[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The richest and glossiest of curtains and tapestries draped the walls, looped back here and there to expose some richly mounted painting or oriental vase. The carpet was of amber and black, so soft and so thick that the foot sank pleasantly into it as into a bed of moss.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Two great tiger-skins, thrown athwart it, increased the suggestion of Eastern luxury, as did a huge hookah which stood upon a mat in the corner.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A lamp in the fashion of a silver dove was hung from an almost invisible golden wire in the centre of the room. As it burned, it filled the air with a subtle and aromatic odour. "'Mr. Thaddeus Sholto,' said the little man, still jerking and smiling. "'That is my name. You are Miss Morstan, of course. And these gentlemen?'


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is Mr Sherlock Holmes and this is Dr Watson.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ah, Doctor Hay," cried he, much excited.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Have you your stethoscope? Might I ask you? Would you have the kindness? I have grave doubts as to my mitral valve. If you would be so very good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But was unable to find anything amiss, save indeed that he was in an ecstasy of fear, for he shivered from head to foot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I am a great sufferer and I have long had suspicions as to that valve. I am delighted to hear that they are unwarranted.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Had your father, Miss Morstan, refrained from throwing a strain upon his heart, he might have been alive now. I could have struck the man across the face


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So hot was I at this callous and offhand reference to so delicate a matter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Miss Morstan sat down, and her face grew white to the lips. I knew in my heart that he was dead, said she. I can give you every information, said he.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not only as an escort to you, but also as witnesses to what I'm about to do and say.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The three of us can show a bold front to Brother Bartholomew.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But let us have no outsiders, no police or officials.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We can settle everything satisfactorily among ourselves without any interference


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Nothing would annoy Brother Bartholomew more than any publicity.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He sat down upon a low settee and blinked at us inquiringly with his weak, watery blue eyes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For my part," said Holmes, whatever you may choose to say will go no further. I nodded to show my agreement.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] May I offer you a glass of Chianti, Miss Morstan? Or of Touquet?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I keep no other wines. Shall I open a flask? No? Well, then I trust that you have no objection to tobacco smoke, to the mild balsamic odour of the eastern tobacco.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm a little nervous and I find my hookah an invaluable sedative.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He applied a taper to the great bowl, and the smoke bubbled merrily through the rose-water. We sat all three in a semicircle, with our heads advanced and our chins upon our hands, while the strange, jerky little fellow, with his high shining head, puffed uneasily in the centre. "'When I first determined to make this communication to you,' said he.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I might have given you my address, but I feared that you might disregard my request and bring unpleasant people with you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I took the liberty therefore of making an appointment in such a way that my man Williams might be able to see you first.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you were dissatisfied to proceed no further in the matter, you will excuse these precautions


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I am a man of somewhat retiring, and I might even say refined tastes,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And there is nothing more unesthetic than a policeman.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I have a natural shrinking from all forms of rough materialism. I seldom come in contact


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I live as you see with some little atmosphere of elegance around me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And though a connoisseur might perhaps throw a doubt upon that Salvatore Rosa,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There cannot be the least question about the Bouguereau. I am partial to the modern French school.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You will excuse me, Mr. Sholto," said Miss Morstan.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I am here at your request to learn something which you desire to tell me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It is very late and I should desire the interview to be as short as possible.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At the best it must take some time," he answered, for we shall certainly have to go to Norwood and see Brother Bartholomew.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We shall all go and try if we can get the better of Brother Bartholomew.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He is very angry with me for taking the course which has seemed right to me. I had quite high words with him last night.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You cannot imagine what a terrible fellow he is when he's angry.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If we're to go to Norwood it would perhaps be as well to start at once," I ventured to remark. He laughed until his ears were quite red.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That would hardly do, he cried. I don't know what he would say if I brought you in that sudden way.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, I must prepare you by showing you how we all stand to each other.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the first place, I must tell you that there are several points in the story of which I am myself ignorant.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I can only lay the facts before you as far as I know them myself.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My father was, as you may have guessed, Major John Sholto, once of the Indian Army.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He retired some 11 years ago and came to live at Pondicherry Lodge in Upper Norwood.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He had prospered in India and brought back with him a considerable sum of money, a large collection of valuable curiosities, and a staff of native servants.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With these advantages he bought himself a house and lived in great luxury.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My twin brother Bartholomew and I were the only children


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I very well remember the sensation which was caused by the disappearance of Captain Morstan. We read the details in the papers and, knowing that he had been a friend of our father's, we discussed the case freely in his presence.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He used to join in our speculations as to what could have happened Never for an instant did we suspect


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That of all men, he alone knew the fate of Arthur Morstan.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We did know, however, that some mystery, some positive danger overhung our father.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But he had a most marked aversion to men with wooden legs.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On one occasion he actually fired his revolver at a wooden-legged man.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My brother and I used to think this is a mere whim of my father's, but events have since led us to change our opinion. Early in 1882, my father received a letter from India, which was a great shock to him. He nearly fainted at the breakfast table when he opened it, and from that day he sickened to his death. What was in the letter we could never discover


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I could see as he held it that it was short and written in a scrawling hand.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He had suffered for years from an enlarged spleen but he now became rapidly worse and towards the end of April we were informed that he was beyond all hope and that he wished to make a last communication to us. When we entered his room he was propped up with pillows and breathing heavily.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In a voice which was broken as much by emotion as by pain, I shall try and give it to you in his own very words.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I have only one thing, he said, which weighs upon my mind at this supreme moment. It is my treatment of poor Morstan's orphan.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The cursed greed which has been my besetting sin through life has withheld from her the treasure, half at least of which should have been hers, and yet I have made no use of it myself. So blind and foolish a thing is avarice. The mere feeling of possession has been so dear to me that I could not bear to share it with another.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] See that chaplet dipped with pearls beside the quinine bottle? Even that I could not bear to part with.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Although I had got it out with the design of sending it to her.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You, my sons, will give her a fair share of the Agra treasure, but send her nothing, not even the chaplet, until I am gone. After all, men have been as bad as this, and have recovered. I will tell you how Morstan died," he continued. He had suffered for years from a weak heart, but he concealed it from everyone. I alone knew it. When in India


