OpenAI Whisper Test 1

[00:00.000 --> 00:28.000]  CHAPTER I. Mr. Sherlock Holmes
[00:28.000 --> 00:37.520]  In the year 1878, I took my degree of Doctor of Medicine of the University of London and proceeded
[00:37.520 --> 00:43.840]  to Netley to go through the course prescribed for surgeons in the army. Having completed my studies
[00:43.840 --> 00:50.320]  there, I was duly attached to the 5th Northumberland Fusiliers as Assistant Surgeon. The regiment was
[00:50.320 --> 00:56.800]  stationed in India at the time, and before I could join it, the Second Afghan War had broken out. On
[00:56.800 --> 01:01.920]  landing at Bombay, I learned that my corps had advanced through the passes and was already
[01:01.920 --> 01:07.360]  deep in the enemy's country. I followed, however, with many other officers who were in the same
[01:07.360 --> 01:13.680]  situation as myself, and succeeded in reaching Kandahar in safety, where I found my regiment
[01:13.680 --> 01:20.880]  and at once entered upon my new duties. The campaign brought honours and promotion to many,
[01:20.880 --> 01:26.960]  but for me it had nothing but misfortune and disaster. I was removed from my brigade and
[01:26.960 --> 01:30.960]  attached to the Berkshires, with whom I served at the fatal battle of Maiwand.
[01:31.840 --> 01:37.280]  There I was struck on the shoulder by a Jezile bullet, which shattered the bone and grazed the
[01:37.280 --> 01:42.720]  subclavian artery. I should have fallen into the hands of the murderous Ghazis had it not been for
[01:42.720 --> 01:48.480]  the devotion and courage shown by Murray, my orderly, who threw me across a pack horse and
[01:48.480 --> 01:55.680]  succeeded in bringing me safely to the British lines. Worn with pain and weak from the prolonged
[01:55.680 --> 02:01.120]  hardships which I had undergone, I was removed with a great train of wounded sufferers to the
[02:01.120 --> 02:07.920]  base hospital at Peshawar. Here I rallied, and had already improved so far as to be able to walk
[02:07.920 --> 02:14.960]  about the wards and even to bask a little upon the verandah, when I was struck down by enteric fever,
[02:14.960 --> 02:22.080]  that curse of our Indian possessions. For months my life was despaired of, and when at last I came
[02:22.080 --> 02:28.160]  to myself and became convalescent, I was so weak and emaciated that a medical board determined
[02:28.160 --> 02:33.600]  that not a day should be lost in sending me back to England. I was dispatched accordingly in the
[02:33.600 --> 02:39.920]  troop ship Orontes, and landed a month later on Portsmouth jetty, with my health irretrievably
[02:39.920 --> 02:45.120]  ruined, but with permission from a paternal government to spend the next nine months in
[02:45.120 --> 02:53.200]  attempting to improve it. I had neither kith nor kin in England, and was therefore as free as air,
[02:53.200 --> 02:57.280]  or as free as an income of eleven shillings and six pence a day will permit a man to be.
[02:58.560 --> 03:04.560]  Under such circumstances I naturally gravitated to London, that great cesspool into which all the
[03:04.560 --> 03:11.360]  loungers and idlers of the empire are irresistibly drained. There I stayed for some time at a private
[03:11.360 --> 03:17.440]  hotel in the Strand, leading a comfortless, meaningless existence, and spending such
[03:17.440 --> 03:23.920]  money as I had considerably more freely than I ought. So alarming did the state of my finances
[03:23.920 --> 03:28.960]  become that I soon realized that I must either leave the metropolis and rusticate somewhere
[03:28.960 --> 03:34.800]  in the country, or that I must make a complete alteration in my style of living. Choosing the
[03:34.800 --> 03:40.480]  latter alternative, I began by making up my mind to leave the hotel, and to take up my quarters in
[03:40.480 --> 03:48.160]  some less pretentious and less expensive domicile. On the very day that I had come to this conclusion,
[03:48.160 --> 03:53.520]  I was standing at the Criterion Bar when someone tapped me on the shoulder, and turning round,
[03:53.520 --> 03:59.200]  I recognized young Stamford, who had been a dresser under me at Bart's. The sight of a friendly
[03:59.200 --> 04:05.280]  face in the great wilderness of London is a pleasant thing indeed to a lonely man. In old
[04:05.280 --> 04:10.560]  days Stamford had never been a particular crony of mine, but now I hailed him with enthusiasm,
[04:10.560 --> 04:16.480]  and he in his turn appeared to be delighted to see me. In the exuberance of my joy,
[04:16.480 --> 04:21.040]  I asked him to lunch with me at the Holborn, and we started off together in a hansom.
