Hosty did write that, Bill. There's just no reason to think that "2 others" meant "2 other rifles".
No. That is not what he wrote, John.
Both you and Cakebread need to familiarize yourselves with the use of the inverted caret symbol.
Hosty's note, on the top line which you highlighted in yellow, says:
"Mr. Truly had"In the second line, Hosty noted only one word:
"rifle"Then, at some later point in time (whether it be only minutes later or days later once he had the opportunity to go over his notes to make things more clear and accurate), Hosty added the
inverted caret symbol along with
"2 others".
Notice that Hosty's use use of the
inverted caret symbol along with
"2 others" is written in much darker ink, which suggests that it was added later. If you don't notice it in the area which you highlighted in yellow, then go a few pages back and look at the same without the yellow highlight.
Hiosty's use of the inverted caret symbol makes the note actually read:
"day before yesterday
Mr Truly 2 others had
rifle
1st floor outside
office"Hosty didn't use the inverted caret symbol correctly, but it didn't have to be correct, as long as he understood. They were only his notes, after all.
The inverted caret symbol is NOT an ampersand logo.