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He and I through a remarkable chain of circumstances came into possession of a considerable treasure. I brought it over to England and on the night of Morstan's arrival he came straight over here to claim his share.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He walked over from the station and was admitted by my faithful Lal Chowdar, who is now dead.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Morstan and I had a difference of opinion as to the division of the treasure, and we came to heated words.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Morstan had sprung out of his chair in a paroxysm of anger when he suddenly pressed his hand to his side, his face turned a dusky hue


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And he fell backwards, cutting his head against the corner of the treasure chest. When I stooped over him, I found to my horror that he was dead.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For a long time I sat half distracted, wondering what I should do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My first impulse was of course to call for assistance.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I could not but recognize that there was every chance that I would be accused of his murder.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] His death at the moment of a quarrel and the gash in his head would be black against me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Again, an official inquiry could not be made without bringing out some facts about the treasure, which I was particularly anxious to keep secret.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He had told me that no soul upon earth knew where he had gone. There seemed to be no necessity why any soul ever should know. I was still pondering over the matter. When looking up, I saw my servant, Lao Chowdhar, in the doorway. He stole in and bolted the door behind him. Do not fear, Sahib, he said. No one need know that you have killed him. Let us hide him from away. And who is the wiser?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I did not kill him, said I. Lauchada shook his head and smiled. I heard it all, Sahib, said he. I heard you quarrel, and I heard the blow. But my lips are sealed. All are asleep in the house. Let us put him away together. That was enough to decide me. If my own servant could not believe my innocence,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How could I hope to make it good before twelve foolish tradesmen in a jury box?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Lao Chow Da and I, disposed of the body that night.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And within a few days the London papers were full of mysterious disappearance of Captain Morstan. You will see from what I say that I can hardly be blamed in the matter. My fault lies in the fact that we concealed not only the body, but also the treasure, and that I have clung to Morstan's share as well as to my own. I wish you therefore to make restitution. Put your ears down to my mouth. The treasure is hidden in


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At this instant a horrible change came over his expression. His eyes stared wildly, his jaw dropped, and he yelled in a voice which I can never forget. Keep him out! For Christ's sake, keep him out! We both stared round at the window behind us, upon which his gaze was fixed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We could see the whitening of the nose, where it was pressed against the glass.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was a bearded, hairy face with wild, cruel eyes and an expression of concentrated malevolence. My brother and I rushed towards the window, but the man was gone. When we returned to my father, his head had dropped and his pulse had ceased to beat. We searched the garden that night, but found no sign of the intruder.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Say that just under the window a single foot mark was visible in the flower bed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But for that one trace, we might have thought that our imaginations had conjured up that wild, fierce face.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We soon, however, had another and a more striking proof that there were secret agencies at work all round us.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The window of my father's room was found open in the morning. His cupboards and boxes had been rifled


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And upon his chest was fixed a torn piece of paper with the words, the sign of the four, scrawled across it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What the phrase meant, or who our secret visitor may have been, we never knew.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As far as we can judge, none of my father's property had been actually stolen, though everything had been turned out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My brother and I naturally associated this peculiar incident


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With the fear which haunted my father during his life. But it is still a complete mystery to us.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The little man stopped to relight his hookah and puffed thoughtfully for a few moments.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We had all sat absorbed, listening to his extraordinary narrative.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At the short account of her father's death, Miss Morstan had turned deadly white, and for a moment I feared that she was about to faint.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She rallied, however, on drinking a glass of water which I quietly poured out for her from a Venetian carafe upon the side table.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair with an abstracted expression, and the lids drawn low over his glittering eyes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As I glanced at him I could not but think how on that very day he had complained bitterly of the common placeness of life.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Here at least was a problem which would tax his sagacity to the utmost.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mr. Thaddeus Sholto looked from one to the other of us with an obvious pride at the effect which his story had produced.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Whereas you may imagine much excited as to the treasure which my father had spoken of.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For weeks and for months we dug and delved in every part of the garden without discovering its whereabouts.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was maddening to think that the hiding place was on his very lips at the moment that he died.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We could judge the splendour of his missing riches by the chaplet which he had taken out. Over this chaplet my brother Bartholomew and I had some little discussion. The pearls were evidently of great value and he was averse to part with them, for between friends


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My brother was himself a little inclined to my father's fault. He thought too that if we parted with the chaplet it might give rise to gossip and finally bring us into trouble.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was all that I could do to persuade him to let me find out Miss Morstan's address.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Though Brother Bartholomew could not altogether see it in that light. We had plenty of money ourselves. I desired no more.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Besides, it would have been such bad taste to have treated a young lady in so scurvy a fashion. Le mauvais goût, men au crime. The French have a very neat way of putting these things. Our difference of opinion on this subject went so far that I thought it best to set up rooms for myself. So I left Pondicherry Lodge, taking the old Kitmuga and Williams with me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yesterday, however, I learned that an event of extreme importance has occurred. The treasure has been discovered. I instantly communicated with Miss Morstan.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it only remains for us to drive out to Norwood and demand our share. I explained my views last night to Brother Bartholomew, so we shall be expected, if not welcome, visitors.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mr. Thaddeus Sholto ceased and sat twitching on his luxurious settee.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We all remained silent, with our thoughts upon the new development which the mysterious business had taken. Holmes was the first to spring to his feet.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You have done well, sir. From first to last," said he.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It is possible that we may be able to make you some small return by throwing some light upon that which is still dark to you. But, as Miss Morstan remarked just now, it is late, and we had best put the matter through without delay.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Our new acquaintance very deliberately coiled up the tube of his hookah and produced from behind a curtain a very long, befrogged topcoat with astrakhan collar and cuffs.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This he buttoned tightly up in spite of the extreme closeness of the night, and finished his attire by putting on a rabbit-skin cap with hanging lappets which covered the ears, so that no part of him was visible save his mobile and peaky face. My health is somewhat fragile, he remarked, as he led the way down the passage. I am compelled to be a valitudinarian


