cat in it, for example, No,
- 1:42:05Speaker 1: what a strange idea a cat? Well, look at this.
- 1:42:10Speaker 1: He took up a small saucer of milk which stood
- 1:42:14Speaker 1: on the top of it. So, little little saucer, little
- 1:42:18Speaker 1: small bowl or plate full of milk was sitting on
- 1:42:22Speaker 1: top of the safe. No, we don't keep a cat,
- 1:42:26Speaker 1: but there is a cheetah and a baboon ah. Yes,
- 1:42:29Speaker 1: of course, Well a cheatera is just a big cat.
- 1:42:33Speaker 1: And yet a saucer of milk does not go very
- 1:42:36Speaker 1: far in satisfying its wants. I dare say there is
- 1:42:40Speaker 1: one point which I should wish to determine. He squatted
- 1:42:44Speaker 1: down in front of the wooden chair and examined the
- 1:42:47Speaker 1: seat of it with the greatest attention. Thank you, that
- 1:42:51Speaker 1: is quite settled, said he, rising and putting his lens
- 1:42:54Speaker 1: in his pocket. Oh hello, here's something interesting. The object
- 1:43:00Speaker 1: which had caught his eye was a small dog lash
- 1:43:03Speaker 1: hung on one corner of the bed. I suppose a
- 1:43:06Speaker 1: dog lash is like a dog leash, sort of thing
- 1:43:09Speaker 1: that you would fit round the neck of a dog
- 1:43:11Speaker 1: to take it for a walk. Small dog lash was
- 1:43:16Speaker 1: hung on one corner of the bed. The lash, however,
- 1:43:19Speaker 1: was curled upon itself and tied so as to make
- 1:43:22Speaker 1: a loop of whip cord. So the lash is curled
- 1:43:26Speaker 1: round on itself, so there's a loop at the end
- 1:43:28Speaker 1: which you could kind of open or close. What do
- 1:43:32Speaker 1: you make of that, Watson. It's a common enough lash,
- 1:43:36Speaker 1: but I don't know why it should be tied. That
- 1:43:39Speaker 1: is not quite so common, is it, ah Me. It's
- 1:43:42Speaker 1: a wicked world, and when a clever man turns his
- 1:43:45Speaker 1: brains to crime, it is the worst of all. I
- 1:43:49Speaker 1: think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and
- 1:43:52Speaker 1: with your permission, we shall walk out upon the lawn.
- 1:43:55Speaker 1: So they're now going to go outside onto the grass.
- 1:44:00Speaker 1: I never seen my friend's face so grim or his
- 1:44:03Speaker 1: brow so dark as it was when we turned from
- 1:44:05Speaker 1: the scene of this investigation. So Holmes is looking very serious.
- 1:44:11Speaker 1: We'd walked several times up and down the lawn, neither
- 1:44:14Speaker 1: Miss Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his
- 1:44:17Speaker 1: thoughts before he roused himself from his reverie. So they
- 1:44:21Speaker 1: walked up and down the grass, and Miss Stoner and
- 1:44:25Speaker 1: Watson did not interrupt Holmes. They didn't want to interrupt him.
- 1:44:29Speaker 1: They didn't want to disturb him break into his thoughts
- 1:44:32Speaker 1: before he kind of woke himself up from his kind
- 1:44:35Speaker 1: of day dream his thinking process. It is very essential,
- 1:44:40Speaker 1: Miss Stoner, said, he that you should absolutely follow my
- 1:44:43Speaker 1: advice in every respect. I shall most certainly do so
- 1:44:48Speaker 1: the matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life
- 1:44:52Speaker 1: may depend on your compliance. I assure you that I'm
- 1:44:56Speaker 1: in your hands in the first place. Both my friend
- 1:44:59Speaker 1: and I must spend the night in your room. Both
- 1:45:02Speaker 1: Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment, looked
- 1:45:06Speaker 1: at him like what, yes, it must be, So let
- 1:45:10Speaker 1: me explain. I believe that that is the village inn
- 1:45:13Speaker 1: over there, meaning that's the local pub and hotel over there. Yes, yes,
- 1:45:19Speaker 1: that's the Crown very good. Your windows would be visible
- 1:45:23Speaker 1: from there, certainly, So basically is that the local pub
- 1:45:29Speaker 1: and hotel? Yes it is? And would would it be
- 1:45:33Speaker 1: possible to see your windows from that place? And she
- 1:45:36Speaker 1: says yes. You must confine yourself to your room on
- 1:45:41Speaker 1: pretense of a headache when your stepfather comes back. Then,
- 1:45:45Speaker 1: when you hear him retire for the night, you must
- 1:45:48Speaker 1: open the shutters of your window, undo the hasp, put
- 1:45:52Speaker 1: your lamp there as a signal to us, and then
- 1:45:54Speaker 1: withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want
- 1:45:58Speaker 1: into the room which you used to occupy. I have
- 1:46:01Speaker 1: no doubt that, in spite of the repairs, you could
- 1:46:04Speaker 1: manage there for one night, Oh, yes, easily. The rest
- 1:46:08Speaker 1: you will leave in our hands. Okay, So Holmes is
- 1:46:12Speaker 1: saying to miss Stoner that she has to go into
- 1:46:19Speaker 1: her room and stay there until she thinks that the
- 1:46:24Speaker 1: doctor has kind of gone to bed, and then she
- 1:46:28Speaker 1: has to open the window and open the shutter and
- 1:46:34Speaker 1: with her lamp give a signal to Holmes and Watson,
- 1:46:37Speaker 1: who will be in the pub or the hotel over
- 1:46:41Speaker 1: the road or whatever, so that they can see. And
- 1:46:45Speaker 1: then she's going to go with or anything she needs
- 1:46:48Speaker 1: into the third room where she's going to spend the night,
- 1:46:52Speaker 1: and she's going to leave the window open of the
- 1:46:53Speaker 1: second room, and then Watson and Holmes are going to
- 1:46:56Speaker 1: sneak into the room and stay there in order to
- 1:46:59Speaker 1: see what's going on. But what will you do? We
- 1:47:03Speaker 1: shall spend the night in your room, and we shall
- 1:47:06Speaker 1: investigate the cause of this noise which has disturbed you.
- 1:47:11Speaker 1: I believe, mister Holmes, that you have already made up
- 1:47:14Speaker 1: your mind, said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my
- 1:47:17Speaker 1: companion's sleeve. Perhaps I have, then, for pity's sake, tell
- 1:47:23Speaker 1: me what was the cause of my sister's death. I
- 1:47:26Speaker 1: should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak. You
- 1:47:30Speaker 1: can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct.