[04:21.040 --> 04:26.960]  "'Whatever have you been doing with yourself, Watson?' he asked, in undisguised wonder,
[04:26.960 --> 04:29.040]  as we rattled through the crowded London streets.
[04:29.760 --> 04:35.520]  "'You are as thin as a lath, and brown as a nut.' I gave him a short sketch of my adventures,
[04:35.520 --> 04:38.800]  and had hardly concluded it by the time that we reached our destination.
[04:39.600 --> 04:43.760]  "'Poor devil!' he said, commiseratingly, after he had listened to my misfortunes.
[04:44.640 --> 04:45.600]  "'What are you up to now?'
[04:46.320 --> 04:50.960]  "'Looking for lodgings,' I answered, trying to solve the problem as to whether it is possible
[04:50.960 --> 04:53.200]  to get comfortable rooms at a reasonable price.
[04:54.000 --> 04:56.640]  "'That's a strange thing,' remarked my companion.
[04:56.640 --> 04:59.360]  "'You are the second man today that has used that expression to me.'
[05:00.000 --> 05:02.160]  "'And who is the first?' I asked.
[05:02.160 --> 05:05.360]  "'A fellow who is working at the chemical laboratory up at the hospital.
[05:05.360 --> 05:08.640]  "'He was bemoaning himself this morning because he could not get someone to go
[05:08.640 --> 05:13.120]  halves with him in some nice rooms which he had found, and which were too much for his purse.'
[05:13.920 --> 05:16.080]  "'By Jove!' I cried.
[05:16.080 --> 05:20.240]  "'If he really wants someone to share the rooms and the expense, I am the very man for him.
[05:20.240 --> 05:22.480]  I should prefer having a partner to being alone.'
[05:23.520 --> 05:26.800]  Young Stamford looked rather strangely at me over his wineglass.
[05:27.600 --> 05:30.480]  "'You don't know Sherlock Holmes yet,' he said.
[05:31.200 --> 05:34.720]  "'Perhaps you would not care for him as a constant companion.'
[05:34.720 --> 05:35.360]  "'Why?
[05:35.360 --> 05:36.720]  What is there against him?'
[05:36.720 --> 05:38.880]  "'I didn't say there was anything against him.
[05:38.880 --> 05:43.600]  He is a little queer in his ideas, an enthusiast in some branches of science.
[05:43.600 --> 05:45.840]  As far as I know, he is a decent fellow enough.'
[05:46.480 --> 05:49.440]  "'A medical student, I suppose?' said I.
[05:49.440 --> 05:50.160]  "'No.
[05:50.160 --> 05:52.800]  I have no idea what he intends to go in for.
[05:52.800 --> 05:56.720]  I believe he is well up in anatomy, and he is a first class chemist.
[05:56.720 --> 06:01.280]  But as far as I know, he has never taken out any systematic medical classes.
[06:01.840 --> 06:06.640]  His studies are very desultory and eccentric, but he has amassed a lot of out of the way
[06:06.640 --> 06:08.560]  knowledge which would astonish his professors.'
[06:09.280 --> 06:12.560]  "'Did you never ask him what he was going in for?' I asked.
[06:12.560 --> 06:12.960]  "'No.
[06:12.960 --> 06:18.400]  He is not a man that is easy to draw out, though he can be communicative enough when the fancy
[06:18.400 --> 06:19.440]  seizes him.'