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Our cab was awaiting us outside and our program was evidently pre-arranged, for the driver started off at once at a rapid pace.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He had come to the conclusion that it was somewhere indoors.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So he worked out all the cubic space of the house and made measurements everywhere, so that not one inch should be unaccounted for.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Among other things, he found that the height of the building was 74 feet.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But on adding together the heights of all the separate rooms, and making every allowance for the space between, which he ascertained by borings, he could not bring the total to more than seventy feet. There were four feet unaccounted for. These could only be at the top of the building.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He knocked a hole therefore in the lathe and plaster ceiling of the highest room.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And there, sure enough, he came upon another little garret above it, which had been sealed up and was known to no one.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He computes the value of the jewels at not less than half a million sterling.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At the mention of this gigantic sum, we all stared at one another, open-eyed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Miss Morstan, could we secure her rights, would change from a needy governess to the richest heiress in England.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Surely it was the place of a loyal friend to rejoice at such news.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yet I am ashamed to say that selfishness took me by the soul, and that my heart turned as heavy as lead within me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I stammered out some few halting words of congratulation, and then sat downcast with my head drooped deaf to the babble of our new acquaintance.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He was clearly a confirmed hypochondriac, and I was dreamily conscious that he was pouring forth interminable trains of symptoms and imploring information as to the composition and action of innumerable quack nostrums, some of which he bore about in a leather case in his pocket


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I trust that he may not remember any of the answers which I gave him that night. Holmes declares that he overheard me caution him against the great danger of taking more than two drops of castor oil, while I recommended strychnine in large doses as a sedative.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] However, that may be, I was certainly relieved when our cab pulled up with a jerk, and the coachman sprang down to open the door.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This, Miss Moreston, is Pondicherry Lodge.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, I found a sketchbook.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm going to add a butterfly. Penelope, have you tidied your room yet? Oh, I forgot. I was tidying my room.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't like tidying up. I've got an idea!


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On the morning which followed his interview with the Mormon prophet, John Ferrier went into Salt Lake City, and having found his acquaintance, who was bound for the Nevada mountains, he entrusted him with his message to Jefferson Hope.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In it he told the young man of the imminent danger which threatened them, and how necessary it was that he should return.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Having done thus he felt easier in his mind, and returned home with a lighter heart.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As he approached his farm he was surprised to see a horse hitched to each of the posts of the gate.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Still more surprised was he on entering to find two young men in possession of his sitting-room.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One, with a long pale face, was leaning back into the rocking chair and with his feet cocked up upon the stove. The other, a bull-necked youth with coarse bloated features, was standing in front of the window with his hands in his pocket, whistling a popular hymn.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Both of them nodded to Ferrier as he entered, and the one in the rocking chair commenced the conversation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Maybe you don't know us," he said. This here is the son of Elder Drebber, and I'm Joseph Stangison, who travelled with you in the desert when the Lord stretched out his hand and gathered you into the true fold.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As he will with all the nations in his own good time," said the other in a nasal voice.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We have come," continued Stengerson, at the advice of our fathers, to solicit the hand of your daughter for whichever of us may seem good to you and to her.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As I have but four wives, and Brother Drebber here has seven.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It appears to me that my claim is the stronger one.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Nay, nay, Brother Stengson," cried the other.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The question is not how many wives we have, but how many we can keep.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But my prospects are better," said the other warmly. When the Lord removes my father, I shall have his tanning-yard and his leather-factory. Then I am your elder, and am higher in the church.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It will be for the maiden to decide," rejoined young Drebber, smirking at his own reflection in the glass. We will leave it all to her decision.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] During this dialogue John Ferrier had stood fuming in the doorway, hardly able to keep his riding-whip from the backs of his two visitors.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Look here," he said at last, striding up to them. When my daughter summons you, you can come, but until then I don't want to see your faces again. The two young Mormons stared at him in amazement.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In their eyes this competition between them for the maiden's hand was the highest of honours both to her and her father.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There are two ways out of the room," cried Faria. There's the door, and there's the window. Which do you care to use?"


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] His brown face looked so savage, and his gaunt hands so threatening, that his visitors sprang to their feet and beat a hurried retreat. The old farmer followed them to the door.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Let me know when you have settled which it is to be," he said sardonically.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You shall smart for this," Stangison cried, white with rage. You have defied the Prophet and the Council of Four. You shall rue it to the end of your days.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The hand of the Lord shall be heavy upon you, cried young Trevor. He will arise and smite you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] "'Then I'll start the smiting,' exclaimed Ferrier furiously, and would have rushed upstairs for his gun had not Lucy seized him by the arm and restrained him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Before he could escape from her, the clatter of horse's hooves told him that they were beyond his reach. The young canting rascals! he exclaimed, wiping the perspiration from his forehead. I would sooner see you in your grave, my girl, than the wife of either of them. And so should I, father, she answered with spirit. But Jefferson will soon be here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, it will not be long before he comes. The sooner the better, for we do not know what their next move may be.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was indeed high time that someone capable of giving advice and help should come to the aid of the sturdy old farmer and his adopted daughter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the whole history of the settlement there had never been such a case of rank disobedience to the authority of the elders. If minor errors were punished so sternly, what would be the fate of this arch-rebel?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Verrier knew that his wealth and position would be of no avail to him. Others, as well known and as rich as himself, had been spirited away before now, and their goods given over to the church.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He was a brave man, but he trembled at the vague, shadowy terrors which hung over him. Any known danger he could face with a firm lip, but this suspense was unnerving.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He concealed his fears from his daughter, however, and affected to make light of the whole matter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Though she, with the keen eye of love, Saw plainly that he was ill at ease.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He expected that he would receive some message or remonstrance from Young as to his conduct, and he was not mistaken, though it came in an unlooked-for manner.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Upon rising next morning he found, to his surprise, a small square of paper pinned on to the coverlet of his bed just over his chest. On it was printed in bold straggling letters,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Twenty-nine days are given you for amendment, and then