- 1:47:33Speaker 1: And if she died from some sudden fright, No, I
- 1:47:37Speaker 1: do not think so. I think that there was probably
- 1:47:40Speaker 1: some more tangible cause. And now miss Stoner, we must
- 1:47:44Speaker 1: leave you, for if doctor Roylet returned and saw us,
- 1:47:48Speaker 1: our journey would be in vain. Good Bye, and be brave,
- 1:47:53Speaker 1: for if you will do what I have told you,
- 1:47:55Speaker 1: you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away
- 1:47:58Speaker 1: the dangers that threaten you. Sherlock Holmes and I had
- 1:48:03Speaker 1: no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and sitting room at
- 1:48:06Speaker 1: the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and
- 1:48:09Speaker 1: from our window we could command a view of the
- 1:48:12Speaker 1: Avenue gate and of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran
- 1:48:16Speaker 1: Manor House. At dusk we saw Dodor Grimesby Roylet drive past,
- 1:48:22Speaker 1: his huge form looming up beside the little figure of
- 1:48:25Speaker 1: the lad who drove him, the boy driving the cart,
- 1:48:30Speaker 1: driving the taxi. The boy had some slight difficulty in
- 1:48:34Speaker 1: undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard the hoarse
- 1:48:38Speaker 1: roar of the doctor's voice, and saw the fury with
- 1:48:42Speaker 1: which he shook his clenched fists at him. Come along, boy,
- 1:48:45Speaker 1: get on with him. So he could. They noticed Doctor
- 1:48:49Speaker 1: Roylet shouting at the boy couldn't open the gate. The
- 1:48:53Speaker 1: trap drove on, and a few minutes later we saw
- 1:48:56Speaker 1: a sudden light spring up among the trees as the
- 1:48:59Speaker 1: lamp lit in one of the sitting rooms. Do you know,
- 1:49:03Speaker 1: Watson said Holmes, as we sat together in the gathering darkness.
- 1:49:07Speaker 1: I have really some scruples as to taking you tonight.
- 1:49:11Speaker 1: There is a distinct element of danger. So Holmes is saying,
- 1:49:15Speaker 1: you know, I'm not sure I should bring you tonight
- 1:49:17Speaker 1: because it could be really dangerous. And Watson says, can
- 1:49:23Speaker 1: I be of assistance? Holmes says, your presence might be invaluable. Mean,
- 1:49:30Speaker 1: your presence might be really important. You might be very helpful.
- 1:49:35Speaker 1: Then I shall certainly come. It is very kind of
- 1:49:38Speaker 1: you you speak of danger. You have evidently seen more
- 1:49:42Speaker 1: in these rooms than was visible to me. No, but
- 1:49:45Speaker 1: I fancy that I may have deduced a little more.
- 1:49:48Speaker 1: I imagine that you saw all that I did. I
- 1:49:52Speaker 1: saw nothing remarkable save the bell rope, And what purpose
- 1:49:56Speaker 1: that could answer, I confess, is more than I can imagine.
- 1:49:59Speaker 1: So what has Homes deduced? What do you think he's
- 1:50:03Speaker 1: seen this rope that doesn't seem to be doing anything
- 1:50:06Speaker 1: hanging down from this hole in the ceiling which is
- 1:50:09Speaker 1: connects to Roylet's room. What about the whistle heard in
- 1:50:13Speaker 1: the middle of the night. What about the clanging of
- 1:50:15Speaker 1: the metal There is a metal safe in Roylett's room.
- 1:50:21Speaker 1: What caused Julia's death? What's going on? You saw the
- 1:50:26Speaker 1: ventilator too, yes, but I do not think that it
- 1:50:29Speaker 1: is such a very unusual thing to have a small
- 1:50:32Speaker 1: opening between two rooms. It was so small that a
- 1:50:35Speaker 1: rat could hardly pass through. I knew that we should
- 1:50:40Speaker 1: find a ventilator before we ever came to Stoke Moran,
- 1:50:43Speaker 1: my dear homes Oh, yes, I did you remember in
- 1:50:47Speaker 1: her statement she said that her sister could smell doctor
- 1:50:50Speaker 1: Roylett's cigar. Now, of course that suggested at once there
- 1:50:54Speaker 1: must be a communication between the two rooms. It could
- 1:50:58Speaker 1: only be a small one, or it would have been
- 1:51:00Speaker 1: remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator.
- 1:51:05Speaker 1: But what harm can there be in that? Well? There
- 1:51:08Speaker 1: is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A ventilator
- 1:51:12Speaker 1: is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who
- 1:51:15Speaker 1: sleeps in the bed dies does that not strike you.
- 1:51:20Speaker 1: I cannot as yet see any connection. Did you observe
- 1:51:23Speaker 1: anything very peculiar about that bed er? No, it was
- 1:51:28Speaker 1: clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed
- 1:51:31Speaker 1: fastened like that before? Meaning it was like attached to
- 1:51:36Speaker 1: the floor. I cannot say that I have The lady
- 1:51:40Speaker 1: could not move her bed. It must always be in
- 1:51:44Speaker 1: the same relative position to the ventilator and to the rope,
- 1:51:48Speaker 1: or so we may call it, since it was clearly
- 1:51:51Speaker 1: never meant for a bell pull, Holmes, I cried, I
- 1:51:57Speaker 1: seem to see dimly what you're hinting at. They are
- 1:52:00Speaker 1: only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible crime.
- 1:52:04Speaker 1: Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong,
- 1:52:09Speaker 1: he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and
- 1:52:12Speaker 1: he has knowledge. Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads
- 1:52:16Speaker 1: of their profession. This man strikes even deeper. But I think, Watson,
- 1:52:21Speaker 1: that we shall be able to strike deeper still. So
- 1:52:24Speaker 1: basically Holmes is saying that when a doctor becomes a criminal,
- 1:52:28Speaker 1: they become like the kind of the first of all
- 1:52:32Speaker 1: the criminals, because they have nerve, meaning they have the
- 1:52:34Speaker 1: kind of calmness of a doctor, and they have the knowledge,
- 1:52:39Speaker 1: the medical knowledge of how the body works. Palmer and Pritchard,
- 1:52:45Speaker 1: these are kind of like serial killers from the Victorian
- 1:52:49Speaker 1: era who were both doctors as well. And Palmer and
- 1:52:54Speaker 1: Pritchard are examples of like doctors who killed people. Strikes
- 1:53:00Speaker 1: even deeper. But I think Watson, that we shall be
- 1:53:04Speaker 1: able to strike deeper still, but we shall have horrors
- 1:53:09Speaker 1: enough before the night is over. For goodness sake, let
- 1:53:11Speaker 1: us have a quiet pipe and turn our minds for
- 1:53:14Speaker 1: a few hours to something more cheerful. So he's saying,
- 1:53:17Speaker 1: it's going to be We're going to see some horrific
- 1:53:19Speaker 1: things tonight. So let's just relax for the moment and
- 1:53:22Speaker 1: smoke a pipe and just chill out a bit. Let's
- 1:53:26Speaker 1: move on. About nine o'clock the light among the trees
- 1:53:29Speaker 1: was extinguished, so Roilet's light in the sitting room went out,
- 1:53:35Speaker 1: and all was dark in the direction of the manor house.