[06:19.440 --> 06:21.360]  "'I should like to meet him,' I said.
[06:21.360 --> 06:25.840]  "'If I am to lodge with anyone, I should prefer a man of studious and quiet habits.
[06:25.840 --> 06:29.200]  I am not strong enough yet to stand much noise or excitement.
[06:29.200 --> 06:33.600]  I had enough of both in Afghanistan to last me for the remainder of my natural existence.'
[06:34.640 --> 06:36.080]  "'How could I meet this friend of yours?'
[06:36.720 --> 06:39.520]  "'He is sure to be at the laboratory,' returned my companion.
[06:39.520 --> 06:43.600]  He either avoids the place for weeks, or else he works there from morning till night.
[06:43.600 --> 06:46.720]  If you like, we will drive round together after luncheon.'
[06:46.720 --> 06:51.600]  "'Certainly,' I answered, and the conversation drifted away into other channels.
[06:52.640 --> 06:56.960]  "'As we made our way to the hospital after leaving the Holburne, Stanford gave me a few
[06:56.960 --> 07:00.880]  more particulars about the gentleman whom I proposed to take as a fellow lodger.
[07:01.600 --> 07:04.480]  "'You mustn't blame me if you don't get on with him,' he said.
[07:04.480 --> 07:08.400]  "'I know nothing more of him than I have learned from meeting him occasionally in the laboratory.
[07:08.960 --> 07:12.640]  You proposed this arrangement, so you must not hold me responsible.'
[07:12.640 --> 07:16.640]  "'If we don't get on, it will be easy to part company,' I answered.
[07:17.200 --> 07:20.720]  "'It seems to me, Stanford,' I added, looking hard at my companion,
[07:20.720 --> 07:23.920]  "'that you have some reason for washing your hands of the matter.
[07:23.920 --> 07:27.520]  Is this fellow's temper so formidable, or what is it?
[07:27.520 --> 07:28.960]  Don't be mealymouthed about it.'
[07:29.840 --> 07:34.480]  "'It is not easy to express the inexpressible,' he answered with a laugh.
[07:34.480 --> 07:38.080]  "'Holmes is a little too scientific for my tastes.
[07:38.080 --> 07:40.160]  It approaches to cold bloodedness.
[07:40.160 --> 07:44.240]  I could imagine his giving a friend a little pinch of the latest vegetable alkaloid,
[07:44.240 --> 07:48.400]  not out of malevolence, you understand, but simply out of a spirit of inquiry,
[07:48.400 --> 07:51.280]  in order to have an accurate idea of the effects.
[07:51.280 --> 07:55.840]  To do him justice, I think that he would take it himself with the same readiness.
[07:55.840 --> 07:59.040]  He appears to have a passion for definite and exact knowledge.'
[07:59.600 --> 08:01.040]  "'Very right, too.'
[08:01.040 --> 08:03.360]  "'Yes, but it may be pushed to excess.
[08:04.080 --> 08:07.600]  When it comes to beating the subjects in the dissecting rooms with a stick,
[08:07.600 --> 08:10.080]  it is certainly taking rather a bizarre shape.'
[08:10.080 --> 08:12.400]  "'Beating the subjects?'
[08:12.400 --> 08:16.400]  "'Yes, to verify how far bruises may be produced after death.
[08:17.120 --> 08:18.720]  I saw him at it with my own eyes.'
[08:19.360 --> 08:22.320]  "'And yet you say he is not a medical student?'
[08:22.320 --> 08:24.960]  "'No. Heaven knows what the objects of his studies are.
[08:25.600 --> 08:28.880]  But here we are, and you must form your own impressions about him.'
[08:29.920 --> 08:34.240]  As he spoke, we turned down a narrow lane and passed through a small side door
[08:34.240 --> 08:36.320]  which opened into a wing of the great hospital.
[08:36.320 --> 08:41.840]  It was familiar ground to me, and I needed no guiding as we ascended the bleak stone staircase
[08:41.840 --> 08:47.280]  and made our way down the long corridor with its vista of whitewashed wall and dun coloured doors.
