| In 1881, the (yet-unn amed) narrator is sent home to convalesce after being wounded in the shoulder in Afghanistan. In London, a mutual friend introduces the narrator to a potential flatmate. The two meet in the chemical lab of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, |
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 | I'd like you to meet this friend of mine. | |
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| okay sure. | |
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| where the man proceeds to astonish the narrator by deducing that he is a soldier recently returned from Afghanistan. Although the narrator warns the man that he sometimes screams in his sleep, the man humorously replies that he snores, is easily bored, is selfish, and sometimes uses the mantle for target practice. |
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| You recently left Afghanistan, didn't you? Hahaha, I quickly get bored, snore when I sleep, and I use that cloak as target practice. | |
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| Let me warn you, I sometimes scream in my sleep. | |
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| The two take up lodgings in Baker Street, where the narrator is intrigued by the constant flow of odd visitors that his flatmate receives. |
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