- 1:53:38Speaker 1: Two hours passed slowly away, and then suddenly, just at
- 1:53:42Speaker 1: the stroke of eleven, a single bright light shone out
- 1:53:46Speaker 1: right in front of us. That is our signal, said Holmes,
- 1:53:49Speaker 1: springing to his feet. It comes from the middle window.
- 1:53:54Speaker 1: That means it's Helen as we passed out, meaning as
- 1:53:58Speaker 1: we left, exchanged a few words with the landlord, explaining
- 1:54:03Speaker 1: that we were going on a late visit to an
- 1:54:04Speaker 1: acquaintance and that it was possible that we might spend
- 1:54:08Speaker 1: the night there. A moment later we were out on
- 1:54:11Speaker 1: the dark road, a chill wind blowing in our faces,
- 1:54:14Speaker 1: and one yellow light twinkling in front of us through
- 1:54:17Speaker 1: the gloom to guide us on our somber errand so
- 1:54:21Speaker 1: they went outside, following the light from the window. There
- 1:54:27Speaker 1: was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for unrepaired breeches
- 1:54:31Speaker 1: gaped in the old park wall, so it was easy
- 1:54:35Speaker 1: to get into the grounds of the house because of
- 1:54:36Speaker 1: these big holes in the wall. Making our way among
- 1:54:40Speaker 1: the trees, we reached the lawn and crossed it and
- 1:54:43Speaker 1: were about to enter through the window, when out from
- 1:54:47Speaker 1: a clump of laurel bushes there darted what seemed to
- 1:54:51Speaker 1: be a hideous and distorted child, who threw itself upon
- 1:54:54Speaker 1: the grass with writhing limbs, and then ran swiftly across
- 1:54:58Speaker 1: the lawn into the darkness. So they were just about
- 1:55:01Speaker 1: to enter the window when they saw something jumping out
- 1:55:04Speaker 1: from behind one of the bushes. It looked like some
- 1:55:07Speaker 1: sort of horrible distorted child who jumped onto the grass
- 1:55:13Speaker 1: with sort of horribly writhing moving arms, and ran quickly
- 1:55:18Speaker 1: across the lawn. My god, I whispered, did you see it?
- 1:55:23Speaker 1: What was this weird sort of monster? Holmes was, for
- 1:55:28Speaker 1: the moment as startled as eyes. So they both looked
- 1:55:31Speaker 1: kind of shocked by this, startled by it. His hand
- 1:55:35Speaker 1: closed like a vice upon my wrist in his agitation.
- 1:55:38Speaker 1: Then he broke into a low laugh and put his
- 1:55:41Speaker 1: lips to my ear. It is a nice household, he murmured,
- 1:55:46Speaker 1: That is the baboon. So they just had a close
- 1:55:50Speaker 1: encounter with the baboon that lived at the house, this
- 1:55:53Speaker 1: weird monkey. I'd forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected.
- 1:55:58Speaker 1: There was a cheetah too, Perhaps we might find it
- 1:56:02Speaker 1: upon our shoulders at any moment. I confess that I
- 1:56:06Speaker 1: felt easier in my mind when after following Holmes's example
- 1:56:10Speaker 1: and slipping off my shoes, I found myself inside the bedroom.
- 1:56:14Speaker 1: My companion noiselessly closed the shutters, moved the lamp on
- 1:56:19Speaker 1: to the table, and cast his eyes around the room.
- 1:56:23Speaker 1: All was as we had seen it in the daytime.
- 1:56:26Speaker 1: Then creeping up to me, and making a trumpet of
- 1:56:28Speaker 1: his hand. He whispered into my ear again, so gently
- 1:56:33Speaker 1: that it was all that I could do to distinguish
- 1:56:35Speaker 1: the words. The least sound would be fatal to our plans.
- 1:56:41Speaker 1: I nodded to show that I had heard. We must
- 1:56:44Speaker 1: sit without light. He would see it through the ventilator.
- 1:56:49Speaker 1: I nodded again. Do not go asleep. Your very life
- 1:56:53Speaker 1: may depend upon it. Have your pistol ready in case
- 1:56:58Speaker 1: we should need it. I will sit on the side
- 1:57:00Speaker 1: of the bed, and you in that chair. I took
- 1:57:04Speaker 1: out my revolver and laid it on the corner of
- 1:57:07Speaker 1: the table. Holmes had brought up a long, thin cane,
- 1:57:11Speaker 1: like a long thin stick, and this he placed upon
- 1:57:15Speaker 1: the bed beside him. By it he laid the box
- 1:57:18Speaker 1: of matches and the stump of a candle. Then he
- 1:57:22Speaker 1: turned down the lamp, and we were left in darkness.
- 1:57:25Speaker 1: How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil. I could
- 1:57:29Speaker 1: not hear a sound, not even the drawing of a breath,
- 1:57:33Speaker 1: and yet I knew that my companion sat open eyed,
- 1:57:36Speaker 1: within a few feet of me, in the same state
- 1:57:39Speaker 1: of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters
- 1:57:42Speaker 1: cut off the least ray of light, and we waited
- 1:57:45Speaker 1: in absolute darkness. So, by the way, at this point,
- 1:57:48Speaker 1: they are in the bedroom in complete darkness. Watson is
- 1:57:53Speaker 1: sitting in the chair, he has the gun on the
- 1:57:58Speaker 1: side next to him. Homes is sitting, I think, on
- 1:58:02Speaker 1: the bed. He's got a wooden cane, a kind of
- 1:58:06Speaker 1: long wooden thin wooden stick which he's put on the
- 1:58:08Speaker 1: side table, and a box of matches, and a little
- 1:58:13Speaker 1: candle which I guess he can light quickly in order
- 1:58:17Speaker 1: to illuminate the room. And they're sitting in absolute silence,
- 1:58:21Speaker 1: because obviously next door there's doctor Roylet, who doesn't know
- 1:58:25Speaker 1: that they're there, and they're going to wait and see
- 1:58:27Speaker 1: what's going to happen. From outside, came the occasional cry
- 1:58:31Speaker 1: of a night bird, and once at our very window
- 1:58:34Speaker 1: a long drawn cat like wine something like that, which
- 1:58:41Speaker 1: told us that the cheetah was indeed at liberty. That's
- 1:58:45Speaker 1: told us that the cheatah was free, just roaming around freely.