[08:48.240 --> 08:54.640]  Near the farther end, a low arched passage branched away from it and led to the chemical laboratory.
[08:55.440 --> 09:00.080]  This was a lofty chamber, lined and littered with countless bottles.
[09:00.080 --> 09:07.600]  Broad, low tables were scattered about, which bristled with retorts, test tubes, and little Bunsen lamps with their blue, flickering flames.
[09:08.400 --> 09:13.920]  There was only one student in the room who was bending over a distant table absorbed in his work.
[09:14.640 --> 09:19.360]  At the sound of our steps, he glanced round and sprang to his feet with a cry of pleasure.
[09:19.360 --> 09:26.000]  "'I've found it! I've found it!' he shouted to my companion, running towards us with a test tube in his hand.
[09:26.000 --> 09:31.280]  "'I have found a reagent which is precipitated by hemoglobin and by nothing else!'
[09:31.280 --> 09:35.520]  Had he discovered a goldmine, greater delight could not have shone upon his features.
[09:36.160 --> 09:37.360]  "'Dr. Watson?'
[09:37.360 --> 09:40.880]  "'Mr. Sherlock Holmes,' said Stamford, introducing us.
[09:40.880 --> 09:46.640]  "'How are you?' he said cordially, gripping my hand with a strength for which I should hardly have given him credit.
[09:46.640 --> 09:48.960]  "'You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive.'
[09:49.520 --> 09:52.320]  "'How on earth did you know that?' I asked in astonishment.
[09:52.320 --> 09:56.000]  "'Never mind,' said he, chuckling to himself.
[09:56.000 --> 10:01.760]  "'The question now is about hemoglobin. No doubt you see the significance of this discovery of mine.'
[10:01.760 --> 10:05.200]  "'It is interesting. Chemically, no doubt,' I answered.
[10:05.200 --> 10:11.360]  "'But practically? Why, then? It is the most practical medicolegal discovery for years.
[10:11.360 --> 10:16.720]  "'Don't you see that it gives us an infallible test for bloodstains? Come over here now.'
[10:16.720 --> 10:22.800]  "'He seized me by the coat sleeve in his eagerness, and drew me over to the table at which he had been working.
[10:23.600 --> 10:28.000]  "'Let us have some fresh blood,' he said, digging a long bodkin into his finger,
[10:28.000 --> 10:31.600]  "'and drawing off the resulting drop of blood into a chemical pipette.
[10:31.600 --> 10:35.440]  "'Now, I add this small quantity of blood to a litre of water.
[10:35.440 --> 10:39.840]  "'You perceive that the resulting mixture has the appearance of pure water, hm?
[10:39.840 --> 10:43.120]  "'The proportion of blood cannot be more than one in a million.
[10:43.120 --> 10:47.440]  "'I have no doubt, however, that we shall be able to obtain the characteristic reaction.'
[10:48.480 --> 10:52.080]  "'As he spoke, he threw into the vessel a few white crystals,
[10:52.080 --> 10:55.120]  "'and then added some drops of a transparent fluid.
[10:55.120 --> 10:59.120]  "'In an instant, the contents assumed a dull mahogany colour,
[10:59.120 --> 11:02.400]  "'and a brownish dust was precipitated to the bottom of the glass jar.
[11:02.960 --> 11:08.240]  "'Aha!' he cried, clapping his hands, and looking as delighted as a child with a new toy.
[11:08.240 --> 11:09.360]  "'What do you think of that?'
[11:09.360 --> 11:12.960]  "'It seems to be a very delicate test,' I remarked.
[11:12.960 --> 11:15.280]  "'Beautiful! Beautiful!
[11:15.280 --> 11:18.880]  "'The old guicom test was very clumsy and uncertain.
[11:18.880 --> 11:22.000]  "'So is the microscopic examination for blood corpuscles.
[11:22.000 --> 11:24.960]  "'The latter is valueless if the stains are a few hours old.