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The dash was more fear-inspiring than any threat could have been.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How this warning came into his room puzzled John Ferrier sorely.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For his servant slept in an outhouse, and the doors and windows had all been secured.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He crumpled the paper up and said nothing to his daughter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the incident struck a chill into his heart.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The twenty-nine days were evidently the balance of the month which Young had promised. What strength or courage could avail against an enemy armed with such mysterious powers?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The hand which fastened that pin might have struck him to the heart, and he could never have known who had slain him. Still more shaken was he next morning


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They had sat down to their breakfast when Lucy, with a cry of surprise, pointed upwards.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the centre of the ceiling was scrawled with a burned stick, apparently the number 28. To his daughter it was unintelligible, and he did not enlighten her.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That night he sat up with his gun and kept watch and ward. He saw and he heard nothing, and yet in the morning a great twenty-seven had been painted upon the outside of his door.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Thus day followed day, and as sure as morning came he found that his unseen enemies had kept their register, and had marked up in some conspicuous position how many days were still left to him out of the month of grace.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sometimes the fatal numbers appeared upon the walls, sometimes upon the floors. Occasionally they were on small placards stuck upon the garden gate or the railings.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With all his vigilance, John Ferrier could not discover whence these daily warnings proceeded.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A horror which was almost superstitious came upon him at the sight of them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He became haggard and restless, and his eyes had the troubled look of some hunted creature.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He had but one hope in life now, and that was for the arrival of the young hunter from Nevada. Twenty had changed to fifteen, and fifteen to ten, but there was no news of the absentee. One by one the numbers dwindled down, and still there came no sign of him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Whenever a horseman clattered down the road, or a driver shouted at his team, the old farmer hurried to the gate thinking that help had arrived at last.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He lost heart and abandoned all hope of escape.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Single-handed and with his limited knowledge of the mountains which surrounded the settlement, he knew that he was powerless.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The more frequented roads were strictly watched and guarded, and none could pass along them without an order from the council. Turn which way he would.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There appeared to be no avoiding the blow which hung over him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yet the old man never wavered in his resolution to part with life itself before he consented to what he regarded as his daughter's dishonor.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He was sitting alone one evening, pondering deeply over his troubles and searching vainly for some way out of them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That morning had shown the figure two upon the wall of his house, and the next day would be the last of the allotted time. What was to happen then?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All manner of vague and terrible fancies filled his imagination. And his daughter—what was to become of her after he was gone?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Was there no escape from the invisible network which was drawn all around them?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He sank his head upon the table and sobbed at the thought of his own impotence. What


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the silence you heard a gentle scratching sound.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Low but very distinct in the quiet of the night. It came from the door of the house.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ferrier crept into the hall and listened intently.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There was a pause for a few moments, and then the low insidious sound was repeated.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Someone was evidently tapping very gently upon one of the panels of the door.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Was it some midnight assassin who had come to carry out the murderous orders of the secret tribunal?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or was it some agent who was mocking up that the last day of grace had arrived?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] John Ferrier felt that instant death would be better than the suspense which shook his nerves and chilled his heart.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Springing forward, he drew the bolt and threw the door open.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Outside all was calm and quiet. The night was fine, and the stars were twinkling brightly overhead.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The little front garden lay before the farmer's eyes, bounded by the fence and gate. But neither there nor on the road was any human being to be seen.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With a sigh of relief, Ferrier looked right and to left, until happening to glance straight down at his own feet.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He saw to his astonishment a man lying flat upon his face upon the ground, with arms and legs all a sprawl.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So unnerved was he at the sight that he leaned up against the wall with his hand to his throat to stifle his inclination to call out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] His first thought was that the prostrate figure was that of some wounded or dying man.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But as he watched it, he saw it writhe along the ground and into the hall with the rapidity and noiselessness of a serpent.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Once within the house, the man sprang to his feet, closed the door, and revealed to the astonished farmer the fierce face and resolute expression of Jefferson Hope. "'Good God!' gasped John Ferrier. "'How you scared me! Whatever made you come in like that?' "'Give me food,' the other said hoarsely.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He flung himself upon the cold meat and bread which were still lying upon the table from his host supper, and devoured it voraciously.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Does Lucy bear up well?" he asked, when he had satisfied his hunger. Yes, she does not know the danger, her father answered.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That is well. The house is watched on every side. That is why I crawled my way up to it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They may be darn sharp, but they're not quite sharp enough to watch a Wasu hunter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] John Ferrier felt a different man now that he realized that he had a devoted ally.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He seized the young man's leathery hand and wrung it cordially.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're a man to be proud of," he said. There are not many who would come to share our danger and our troubles.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You've hit it there, Pard," the young hunter answered. I have a respect for you, but if you were alone in this business I'd think twice before I put my head into such a hornet's nest.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's Lucy that brings me here, and before harm comes on her, I guess there will be one less of the Hope family in Utah. What are we to do?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Tomorrow is your last day, and unless you act tonight you're lost. I have a mule and two horses waiting in the eagle ravine. How much money have you?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Two thousand dollars in gold, and five in notes. That will do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I have as much more to add to it. We must push for Carson City through the mountains. You had best wake Lucy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It is as well that the servants do not sleep in the house.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] While Ferrier was absent, preparing his daughter for the approaching journey,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Jefferson Hope packed all the eatables that he could find into a small parcel and filled a stoneware jar with water, for he knew by experience that the mountain wells were few and far between.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He had hardly completed his arrangements before the farmer returned with his daughter all dressed and ready for a start.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The greeting between the lovers was warm, but brief, for minutes were precious, and there was much to be done.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We must make our start at once," said Jefferson Hope, speaking in a low but resolute voice, like one who realises the greatness of the peril, but has steeled his heart to meet it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The front and back entrances are watched, but with caution we may get away through the side window and across the fields.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Once on the road we are only two miles from the ravine, where the horses are waiting. By daybreak we should be half way through the mountains."