- 1:58:49Speaker 1: Far away, we could hear the deep tones of the
- 1:58:52Speaker 1: parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of an hour,
- 1:58:56Speaker 1: So they could hear the sounds of the clock from
- 1:58:58Speaker 1: the church. How long they seemed those quarters. Every fifteen minutes,
- 1:59:05Speaker 1: twelve struck and one, and two and three, and still
- 1:59:10Speaker 1: we sat, waiting silently for whatever might befall. Suddenly there
- 1:59:15Speaker 1: was the momentary gleam of a light up in the
- 1:59:18Speaker 1: direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was succeeded
- 1:59:23Speaker 1: by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal.
- 1:59:27Speaker 1: Someone in the next room had lit a dark lantern.
- 1:59:31Speaker 1: I heard a gentle sound of movement, and then all
- 1:59:34Speaker 1: was silent once more, though the smell grew stronger for
- 1:59:40Speaker 1: half an hour. I sat with straining ears. Then suddenly
- 1:59:44Speaker 1: another sound became audible, a very gentle, soothing sound, like
- 1:59:50Speaker 1: that of a small jet of steam escaping continually from
- 1:59:54Speaker 1: a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes sprang
- 2:00:03Speaker 1: from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with
- 2:00:07Speaker 1: his cane at the bell pull. So he starts whacking
- 2:00:11Speaker 1: the rope with his with his with his wooden stick.
- 2:00:16Speaker 1: You see it, Watson, he yelled, you see it, But
- 2:00:19Speaker 1: I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light,
- 2:00:23Speaker 1: I heard a low, clear whistle, But the sudden glare
- 2:00:29Speaker 1: flashing into my weary eyes made it impossible for me
- 2:00:31Speaker 1: to tell what it was at which my friend lashed
- 2:00:34Speaker 1: so savagely, so he couldn't see exactly what it was
- 2:00:37Speaker 1: that Holmes was trying to hit with this stick. While
- 2:00:39Speaker 1: he was lashing, I could, however, see that his face
- 2:00:43Speaker 1: was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. So
- 2:00:47Speaker 1: he could see Holmes's face and ugh, Holmes is terrified. Ah,
- 2:00:51Speaker 1: while he's trying to hit this thing, whatever it is.
- 2:00:55Speaker 1: He had ceased to strike and was gazing up at
- 2:00:58Speaker 1: the ventilator when suddenly there broke from the silence of
- 2:01:01Speaker 1: the night, the most horrible cry to which I have
- 2:01:05Speaker 1: ever listened. It swelled up, louder and louder, a hoarse
- 2:01:10Speaker 1: yell of pain and fear and anger, all mingled in
- 2:01:13Speaker 1: the one dreadful shriek. So horse, by the way, refers
- 2:01:18Speaker 1: to the sound of someone's throat like this. This is
- 2:01:21Speaker 1: a horse sounding voice, So it's not like a not
- 2:01:25Speaker 1: one of those horses horse spelled h O A R
- 2:01:29Speaker 1: s E. A horse yell, meaning a sound made by
- 2:01:34Speaker 1: someone's voice. So they suddenly, in the middle of this
- 2:01:38Speaker 1: the night, this, after this strange moment has occurred, they
- 2:01:41Speaker 1: hear this horrible scream this horrible cry ah, something like that,
- 2:01:50Speaker 1: a horse yell of pain and fear and anger, all
- 2:01:53Speaker 1: mingled in one dreadful shriek. Ah. They say that away
- 2:02:00Speaker 1: down in the village, and even in the distant parsonage
- 2:02:04Speaker 1: where the parson lives, where the local priest lives, that
- 2:02:09Speaker 1: cry raised the sleepers from their beds. It struck cold
- 2:02:13Speaker 1: to our hearts. And I stood gazing at Holmes and
- 2:02:17Speaker 1: he at me until the last echoes of it had
- 2:02:20Speaker 1: died away into the silence from which it rose. So
- 2:02:22Speaker 1: they just stood. They sat there, staring at each other
- 2:02:25Speaker 1: while this ah raw. No Arnold Schwarzenegger involved in this
- 2:02:39Speaker 1: raal anyway. What can it mean? I gasped. It means
- 2:02:42Speaker 1: that it is all over, Holmes answered, and perhaps after
- 2:02:46Speaker 1: all it is for the best. Take your pistol and
- 2:02:50Speaker 1: we will enter doctor Roylett's room with a grave face
- 2:02:54Speaker 1: like with a serious face, he lit the lamp and
- 2:02:57Speaker 1: led the way down the corridor. Twice. He struck at
- 2:03:00Speaker 1: the chamber door without any reply from within. Then he
- 2:03:07Speaker 1: turned the handle and entered. I at his heels with
- 2:03:11Speaker 1: the cocked pistol in my hand. It was a singular
- 2:03:15Speaker 1: sight which met our eyes, meaning a sort of light
- 2:03:18Speaker 1: unique sight. On the table stood a dark lantern with
- 2:03:22Speaker 1: the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant beam of light
- 2:03:26Speaker 1: upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar,
- 2:03:31Speaker 1: So fir if the door is ajar, it made it
- 2:03:34Speaker 1: slightly open. Beside this table, on the wooden chair sat
- 2:03:39Speaker 1: mister Grimesby Roilet, clad in a long gray dressing gown,
- 2:03:44Speaker 1: his bare ankles protruding beneath, and his feet thrust into
- 2:03:51Speaker 1: red heelless Turkish slippers. So Grimesby Royalties sitting in this chair.
- 2:03:57Speaker 1: Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash,
- 2:04:01Speaker 1: which we had noticed during the day. So this is
- 2:04:04Speaker 1: that short like kind of like dog leash with a
- 2:04:07Speaker 1: little loop on the end that's lying on on his
- 2:04:11Speaker 1: lap in front of him. His chin was cocked upward,
- 2:04:14Speaker 1: and his eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare
- 2:04:19Speaker 1: at the corner of the ceiling. So he's his face
- 2:04:23Speaker 1: is like locked in this stare, staring at the ceiling.
- 2:04:28Speaker 1: Round his brow, so around the sort of front of
- 2:04:31Speaker 1: the top of his head above his eyes, like where
- 2:04:34Speaker 1: someone like where a tennis player would wear a headband,
- 2:04:39Speaker 1: So round his brow, he had a peculiar yellow band
- 2:04:43Speaker 1: with brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round
- 2:04:48Speaker 1: his head. Something kind of wrapped round his head. As
- 2:04:54Speaker 1: we entered, he made neither sound nor motion. So he
- 2:04:58Speaker 1: didn't make a sound, and he didn't move the band,
- 2:05:01Speaker 1: the speckled band, whispered Holmes. I took a step forward.