[11:24.960 --> 11:30.000]  "'Now, this appears to act as well whether the blood is old or new.
[11:30.000 --> 11:33.760]  "'At this test being invented, there are hundreds of men now walking the earth
[11:33.760 --> 11:36.320]  "'who would long ago have paid the penalty of their crimes.'
[11:36.320 --> 11:38.320]  "'Indeed,' I murmured.
[11:38.320 --> 11:41.920]  "'Criminal cases are continually hinging upon that one point.
[11:41.920 --> 11:47.360]  "'A man is suspected of a crime months, perhaps, after it has been committed.
[11:47.360 --> 11:51.520]  "'His linen or clothes are examined, and brownish stains discovered upon them.
[11:51.520 --> 11:57.200]  "'Are they blood stains, or mud stains, or rust stains, or fruit stains, or what are they?
[11:57.200 --> 12:01.120]  "'That is a question which has puzzled many an expert, and why?
[12:01.120 --> 12:04.480]  "'Because there was no reliable test.
[12:04.480 --> 12:10.160]  "'Now we have the Sherlock Holmes test, and there will no longer be any difficulty.'
[12:10.160 --> 12:13.440]  "'His eyes fairly glittered as he spoke,
[12:13.440 --> 12:15.920]  "'and he put his hand over his heart and bowed
[12:15.920 --> 12:20.160]  "'as if to some applauding crowd conjured up by his imagination.
[12:20.160 --> 12:23.920]  "'You are to be congratulated,' I remarked,
[12:23.920 --> 12:26.400]  "'considerably surprised at his enthusiasm.
[12:26.400 --> 12:30.320]  "'There was the case of von Bischoff at Frankfurt last year.
[12:30.320 --> 12:34.080]  "'He would certainly have been hung had this test been in existence.
[12:34.080 --> 12:37.600]  "'Then there was Mason at Bradford, and the notorious Muller,
[12:37.600 --> 12:41.680]  "'and Lefer of Montpellier, and Sampson of New Orleans.
[12:41.680 --> 12:44.640]  "'I could name a score of cases in which it would have been decisive.'
[12:45.360 --> 12:49.680]  "'You seem to be a walking calendar of crime,' said Stamford, with a laugh.
[12:49.680 --> 12:52.240]  "'You might start a paper on those lines.
[12:52.240 --> 12:54.800]  "'Call it the police news of the past.'
[12:55.760 --> 12:59.600]  "'Very interesting reading it might be made, too,' remarked Sherlock Holmes,
[12:59.600 --> 13:02.480]  "'sticking a small piece of plaster over the prick on his finger.
[13:02.480 --> 13:05.520]  "'I have to be careful,' he continued, turning to me with a smile,
[13:05.520 --> 13:07.360]  "'for I double with poisons a good deal.'
[13:07.920 --> 13:11.440]  "'He held out his hand as he spoke, and I noticed that it was mottled over
[13:11.440 --> 13:15.440]  "'with similar pieces of plaster, and discolored with strong acids.
[13:16.400 --> 13:20.720]  "'We came here on business,' said Stamford, sitting down on a high,
[13:20.720 --> 13:24.320]  "'three legged stool, and pushing another one in my direction with his foot.
[13:25.120 --> 13:29.040]  "'My friend here wants to take diggings, and as you were complaining
[13:29.040 --> 13:31.120]  "'that you could get no one to go halves with you,
[13:31.120 --> 13:33.200]  "'I thought that I had better bring you together.'
[13:34.000 --> 13:38.240]  "'Sherlock Holmes seemed delighted at the idea of sharing his rooms with me.
[13:39.200 --> 13:42.080]  "'I have my eye on a suite in Baker Street,' he said,
[13:42.080 --> 13:43.440]  "'which would suit us down to the ground.
[13:44.160 --> 13:46.400]  "'You don't mind the smell of strong tobacco, I hope?'
[13:46.880 --> 13:49.760]  "'I always smoke ships myself,' I answered.
[13:49.760 --> 13:50.960]  "'That's good enough.