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hope slapped the revolver butt which protruded from the front of his tunic.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If they are too many for us, we shall take two or three of them with us," he said with a sinister smile.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The lights inside the house had all been extinguished, and from the darkened window Ferrier peered over the fields which had been his own, and which he was now about to abandon for ever.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He had long nerved himself to the sacrifice, however, and the thought of the honour and happiness of his daughter outweighed any regret at his ruined fortunes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All looked so peaceful and happy, the rustling trees and the broad silent stretch of grain land, that it was difficult to realize that the spirit of murder lurked through it all.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yet the white face and set expression of the young hunter showed that in his approach to the house he had seen enough to satisfy him upon that head.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ferrier carried the bag of gold and notes. Jefferson Hope had the scanty provisions and water.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] While Lucy had a small bundle containing a few of her more valued possessions.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Opening the window very slowly and carefully, they waited until a dark cloud had somewhat obscured the night, and then, one by one, passed through into the little


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With bated breath and crouching figures they stumbled across it and gained the shelter of the hedge which they skirted until they came to the gap which opened into the cornfields.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They had just reached this point, when the young man seized his two companions and dragged them down into the shadow where they lay silent and trembling.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was as well that his prairie training had given Jefferson hope the ears of a lynx. He and his friends had hardly crouched down before the melancholy hooting of a mountain owl was heard within a few yards of them, which was immediately answered by another hoot at a small distance.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At the same moment a vague, shadowy figure emerged from the gap for which they had been making, and uttered the plaintiff's signal cry again, on which a second man appeared out of the obscurity.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Tomorrow at midnight," said the first who appeared to be in authority, when the whip-poor-will calls three times.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It is well, we say in the other. Shall I tell brother Drebber?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Seven to five, repeated the other, and the two figures flitted away in different directions.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Their concluding words had evidently been some form of sign and countersign.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The instant that their footsteps had died away in the distance, Jefferson Hope sprang to his feet, and helping his companions through the gap.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Led the way across the fields at the top of his speed, supporting and half-carrying the girl when her strength appeared to fail her.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hurry on, hurry on, he gasped from time to time. We're through the line of sentinels. Everything depends on speed. Hurry on. Once on the high road they made rapid progress. Only once do they meet anyone


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then they managed to slip into a field and so avoid recognition.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Before reaching the town the hunter branched away into a rugged and narrow footpath which led to the mountains.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Two dark jagged peaks loomed above them through the darkness, and the defile which led between them was the eagle canyon in which the horses were waiting for them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With ironing instinct, Jefferson Hope picked his way among the great boulders and along the bed of a dried-up water-course, until he came to the retired corner, screened with rocks where the faithful animals had been picketed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The girl was placed upon the mule, and all ferrier upon one of the horses with his money-bag, while Jefferson Hope led the other along the precipitous and dangerous path.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was a bewildering route for anyone who was not accustomed to face nature in her wildest moods.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On the one side, a great crag towered up a thousand feet or more, black, stern, and menacing, with long basaltic columns upon its rugged surface like the ribs of some petrified monster. On the other hand, a wild chaos of boulders and debris made all advance impossible.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Between the two ran the irregular track, so narrow in places that they had to travel in Indian file, and so rough that only practised riders could have traversed it at all.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yet in spite of all dangers and difficulties, the hearts of the fugitives were light within them, for every step increased the distance between them and the terrible despotism from which they were flying. They soon had a proof, however, that they were still within the jurisdiction of the saints.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They had reached the very wildest and most desolate portion of the pass, when the girl gave a startle cry and pointed upwards.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On a rock which overlooked the track, showing out dark and plain against the sky, there stood a solitary sentinel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He saw them as soon as they perceived him, and his military challenge of, Who goes there? rang through the silent ravine.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Travelers for Nevada," said Jefferson Hope, with his hand upon the rifle which hung by his saddle.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They could see the lonely watcher fingering his gun and peering down at them as if dissatisfied at their reply.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] "'The Holy Four,' answered Ferrier. His Mormon experiences had taught him that that was the highest authority to which he could refer. "'Nine from seven,' cried the Sentinel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Seven from five, returned Jefferson Hope promptly, remembering the counter-sign which he had heard in the garden. Pass and the Lord go with you, said the voice from above.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Beyond his post, the path broadened out, and the horses were able to break into a trot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now before we get started, uhm, uh, just one little bit of business, uh, out of courtesy, if anyone has a cell phone, please take a moment to make sure that it is turned on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I am as shocked as you are because I didn't make it to many classes this year. You guys must have really tanked your finals. Thank you for that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now I went to Hampton Sydney College. Thank you. Thank you. Please sit down.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because uhm, you had these things back then, I'm not sure what you call them now, girls.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I won't go into more about those days because I do not remember them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And since this is a smart school, let me just toss in some, some SAT words. Syzygy. Heterodox. Benedict Humberbatch.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But of course, the most secretive of all is the Seven Society. Nobody knows who's in it. I'm not gonna say that I'm a seven. I'm not gonna say that I'm not a seven. I'm just gonna say, a Vigge Blumenkroft.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now of course, many of you already know this, but for the uninitiated, let me explain. When a member of the seven dies,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A wreath of black magnolia shaped like a seven appears at their grave.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But of course, the greatest figure associated with UVA is your founder, Thomas Jefferson. TJ.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm not saying that on camera. That of course was in a letter to the Secretary of State Ryan Lewis.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So self-obsessed, tweeting your vines, hashtagging your Spotify's, and Snapchatting your YOLOs.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That leads to the life and the world that you want. And don't worry if we don't approve of your choices.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Shall seem most likely to affect your safety and happiness.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Your lives, your fortune, and your sacred honor. If anyone can do this, it is the graduates of the university that Jefferson founded. You are his intellectual heirs. In fact,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Some of you may be his actual heirs, we're still testing the DNA.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yummy berries that I was saving for breakfast.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, too busy taking our berries.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Haha, Mr. Lois. Hey, where's the one man been? He's working!