- 2:05:06Speaker 1: In an instant, his strange head gear, this strange thing
- 2:05:10Speaker 1: around his head began to move, and there reared itself
- 2:05:16Speaker 1: from among his hair, the squat diamond shaped head and
- 2:05:21Speaker 1: puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. So this speckled band,
- 2:05:26Speaker 1: what looked like a band around his head, suddenly started
- 2:05:30Speaker 1: to move. And then from his hair, this the head
- 2:05:35Speaker 1: of a snake, moved upwards. It is a swamp adder,
- 2:05:42Speaker 1: cried Holmes. The deadliest snake in India. He has died
- 2:05:46Speaker 1: within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence does, in truth
- 2:05:51Speaker 1: recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the
- 2:05:54Speaker 1: pit which he digs for another. So this is the
- 2:05:58Speaker 1: solution to this mystery. It's a snake. The speckled band
- 2:06:04Speaker 1: is the body of a snake, and it's this snake
- 2:06:09Speaker 1: which Roylet has been using as a kind of weapon.
- 2:06:14Speaker 1: This has actually bitten him. Let us thrust this creature
- 2:06:21Speaker 1: back into its den, and we can then remove miss
- 2:06:24Speaker 1: Stoner to some place of shelter and let the county
- 2:06:27Speaker 1: police know what has happened. So Holmes wants to put
- 2:06:31Speaker 1: the snake back into the safe. As he spoke, he
- 2:06:36Speaker 1: drew the dog whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, and,
- 2:06:39Speaker 1: throwing the noose around the reptile's neck, he drew it
- 2:06:42Speaker 1: from its horrid perch, and, carrying it at arm's length,
- 2:06:46Speaker 1: threw it into the iron safe, which he closed upon it.
- 2:06:50Speaker 1: Poor snake, It's not his fault, is it. Such are
- 2:06:54Speaker 1: the true facts of the death of doctor grimesby Roilet
- 2:06:58Speaker 1: of Stoke, Moran. It is not necessary that I should
- 2:07:01Speaker 1: prolong a narrative which has already run to two great
- 2:07:05Speaker 1: a length, by telling how we broke the sad news
- 2:07:08Speaker 1: to the terrified girl, how we conveyed her by the
- 2:07:12Speaker 1: morning train to the care of her good aunt in Harrow,
- 2:07:16Speaker 1: of how the slow process of official inquiry came to
- 2:07:19Speaker 1: the conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly
- 2:07:24Speaker 1: playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had
- 2:07:27Speaker 1: yet to learn of the case, was told me by
- 2:07:30Speaker 1: Sherlock Holmes as we traveled back the next day. I
- 2:07:35Speaker 1: had said, he come to an entirely erroneous conclusion, which shows,
- 2:07:40Speaker 1: my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason
- 2:07:44Speaker 1: from insufficient data. So basically he's saying he'd got the
- 2:07:49Speaker 1: wrong conclusion. He'd come to the wrong conclusion about this,
- 2:07:53Speaker 1: which shows that it is dangerous to make your conclusions
- 2:07:56Speaker 1: from when you don't have enough data. The presence of
- 2:07:59Speaker 1: the hypsies and the use of the word band, which
- 2:08:03Speaker 1: was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to explain
- 2:08:05Speaker 1: the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of
- 2:08:08Speaker 1: by the light of her match, were sufficient to put
- 2:08:11Speaker 1: me upon an entirely wrong scent. Scent is smell, so
- 2:08:16Speaker 1: a bit like a dog would be sniffing for a
- 2:08:20Speaker 1: smell to you to investigate something, something can put you
- 2:08:25Speaker 1: on the wrong scent, meaning can sort of send you
- 2:08:28Speaker 1: on the wrong line of inquiry. I can only claim
- 2:08:33Speaker 1: the merits that I instantly reconsidered my position when, however,
- 2:08:37Speaker 1: it became clear to me that whatever danger threatened an
- 2:08:41Speaker 1: occupant of the room could not come either from the
- 2:08:43Speaker 1: window or the door. My attention was speedily drawn, as
- 2:08:48Speaker 1: I have already remarked to you, to this ventilator and
- 2:08:52Speaker 1: to the bell rope which hung down to the bed.
- 2:08:56Speaker 1: The discovery that this was a dummy, in a fake one,
- 2:09:00Speaker 1: and that the bed was clamped to the floor instantly
- 2:09:03Speaker 1: gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was there
- 2:09:06Speaker 1: as a bridge for something passing through the hole and
- 2:09:09Speaker 1: coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly
- 2:09:13Speaker 1: occurred to me, and when I coupled it with my
- 2:09:15Speaker 1: knowledge that the doctor was furnished with a supply of
- 2:09:18Speaker 1: creatures from India, I felt that I was probably on
- 2:09:21Speaker 1: the right track. The idea of using a form of
- 2:09:25Speaker 1: poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical
- 2:09:29Speaker 1: test was just such a one as would occur to
- 2:09:32Speaker 1: a clever and ruthless man who had had an Eastern training.
- 2:09:37Speaker 1: The rapidity with which such a poison would take effect
- 2:09:40Speaker 1: would also, from his point of view, be an advantage.
- 2:09:44Speaker 1: It would be a sharp eyed coroner, indeed, who could
- 2:09:47Speaker 1: distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where
- 2:09:51Speaker 1: the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought
- 2:09:54Speaker 1: of the whistle. Of course, he must recall the snake
- 2:09:57Speaker 1: before the morning light revealed it to the victim. He
- 2:10:01Speaker 1: had trained it, probably by the use of the milk
- 2:10:04Speaker 1: which we saw, to return to him when summoned. He
- 2:10:08Speaker 1: would put it through this ventilator at the hour that
- 2:10:11Speaker 1: he thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl
- 2:10:14Speaker 1: down the rope and land on the bed. It might
- 2:10:17Speaker 1: or might not bite the occupant. Perhaps she might escape
- 2:10:21Speaker 1: every night for a week, but sooner or later she
- 2:10:24Speaker 1: must fall a victim. I had come to these conclusions
- 2:10:29Speaker 1: before ever I had entered his room. An inspection of
- 2:10:33Speaker 1: his chair showed me that he had been in the
- 2:10:35Speaker 1: habit of standing on it, which of course would be
- 2:10:38Speaker 1: necessary in order that he should reach the ventilator. The
- 2:10:42Speaker 1: sight of the safe, the saucer of milk, and the
- 2:10:45Speaker 1: loop of whip cord were enough to finally dispel any
- 2:10:49Speaker 1: doubts which may have remained. The metallic clang heard by
- 2:10:54Speaker 1: miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather hastily closing
- 2:10:58Speaker 1: the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. Having
- 2:11:01Speaker 1: once made up my mind, you know the steps which
- 2:11:04Speaker 1: I took in order to put the matter to the proof.
