Sentence:  When the telephone rang on the day after Hino went down to the village , Rector had a hunch it would <WSD>be</WSD> Hino with some morsel of information too important to wait until his return , for there were few telephones in the village and the phone in Rector 's office rarely rang unless it was important . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  be identical to; be someone or something