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