- 2:11:07Speaker 1: I heard the creature hiss as I have no doubt
- 2:11:12Speaker 1: that you did also, And I instantly lit the light
- 2:11:15Speaker 1: and attacked it, poor snake, with the result of driving
- 2:11:20Speaker 1: it through the ventilator, and also with the result of
- 2:11:23Speaker 1: causing it to turn upon its master at the other side.
- 2:11:28Speaker 1: Some of the blows of my cane came home and
- 2:11:30Speaker 1: roused its snakish temper so that it flew upon the
- 2:11:34Speaker 1: first person it saw. In this way, I am no
- 2:11:37Speaker 1: doubt indirectly responsible for dr grimesby Roylett's death, and I
- 2:11:41Speaker 1: cannot say that it is likely to weigh very heavily
- 2:11:45Speaker 1: upon my conscience. Right, that's the answer. That's where Holmes
- 2:11:50Speaker 1: explained what happened, that he is indirectly responsible for Roylett's death.
- 2:11:57Speaker 1: So what happened is that they were in the room.
- 2:12:00Speaker 1: Royle At woke up at three point thirty am or
- 2:12:02Speaker 1: whatever and decided now was the time to send the
- 2:12:06Speaker 1: snake into the room, which apparently he did every night,
- 2:12:09Speaker 1: hoping that he would, just like he'd done with Julia,
- 2:12:13Speaker 1: bring about her death. Bringing about her death, he would
- 2:12:16Speaker 1: do the same thing to Helen, now that she was
- 2:12:18Speaker 1: engaged to be married. Right, this was his way of
- 2:12:22Speaker 1: secretly killing her in a way that no doctor could identify.
- 2:12:27Speaker 1: You know, quite a plan. So he trained the snake.
- 2:12:33Speaker 1: He trained the snake to go through the ventilator and
- 2:12:35Speaker 1: down the rope. Somehow he'd been using the little bowl
- 2:12:39Speaker 1: of milk to help train the snake. I don't know,
- 2:12:43Speaker 1: can you train a snake? I suppose you can. I mean,
- 2:12:45Speaker 1: you see snake charmers and things they can do. Apparently
- 2:12:48Speaker 1: he'd learned some of these tricks in his time in India.
- 2:12:51Speaker 1: How to train a snake, I don't know. You have
- 2:12:54Speaker 1: to to an extent, you have to kind of be
- 2:12:57Speaker 1: willing to go along with the story. You have to
- 2:12:59Speaker 1: suspend your disc belief in some of these situations and
- 2:13:02Speaker 1: just enjoy the story. So he trained the snake to
- 2:13:05Speaker 1: go through the ventilator and down the rope, where it
- 2:13:08Speaker 1: would then drop onto the bed, and sooner or later
- 2:13:12Speaker 1: it would bite the occupant. And then I suppose with
- 2:13:15Speaker 1: the little whistle, he would call the snake back through
- 2:13:18Speaker 1: the ventilator, where he would then put it into the
- 2:13:20Speaker 1: safe where no one could see it. This is what
- 2:13:24Speaker 1: he tried to do, but Holmes and Watson were in
- 2:13:27Speaker 1: the room this time. Holmes heard the hissing sound of
- 2:13:30Speaker 1: the snake. He already knew that it was a snake.
- 2:13:33Speaker 1: He'd deduced this, he'd worked this out, so he hit
- 2:13:36Speaker 1: the snake, the poor snake, I know. He hit the
- 2:13:40Speaker 1: snake with the stick. The snake got really angry and
- 2:13:43Speaker 1: went back through the ventilator and just attacked the first
- 2:13:46Speaker 1: human that it saw, which was Roilet. In this case,
- 2:13:49Speaker 1: Roylet got bitten by his own his own snake. So
- 2:13:54Speaker 1: the violence which he'd been dealing out upon the girls
- 2:13:58Speaker 1: in the end returned to attack him. So he was
- 2:14:02Speaker 1: victim of his own violence. And Holmes says, although I
- 2:14:07Speaker 1: was indirectly responsible for Dr Roylett's death, I don't This
- 2:14:13Speaker 1: is not likely to weigh very heavily on my conscience.
- 2:14:16Speaker 1: So it's not going to be on his conscience. He's
- 2:14:19Speaker 1: not going to feel guilty about it because he As
- 2:14:22Speaker 1: far as Holmes is concerned, justice has been done. The
- 2:14:26Speaker 1: police decided that Roylet died due to an accident with him,
- 2:14:34Speaker 1: you know, playing with his pet snake, and that's that. Okay, listeners,
- 2:14:41Speaker 1: did you manage to follow this? Some people are currently
- 2:14:44Speaker 1: just skeletons in front of their you know, computers, or
- 2:14:48Speaker 1: their phones or whatever. I don't know. But then a
- 2:14:50Speaker 1: lot of you aren't. So if you are not a skeleton,
- 2:14:52Speaker 1: then good for you. You survived all the way through. I
- 2:14:56Speaker 1: hope you enjoyed the story. I hope my explanations have helped. Well.
- 2:14:59Speaker 1: I'm going to now just at the end is kind
- 2:15:01Speaker 1: of just give you a whole a summary of the
- 2:15:03Speaker 1: whole story in chronological order. This will just take a
- 2:15:06Speaker 1: couple of minutes. This is, in my words, a summary
- 2:15:10Speaker 1: of the whole chronology of this story. So, the royle
- 2:15:14Speaker 1: At family were one of the oldest Anglo Saxon families
- 2:15:17Speaker 1: in England, a noble family, kind of connected to the
- 2:15:21Speaker 1: royal family. That's what the nobility is. Upper class noble family,
- 2:15:26Speaker 1: like the family in Downton Abbey, right, that's another noble family.
- 2:15:30Speaker 1: So that's the royle At family. But over successive generations,
- 2:15:35Speaker 1: the family's fortune, that's their money and the land that
- 2:15:38Speaker 1: they owned. Their fortune had been lost and so when
- 2:15:42Speaker 1: Grimesby Roylet inherited the estate there was almost no money left,
- 2:15:47Speaker 1: almost no land left except the house and its grounds
- 2:15:51Speaker 1: which were in very bad condition. And Grimesby Royler is
- 2:15:54Speaker 1: the sole remaining heir of the of the estate, just
- 2:16:02Speaker 1: him Grimesby decided that he needed to learn professional skills
- 2:16:07Speaker 1: in order to earn money, so he trained to be
- 2:16:09Speaker 1: a doctor. He moved to India, where he lived and
- 2:16:12Speaker 1: practiced as a doctor. While living there, he married a
- 2:16:15Speaker 1: woman who had two twin daughters, Julia and Helen. They
- 2:16:19Speaker 1: became his step daughters. Now. Grimesby was a very nasty
- 2:16:22Speaker 1: and mean man like his ancestors. Apparently. Apparently he was
- 2:16:26Speaker 1: sort of like Ran in the family, and he got
- 2:16:28Speaker 1: in trouble when he had a furious argument with his
- 2:16:31Speaker 1: Indian butler over some robberies in the house and he
- 2:16:36Speaker 1: killed him. He beat him to death. He's a murderer.