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, you did bring the heat down on the club, so, I can understand why they blame you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Good morning Johns Hopkins. It's a beautiful day. There's no rain. I've never checked the weather as much as I have this past week. Thank you Sean for that kind introduction.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The acceleration of technological progress is unmatched in our history, and it's not gonna slow down. It's only gonna speed up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Thanks to a mutual friend, we rented our garage to two graduate students at Stanford who had just started a company and were looking for office space. They seemed nice.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Their idea sounded kinda crazy. Back then,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I sat there and I couldn't get my work done because I realized that no other search service could find the information. I had become dependent on Google for doing my day to day work.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And accessing that information could instantly empower people across the globe. I decided I wanted to work for Google which at the time also was crazy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You have to make decisions based on the fact that the world is going to continue to change. Believe that the status quo will be supplanted by something better. That someone's crazy business idea will become real and important.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It could make life better, easier, more meaningful, for millions of people, maybe billions.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Think of the new companies, technologies, discoveries just in your lifetimes. Smartphones came out when you were in high school, and now you can't live without them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So now I wanna talk about YouTube. Do you guys use YouTube?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I want to talk about how I first discovered it and then almost lost it. It's a story about recognizing an opportunity, but also about facing failure.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I know it's hard to believe, but in 2004 there was no YouTube. And video on the internet was rare.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We were trying to figure out the right strategy for Google to be in the online video business. We were trying lots of different things and nothing was getting traction.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And one day, we decided we would allow users to upload their video to Google. We didn't tell users what would happen to their videos, and we had no idea what users would send to us. It was an experiment in every sense. But amazingly, people all over the world


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But soon after we had our initial success with Google Video, another site launched, YouTube. And it started growing faster, a lot faster. And all of a sudden, we saw our newfound success slipping away. And just after we thought we were winning, we found out that we were losing. We were scared and confused. Very quickly I had to make a tough call.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When the world spins so fast, it means no one knows what the right answer is and everyone will face failure. Ideas that were once can't miss, missed. Companies that were sure fire went down in flames.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Filling this stadium who encouraged and inspire you to get there. So let's give them all a big thanks now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And now you have an education that will allow you to design and create the future for all of us. The world is spinning faster, but it's at your fingertips. You can spin it for yourselves.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I thought she might sometime soon. But little Field Mouse is still here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Wow. Well, guess how much I love you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hello everyone and welcome back to English with Lucy. I have been testing out the new poll function on Instagram.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So yes, on my Instagram stories, I've been asking you guys what you want to see in my videos. I'm going to be talking to you about some really lovely expressions and idioms.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I've decided that I'm going to talk about expressions and idioms that relate to animals. Because in a lot of our daily conversation, we mention animals, but we don't always intend to talk about animals. So let's talk about that today.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You guys should already know this. Lingoda is an online language academy. You can learn English, Spanish, German and French.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you have real face-to-face video lessons both with private tutors and with groups as well. You sign up on a monthly subscription package basis and they've given me a very special offer for you. You can get 50 euros or 50 dollars off your first month at Lingoda.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All you have to do is click on the link in the description box and use the code Lucy2. Right, let's get started with the lesson. Now the first one.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I learnt about the birds and the bees from my friends at school or my mum refused to teach me about the birds and the bees. What could it possibly mean?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It means sex education or sometimes just sex. If I ask you where did you learn about the birds and the bees, I'm asking you where did you learn about how babies are made, for example. It's an important one to know to avoid any, uh, awkward situations.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't want somebody to ask you about the birds and the bees and for you to start talking about honey and parrots.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The next one is to have ants in one's pants.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I wonder if this one translates into your language. Comment below if this one is the same in your language. But if you have ants in your pants, it means that you are full of nervous energy, you can't stop moving, uhm, you're maybe a little bit hyperactive.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So sometimes in the morning I really want to go on my run and I have ants in my pants. I can't stop moving until I go on my run and burn all my energy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now the next one is a phrasal verb and it is to chicken out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm going to use it in a sentence for you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was going to jump off the cliff, but I chickened out. It's inseparable, you can't separate it. It means to decide not to do something because you are scared. It's to avoid doing something because you are scared. So...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The next one, I've got another phrasal verb for you, and this is to clam up. Clam up. A clam is a shellfish. It's a type of seafood. Delicious.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But to climb up has nothing to do with shellfish. I could say I asked him where he was last night and he quickly climbed up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If he clummed up, it means shut his mouth, stop talking.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it means to stop talking quite suddenly and abruptly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Maybe, but I think it's very relevant and important for this video. It is to hold one's horses. So it can be said as an exclamation, hold your horses.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hold your horses. It means wait and be patient.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Stop being impatient. I remember my mum always used to say this to me, especially when it was snowing, I always wanted to get outside, go in the snow, and she used to say, hold your horses. If you're going out in the snow, you need to wear a hat, you need to wear a scarf, you need to get your coat on, and I was