[13:50.960 --> 13:54.720]  "'I generally have chemicals about, and occasionally do experiments.
[13:54.720 --> 13:55.680]  "'Would that annoy you?'
[13:56.240 --> 13:57.520]  "'By no means.
[13:57.520 --> 14:01.440]  "'Let me see, what are my other shortcomings?
[14:01.440 --> 14:04.960]  "'I get in the dumps at times, and don't open my mouth for days on end.
[14:04.960 --> 14:06.880]  "'You must not think I am sulky when I do that.
[14:06.880 --> 14:08.960]  "'Just let me alone, and I'll soon be right.
[14:10.240 --> 14:11.680]  "'What have you to confess now?
[14:11.680 --> 14:14.000]  "'It's just as well for two fellows to know the worst of one another
[14:14.000 --> 14:15.360]  "'before they begin to live together.'
[14:16.160 --> 14:18.320]  "'I laughed at this cross examination.
[14:18.320 --> 14:20.720]  "'I keep a bull pup,' I said,
[14:20.720 --> 14:23.760]  "'and I object to rouse because my nerves are shaken,
[14:23.760 --> 14:26.320]  "'and I get up at all sorts of ungodly hours,
[14:26.320 --> 14:28.000]  "'and I am extremely lazy.
[14:28.000 --> 14:30.480]  "'I have another set of vices when I am well,
[14:30.480 --> 14:32.880]  "'but those are the principal ones at present.'
[14:34.000 --> 14:37.840]  "'Do you include violin playing in your category of rouse?'
[14:37.840 --> 14:39.520]  "'He asked anxiously.
[14:39.520 --> 14:42.000]  "'It depends on the player,' I answered.
[14:42.000 --> 14:44.720]  "'A well played violin is a treat for the gods.
[14:44.720 --> 14:46.160]  "'A badly played one.'
[14:46.160 --> 14:48.800]  "'Ah, that's all right,' he cried with a merry laugh.
[14:48.800 --> 14:50.800]  "'I think we may consider the thing is settled.
[14:50.800 --> 14:52.960]  "'That is, if the rooms are agreeable to you.
[14:53.840 --> 14:54.880]  "'When shall we see them?
[14:54.880 --> 14:56.640]  "'Call for me here at noon tomorrow,
[14:56.640 --> 14:59.200]  "'and we'll go together and settle everything,' he answered.
[14:59.200 --> 15:02.640]  "'All right, noon, exactly,' said I, shaking his hand.
[15:02.640 --> 15:04.880]  "'We left him working among his chemicals,
[15:04.880 --> 15:07.600]  "'and we walked together towards my hotel.
[15:07.600 --> 15:10.160]  "'By the way,' I asked suddenly,
[15:10.160 --> 15:12.240]  "'stopping and turning upon Stamford,
[15:12.240 --> 15:16.080]  "'how the deuce did he know that I had come from Afghanistan?'
[15:16.080 --> 15:19.920]  "'My companion smiled an enigmatical smile.
[15:19.920 --> 15:22.800]  "'That's just his little peculiarity,' he said.
[15:22.800 --> 15:26.560]  "'A good many people have wanted to know how he finds things out.'
[15:26.560 --> 15:30.240]  "'Oh, a mystery is it!' I cried, rubbing my hands.
[15:30.240 --> 15:31.600]  "'This is very piquant.
[15:31.600 --> 15:34.240]  "'I'm much obliged to you for bringing us together.
[15:34.240 --> 15:37.520]  "'The proper study of mankind is man, you know.'
[15:38.160 --> 15:41.600]  "'You must study him, then,' Stamford said, as he bade me goodbye.
[15:41.600 --> 15:43.360]  "'You'll find him a knotty problem, though.
[15:43.360 --> 15:46.640]  "'I'll wager he learns more about you than you about him.
[15:46.640 --> 15:47.120]  "'Goodbye.'
[15:47.920 --> 15:50.880]  "'Goodbye,' I answered, and strolled on to my hotel,
[15:50.880 --> 15:54.000]  "'considerably interested in my new acquaintance."