- 2:16:40Speaker 1: He spent time in prison in India because of this,
- 2:16:43Speaker 1: before moving back to England with his wife and his
- 2:16:45Speaker 1: two step daughters now. His wife later died in a
- 2:16:50Speaker 1: train accident, so Grimesby was left to live in the
- 2:16:54Speaker 1: old house with his step daughters. Now. Grimesby's time in
- 2:16:58Speaker 1: India and in prison and the death of his wife
- 2:17:01Speaker 1: had changed him. He became even more bad tempered, more
- 2:17:05Speaker 1: aggressive and antisocial. He had violent encounters with almost everyone
- 2:17:10Speaker 1: he met. His habits were strange. He kept several exotic
- 2:17:14Speaker 1: and dangerous animals which he had acquired in India and
- 2:17:18Speaker 1: often let them move freely in the house and gardens.
- 2:17:21Speaker 1: And he befriended some gypsies traveling people. He let them
- 2:17:26Speaker 1: stay on his land and would sometimes go and stay
- 2:17:28Speaker 1: with them in their tents. These are the only people
- 2:17:31Speaker 1: he socialized with. The two step daughters had inherited some
- 2:17:36Speaker 1: money when their mother died, and clearly Grimesby wanted this money.
- 2:17:41Speaker 1: When one of the girls got engaged, Grimesby pretended to
- 2:17:44Speaker 1: be happy with the engagement, but secretly he planned to
- 2:17:47Speaker 1: have the girl killed so he could take her inheritance.
- 2:17:51Speaker 1: So he could take her inheritance money, because without it
- 2:17:54Speaker 1: he would be almost penniless. He planned her murder very
- 2:17:58Speaker 1: carefully so that nobody could understand how it had happened
- 2:18:02Speaker 1: or that he was the murderer. Now there's one problem here.
- 2:18:05Speaker 1: I suppose it seems it seems obvious that he did it.
- 2:18:09Speaker 1: Right anyone looking at the situation, you would think, well,
- 2:18:11Speaker 1: he's clearly the number one suspect, clear motive, and no
- 2:18:15Speaker 1: other obvious cause of death. Everyone would definitely assume it
- 2:18:18Speaker 1: was him. But I suppose without enough evidence, then there's
- 2:18:23Speaker 1: nothing that could be done you know, to put him
- 2:18:25Speaker 1: in prison. But he's clearly number one suspect, right, I mean,
- 2:18:29Speaker 1: he's already committed murder in the past. He's an absolutely horrible,
- 2:18:34Speaker 1: cruel and violent scumbag, so he's definitely going to do it.
- 2:18:38Speaker 1: He's definitely going to be the one who did it.
- 2:18:40Speaker 1: But I guess without the evidence, no one can prosecute him, right,
- 2:18:44Speaker 1: That's probably the thing. I suppose his cruelty and evil
- 2:18:47Speaker 1: were more powerful forces in him than his intelligence or reason.
- 2:18:51Speaker 1: I suppose now, as well as the baboon and the cheetah,
- 2:18:55Speaker 1: Grindsby had also acquired a very poisonous snake which kept
- 2:19:00Speaker 1: in a safe in his room. Holmes described it as
- 2:19:03Speaker 1: a swamp adder. Apparently there's no such snake in India
- 2:19:06Speaker 1: as a swamp adder. Probably the closest thing would be
- 2:19:09Speaker 1: the cobra something like that. Anyway, he trained the snake
- 2:19:13Speaker 1: to go into Julia's room, where it would probably bite her.
- 2:19:16Speaker 1: He installed a ventilation shaft which connected the two rooms
- 2:19:21Speaker 1: actually just to allow the snake to move into Julia's
- 2:19:23Speaker 1: room and back again, and hung a bell pull rope
- 2:19:27Speaker 1: from the ceiling next to the ventilation hole which hung
- 2:19:30Speaker 1: down onto Julia's bed. He trained the snake to go
- 2:19:33Speaker 1: through the ventilation shaft, slither down the rope and onto
- 2:19:36Speaker 1: the bed where it would bite Julia, and then when
- 2:19:39Speaker 1: he whistled, the snake would come back up the rope,
- 2:19:43Speaker 1: through the ventilator and back into his bedroom. The bed
- 2:19:46Speaker 1: in Julia's room was attached to the floor, making sure
- 2:19:50Speaker 1: that it was always in the right position for the rope.
- 2:19:53Speaker 1: Grimesby used a dog leash with a loop in it
- 2:19:55Speaker 1: to catch the snake and move it around, putting it
- 2:19:58Speaker 1: back into the safe. This is what he did, and
- 2:20:01Speaker 1: this is how Julia was killed. Her sister Helen heard
- 2:20:04Speaker 1: her scream when she was bitten and rushed to help her.
- 2:20:08Speaker 1: She heard the sound of Grimesby in the next room
- 2:20:10Speaker 1: closing the heavy metal door of the safe where the
- 2:20:13Speaker 1: snake was kept. While dying, Julia said something about the
- 2:20:17Speaker 1: speckled band. She was trying to describe the snake, trying
- 2:20:21Speaker 1: to describe what it looked like. When her body was examined,
- 2:20:25Speaker 1: nobody thought about the possibility of a snake bite and
- 2:20:28Speaker 1: didn't notice the small holes where the snake's fangs had
- 2:20:31Speaker 1: bitten her. Snake bites are not common in the UK,
- 2:20:35Speaker 1: and so nobody would consider this or notice it. The
- 2:20:38Speaker 1: venom of this snake is instantly lethal, and also no
- 2:20:41Speaker 1: tests for poison would have detected it. So it's kind
- 2:20:46Speaker 1: of like this perfect crime in a way. When Helen
- 2:20:50Speaker 1: got engaged two after several years of living this terrifying
- 2:20:54Speaker 1: life subjected to Grimesby's cruel treatment, her stepfather also accepted
- 2:20:59Speaker 1: the propose, but then planned to kill Helen in the
- 2:21:02Speaker 1: same way. The idiot. He pretended to start repair work
- 2:21:07Speaker 1: on the wall of the house, making Helen move into
- 2:21:10Speaker 1: the middle bedroom, the one with the bell pull rope,
- 2:21:13Speaker 1: attached bed, etc. And there he tried his plan again.