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Too excited, I had ants in my pants. Uhm, but I had to hold my horses and I had to wait and be patient.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The next one is to be in the dog house. To be in the dog house. So I might say, my dad came back very late from the pub last night, and now he's in the dog house.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To be in the doghouse means that you are in trouble with another person. So my dad is in trouble with my mum. My mum is not happy with my dad and she's put him, not literally, in the doghouse. Now the next one is such a useful one, I use it all the time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, it is to kill two birds with one stone. And you might be able to work out what it means actually, and I'd love to know as well if you have an alternative for this in your language. Please, please, please comment below, I love it when you talk about-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Idioms being the same in your language. Um, to kill two birds with one stone is to get two things done to complete two tasks with just one effort. If I pick up my friend from school and I go shopping on the same trip, I kill two birds with one stone because I've done two things with just one trip. Okay, what about the next one?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you hear something straight from the horse's mouth, it means that you're hearing it from the original source.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, if someone asks me, are you sure you're right about that piece of news? I'll say...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you smell a rat, it means that you suspect trickery or wrongdoing in a situation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So if something's maybe too good to be true, for example, I've just had a Nigerian prince tell me that I've won 20 million dollars and all I have to do is send him my bank details.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My mum might say to me, Lucy, I smell a rat. I think there's like trickery going on here. Uhm, yep, so to smell a rat is to suspect trickery or malicious intent.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right guys, that's it for today's lesson. As I said before, if you have any of the translations for these idioms in your own language, please comment them below and remember to mention which language you're talking about.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Also, if you'd like to contribute subtitle translations, you can do that by following the link in the description box and you can translate the subtitles for this video into your own language so you can help people who aren't of such a high level as you are.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Also, don't forget to check out Lingoda, the link is also in the description box and you can use the code that I mentioned before.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Don't forget to connect with me on all of my social media. I've got my Facebook, I've got my Instagram, and I've got my Twitter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is the BBC Home and Forces program. This is Bruce Belfridge.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Here's some excellent news which has come during the past hour in the form of a communique from G.H. Kukaro.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oooh, hoho, and what a marvellous big leaf, little milk-brown hair.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My dear fellow, said Sherlock Holmes, as we sat on either side of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We would not dare to concede the things which are really mere common places of existence. If we could fly out of that window hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and leading to the most outre results, it would make all fiction, with its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions, most stale and unprofitable.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And yet I'm not convinced of it," I answered. The cases which come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bold enough and vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to its extreme limits, and yet the result is it must be confessed, neither fascinating nor artistic.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a realistic effect," remarked Holmes. This is wanting in the police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details which to an observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I can quite understand your thinking so," I said. Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is strange and bizarre. But here—I picked up the morning paper from the ground. Let us put it to a practical test. Here is the first heading upon which I come. A husband's cruelty to his wife.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There is half a column of print, but I know without reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There is, of course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of writers could invent nothing more crude.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Indeed your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The husband was a teetotaler,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There was no other woman, and the conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Take a pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over you in your example.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He held out his snuff-box of old gold with a great amethyst in the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ah!" said he. I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia, in return for my assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the ring? I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which sparkled upon his finger.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of my little problems.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And have you any on hand just now? I asked with interest.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of interest. They are important, you understand, without being interesting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Indeed, I have found that it is usually in unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the charm to an investigation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The larger crimes are apt to be the simpler, for the bigger the crime, the more obvious as a rule is the motive.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing which presents any features of interest.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It is possible, however, that I may have something better before very many minutes are over.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted blinds, gazing down into the dull, neutral-tinted London street.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Looking over his shoulder I saw that on the pavement opposite there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, and a large curling red feather in a broad brimmed hat which was tilted in a croquetish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her ear.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove buttons.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves the bank, she hurried across the road and we heard the sharp clang of the bell.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his cigarette into the fire.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oscillation upon the pavement always means an affaire de coeur.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She would like advice, but is not sure that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet even here we may discriminate.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When a woman has been seriously wronged by a man, she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom is a broken bell wire.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Here we may take it that there is a love-matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed or grieved.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and a boy in buttons entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed merchantman behind a tiny pilot-boat.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sherlock Holmes welcomed her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and having closed the door, and bowed her into an armchair, he looked her over in the minute, and yet abstracted fashion which was peculiar to him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Do you not find, he said, that with your short sight it is a little trying to do so much typewriting?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I did at first, she answered, but now I know where the letters are without looking.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then suddenly, realising the full purport of his words, she gave a violent start, and looked up with fear and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You've heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried. Else how could you know all that?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Never mind," said Holmes, laughing. It is my business to know things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I came to you sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etheridge, whose husband you found so easy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When the police and everyone had given him up for dead.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, Mr Holmes, I wish you would do as much for me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked Sherlock Holmes, with his fingertips together and his eyes to the ceiling.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr Windybank, that is, my father, took it all.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Your stepfather, surely, since the name is different. Yes, my stepfather.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I call him father, though it sounds funny too.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I wasn't best pleased, Mr. Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Father was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy business behind him which Mother carried on with Mr Hardy, the foreman.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But when Mr. Windybank came, he made her sell the business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They got four thousand seven hundred pounds for the goodwill and interest.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which wasn't near as much as father could have got if he had been alive.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this rambling and inconsequential narrative.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh no, sir, it is quite separate, and was left me by my uncle Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying four and a half percent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can only touch the interest.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You interest me extremely," said Holmes, and since you draw so large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in every way.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But you understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mr. Windybank draws my interest every quarter and pays it over to my mother, and I found that I can do pretty well with what I earn at typewriting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It brings me two pence a sheet, and I can often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is my friend, Dr Watson, before whom you can speak as freely as before myself.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Kindly tell us now all about your connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They used to send father tickets when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us and sent them to mother. Mr Windybank did not wish us to go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But this time I was set on going, and I would go, for what right had he to prevent?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He said that folk were not fit for us to know, when all father's friends were to be there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And he said that I had nothing fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much as taken out of the drawer.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At last, when nothing else would do, he went off to France upon the business of the firm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But we went, mother and I, with Mr Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it was there I met Mr Hosmer Angel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I suppose," said Holmes, that when Mr. Windebank came back from France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying anything to a woman, for she would have her way.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then at the gas fitters ball you met, as I understand, a gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, sir, I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if we could got home all safe, and after that we met him. That is to say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But after that father came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house any more. No.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, you know Father didn't like anything of the sort.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it and he used to say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to begin with, and I had not got mine yet. But how about Mr. Hosmerangel? Did he make no attempt to see you?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer wrote, and said that it would be safer and better not to see each other until he had gone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We could write in the meantime, and used to write every day.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I took the letters in in the morning so there was no need for father to know. Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that we took.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, except that it was Lenin Hall Street. Where did you address your letters, then? To the Lenin Hall Street Post Office, to be left till called for.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He said that if they were sent to the office, he would be chafed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I offered to type-write them, like he did his, but he wouldn't have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come from me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But when they were typewritten, he always felt that the machine had come between us.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That will just show you how fond you was of me, Mr Holmes, and the little things that you would think of. It was most suggestive, said Holmes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel? He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He would rather walk with me in the evening than in the daylight for he said that he hated to be conspicuous.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his voice was gentle. He had had the quincy and swollen glands when he was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He was always well dressed, very neat and plain.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But his eyes were weak, just as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, and what happened when Mr. Windebank, your stepfather, returned to France?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mr. Husband Angel came to the house again and proposed that we should marry before father came back.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He was in dreadful earnest, and made me swear with my hands on the testament that whatever happened I would always be true to him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mother said he was quite right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mother was all in his favour from the first, and was even fonder of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the week, I began to ask about father.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But they both said, never mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like that, Mr. Holmes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as he was only a few years older than me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I didn't want to do anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the company has its French offices. But the letter came back to me on the very morning of the wedding. It missed him then? Yes, sir, for he had started to England just before it arrived.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was to be at St Saviour's near King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a handsome