- 2:21:17Speaker 1: Helen heard the sound of Grimesby calling to the snake
- 2:21:28Speaker 1: right the whistle, but she wasn't bitten. Feeling terrified and
- 2:21:32Speaker 1: not understanding the situation, she went to Sherlock Holmes for help.
- 2:21:36Speaker 1: Holmes thought that the Gypsies might be involved, perhaps working
- 2:21:40Speaker 1: for Grimesby and entering Julia's bedroom through the window and
- 2:21:43Speaker 1: doing something. He thought the word band in speckled band
- 2:21:47Speaker 1: meant a band of people, a band of gypsies, A
- 2:21:50Speaker 1: group of gypsies maybe, but this was a red herring,
- 2:21:53Speaker 1: a red herring, by the way, is something that leads
- 2:21:56Speaker 1: you in the wrong direction, like a thing that distracts
- 2:21:59Speaker 1: you from the real solution or the real answer to
- 2:22:04Speaker 1: the mystery. So it's a piece of evidence which distracts
- 2:22:09Speaker 1: you away from the truth. That's a red herring. Herring
- 2:22:12Speaker 1: is a kind of fish, So the gypsies were actually
- 2:22:15Speaker 1: a red herring. The dangerous animals, the cheetah and the
- 2:22:18Speaker 1: baboon were also a red herring kind of Neither of
- 2:22:22Speaker 1: them were actually involved in the killing, but it did
- 2:22:25Speaker 1: make Homes realize that perhaps Grimesby had other dangerous animals,
- 2:22:30Speaker 1: in this case a snake which could be trained to
- 2:22:33Speaker 1: enter the room and bite the victim. So it helped
- 2:22:35Speaker 1: Homes deduce that it was a snake that was involved,
- 2:22:38Speaker 1: especially when you consider the ventilation shaft. Holmes and Watson
- 2:22:42Speaker 1: went to the house while Grimesby wasn't there and investigated.
- 2:22:46Speaker 1: Holmes noticed these things. There was no way to enter
- 2:22:49Speaker 1: the window from the outside. There were no secret doors
- 2:22:53Speaker 1: or trapdoors in the room. Also, the chimney, you couldn't
- 2:22:57Speaker 1: get through the chimney. The bell pull rope was fake.
- 2:23:02Speaker 1: It wasn't attached to a bell and was just hooked
- 2:23:04Speaker 1: to the ceiling next to the ventilator opening. The ventilator
- 2:23:07Speaker 1: didn't communicate with the outside, which would be normal to
- 2:23:10Speaker 1: get fresh air, but instead with Grimesby's room. The bed
- 2:23:14Speaker 1: was attached to the floor under the ventilator and rope,
- 2:23:18Speaker 1: so Homes worked out that clearly, whatever happened, it was
- 2:23:22Speaker 1: not anyone entering the room, it was something else. And
- 2:23:25Speaker 1: all the rope, the bed, the ventilator all helped Homes
- 2:23:30Speaker 1: to deduce or work out that clearly Grimesby was sending
- 2:23:34Speaker 1: something through the ventilator and down the rope. A snake
- 2:23:37Speaker 1: seemed to be the obvious answer. In Grimesby's room, there
- 2:23:42Speaker 1: was the other end of the ventilator shaft. There was
- 2:23:44Speaker 1: a closed safe on the floor with a saucer of
- 2:23:46Speaker 1: milk on top. There was a dog leash tied in
- 2:23:49Speaker 1: a loop. It was clear that Grimesby used to stand
- 2:23:52Speaker 1: on the chair regularly. Homes worked out that this was
- 2:23:56Speaker 1: so Grimesby could put, in this case, a snake into
- 2:23:59Speaker 1: the ventilator using the dog leash. Holmes decided that they
- 2:24:03Speaker 1: needed to spend a night in the room to see
- 2:24:04Speaker 1: what would happen, so Holmes could see if a snake
- 2:24:07Speaker 1: would come from the ceiling. So when Grimesby had settled
- 2:24:10Speaker 1: in his room, Helen opened the window, moved to the
- 2:24:16Speaker 1: other room, and Homes and Watson climbed in through the
- 2:24:19Speaker 1: open window and waited silently. At about three am, they
- 2:24:22Speaker 1: noticed Grimesby's light turning on. Eventually they heard the snake
- 2:24:26Speaker 1: coming through the ventilator, hissing as it came. Holmes was
- 2:24:30Speaker 1: ready and attacked the snake with a cane. Poor snake.
- 2:24:33Speaker 1: The snake went back through the ventilator and bit Grimesby
- 2:24:36Speaker 1: in his room. Grimesby screamed and died. Holmes decided, although
- 2:24:41Speaker 1: he'd indirectly led to Grimesby's death, that he wouldn't feel
- 2:24:45Speaker 1: guilty about it because justice had been done. And that
- 2:24:50Speaker 1: is that. Thank you for listening. I hope you enjoyed it.
- 2:24:54Speaker 1: Don't forget. You can get the pdfrom the whole text
- 2:24:56Speaker 1: that I've just been reading from in the link in
- 2:24:59Speaker 1: the description, all on website if you want to, like
- 2:25:01Speaker 1: check out specific words and things, but overall, I just
- 2:25:04Speaker 1: really hope you enjoyed this classic Sherlock Holmes story. Leave
- 2:25:08Speaker 1: your comments in the comment section. Did you did you
- 2:25:12Speaker 1: work out what was going on. Did you know what
- 2:25:14Speaker 1: was going to happen? Are you as clever as Sherlock Holmes?
- 2:25:19Speaker 1: What did you think? Any idea? Just leave your thoughts
- 2:25:22Speaker 1: in the comment section, and if you made it this far,
- 2:25:25Speaker 1: I don't know what what what what what? What? Let's say,
- 2:25:29Speaker 1: leave a comment about justice, something to do with justice.
- 2:25:33Speaker 1: And by the way, Helen eventually went and lived with
- 2:25:36Speaker 1: her aunt in Harrow, which seemed to be a much
- 2:25:40Speaker 1: happier existence. So leave a comment mentioning justice in the
- 2:25:45Speaker 1: comment section. If you got this far, I really hope
- 2:25:48Speaker 1: you enjoyed that. I really enjoyed reading it to you.
- 2:25:50Speaker 1: I will speak to you again in the next episode,
- 2:25:52Speaker 1: but for now, it's just time to say goodbye, bye,
- 2:25:55Speaker 1: bye boy.