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But as there were two of us, he put us both into it, and stepped himself into a four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the street.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler drove up we waited for him to step out. But he never did.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And when the cabman got down from the box and looked, there was no one there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The cabman said he could not imagine what had become of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That was last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything since to throw any light upon what became of him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said Holmes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He was too good and kind to leave me so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Why, all the morning he was saying to me that whatever happened it was to be true, and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seems strange talk for a wedding morning, but what has happened since gives a meaning to it. Most certainly it does.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Your own opinion is, then, that some unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he would not have talked so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then I think that what he foresaw happened. But you have no notion as to what it could have been. None. One more question. How did your mother take the matter?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And he seemed to think with me that something had happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As he said, what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of the church and then leaving me? Now if he had borrowed my money


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, there might be some reason.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But Hosmer was very independent about money, and never would look at a shilling of mine.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And yet, what could have happened? And why could he not write?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It drives me half mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She pulled a little handkerchief out of her mouth and began to sob heavily into it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Let the weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind dwell upon it further.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can spare.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle, said she.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Here is the slip, and here are four letters from him. Thank you. And your address? Number 31, Lyon Place, Camberwell. Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your father's place of business? He travels for West House and Marbank, the great claret importers of Fenchurch Street. Thank you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You have made your statement very clearly. You will leave the papers here and remember the advice which I have given you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which compelled our respect.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She laid her little bundle of papers upon the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever she might be summoned.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes, with his fingertips still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then he took down from the rack the old and oily clay pipe which was to him as a counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with the thick blue cloud wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of infinite langer in his face.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Quite an interesting study, that maiden, he observed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I found her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, is rather a trite one.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You will find parallel cases if you consult my index, in Andover in 77, and there was something of the sort at The Hague last year.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Old as is the idea, however, there were one or two details which were new to me, but the maiden herself was most instructive.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You did not know where to look, and so you missed all that was important.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I can never bring you to realize the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of thumbnails, or the great issues that may hang from a bootlace.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, she had a slate-coloured broad-rimmed straw hat, with a feather of brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little purple plush at the neck and sleeves.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Her gloves were greyish, and were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't observe. She had small round hanging gold earrings, and a general air of being fairly well to do in a vulgar, comfortable, easy-going way.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. Upon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and you have a quick eye for colour.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Never trust to general impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My first glance is always at a woman's sleeve.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In a man it is perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As you observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most useful material for showing traces.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The double line, a little above the wrist, where the typewriter presses against the table, was beautifully defined.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The sewing machine of the hand-type leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the broadest part, as this was.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I then glanced at her face, and observed the dint of a pancenet at either side of her nose.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed to surprise her. It surprised me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But surely it was obvious. I was then much surprised and interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were really odd ones


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The one having a slightly decorated toe cap, and the other a plain one.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One was buttoned only in the two lower buttons out of five and the other at the first, third, and fifth.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half buttoned, it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And what else? I asked keenly interested, as I always was, by my friend's incisive reasoning.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I noted in passing that she had written a note before leaving home, but after being fully dressed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You observed that her right glove was torn at the forefinger.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But you did not apparently see that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She had written in a hurry, and dipped her pen too deep.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It must have been this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Missing, it said. On the morning of the fourteenth a gentleman named Hosmer Angel


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] About five foot seven inches in height, strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in the centre, bushy, black side whiskers, and a moustache, tinted glasses, slight infirmity of speech,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Was dressed, when last seen, in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in Leadenhall Street, anybody bringing


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It will do, said Holmes. As to the letters, he continued, glancing over them,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They are very commonplace. Absolutely no clue in them to Mr Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike you. They are typewritten, I remarked.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not only that, but the signature is typewritten.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Look at the neat little Hosmer angel at the bottom. There is a date, you see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is rather vague


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The point about the signature is very suggestive. In fact we may call it conclusive. Of what?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it bears upon the case?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were instituted. No, that was not the point.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] However, I shall write two letters, which shall settle the matter. One is to affirm in the city, the other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windybank, asking him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow evening.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It is just as well that we should do business with the male relatives.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And now doctor, we can do nothing until the answers to those letters come.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So we may put our little problem upon the shelf for the interim.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers of reasoning and extraordinary energy and action, that I felt that he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had been called upon to fathom.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Once only had I known him to fail, in the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler photograph. But when I looked back to the weird business of the Sign of the Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with the study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle indeed which he could not unravel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary Sutherland.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own attention at the time, and the whole of the next day I was busy at the bedside of the sufferer.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was not until close upon six o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too late to assist at the denouement of the little mystery.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I found Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long thin form curled up in the recesses of his armchair.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A formidable array of bottles and test tubes, with a pungent, cleanly smell of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the chemical work which was so dear to him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I had been working upon.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said yesterday, some of the details are of interest.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The only drawback is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Who was he then, and what was his object in deserting Miss Sutherland?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the passage and a tap at the door.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windybank," said Holmes. He has written to me to say that he would be here at six. Come in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some thirty years of age, clean-shaven and sallow-skinned, with a bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and penetrating grey eyes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He shot a questioning glance at each of us, placed his shiny top hat upon the sideboard, and with a slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Good evening, Mr. James Windybank," said Holmes. I think that this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an appointment with me for six o'clock.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, sir. I'm afraid that I'm a little late, but I'm not quite my own master, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I am sorry that Miss Sutherland has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far better not to wash linen of the sort in public.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was quite against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily controlled when she's made up her mind on a point.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of course, I did not mind you so much as you are not connected with the official police.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it is not pleasant to have a family misfortune like this noised abroad.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Besides, it is a useless expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer angel?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On the contrary," said Holmes quietly, I have every reason to believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That a typewriter has really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Unless they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Some letters get more worn than others, and somewhere only on one side.