Артур Дойл - Приключения Шерлока Холмса / The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (сборник)
“But he might be a bachelor.”
“No, he was bringing home the goose as a gift to his wife. Remember the card upon the bird’s leg.”
“You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce that the gas is not laid on in his house?”
“One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt[56] that the man must often be brought into contact with burning tallow – walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in one hand and a candle in the other. Are you satisfied?”
“Well, it is very ingenious,” said I, laughing; “but since, as you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm done except for the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a waste of energy.”
Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the room with the face of a man who is dazed with astonishment.
Exercises
Comprehension
1. True or false?
1) Mr. Henry Baker was a bachelor.
2) The owner of the lost belongings could be found easily.
3) The hat indicated that he had always belonged to the lower class.
4) There had been no crime connected with the hat so far.
5) Being familiar with the deductive method, Watson, however, could not apply it.
6) Mr. Henry Baker was grateful to the commissionaire who had saved him from the roughs.
7) Sherlock Holmes retained the hat, although he had to eat the goose.
Vocabulary
2. Fill in the gaps with the following words. In some cases you will have to think of other words with identical roots.
disreputable, deduce, retrogression, genius
1) Dr. Watson can’t… as much as Sherlock Holmes from an ordinary old hat.
Sherlock Holmes is believed to have invented the famous… method which proved useful during so many inquiries. Logical… consists in moving from the general to the specific as opposed to induction.
2) The criminals have worked out an… robbery plan.
Is it true that one can never be… and evil at the same time?
3) Take off this… old coat! You remind me of all the Dickens’ characters at once.
Luck is changeable: sometimes even a harmless little mistake can bring you into…
4) Once prosperous, the country has now sunk into the civil war, which caused chaos, devastation and the… of culture.
Whatever we discuss, he always… towards the opposite view.
3. Find a synonym for each word in the second column.
Grammar
4. Translate the following sentences into English using constructions with rather.
1) Меня бы больше устроило работать с вами, чем с кем-либо другим.
2) Эта огромная яхта принадлежит моей подруге, а точнее – ее отцу.
3) Я проделал довольно долгий путь и нуждаюсь в отдыхе.
4) Она лучше сбежит, чем снова вернется жить в тот дом.
5) Пойдемте, я покажу вам дорогу. Я довольно хорошо знаю эти места.
6) С тех пор как его жена умерла, он живет здесь, точнее, просто существует в ожидании конца.
Interesting facts about Great Britain
Goose was an important part of the traditional English Christmas dinner. Even now it is not entirely replaced by turkey. According to the legend, Queen Elizabeth I was eating goose when she received good news about the victory over the Spanish Armada. Inspired, she announced that there should always be a goose on every Christmas table. As Rod Molisse says in his annotation to “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle”, “The Christmas goose also carries considerable symbolic meaning”. Eating goose used to be part of the ancient rites of the goose gods in many early European cultures.
7) Я бы, пожалуй, выпил молочный коктейль, а то чай быстро надоедает.
8) Это довольно неглупая собака, хоть и очень навязчивая.
9) Неужели ты не понимаешь, что скрывать от него свое прошлое – это в некоторой степени обман?
10) Заставить его с кем-то пообщаться – это уже в какой-то мере победа.
Writing
5. Find out some information about other Christmas traditions in Britain.
II
“The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!” he gasped.
“Eh? What’s the matter with it? Has it returned to life and flew out of the kitchen window?”
“Look, sir! Look what my wife found in its crop!” He held out his hand and showed a brilliantly shiny blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size. But it was so pure and radiant that it twinkled like an electric point in the dark hollow of his hand.
Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. “By Jove[57], Peterson!” said he, “you’ve found a real treasure. I suppose you know what you have got?”
“A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though it were putty.”
“It’s more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone.”
“Not the Countess of Morcar’s blue carbuncle!” I realized.
“Precisely so. l should know its size and shape, because I have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day lately. It is absolutely unique, and we can only imagine its value. The reward of 1000 pounds is offered, but it doesn’t make even a twentieth part of the market price.”
* * *“A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy[58]!” The commissionaire sat down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us.
“That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are sentimental considerations in the background which would make the Countess give half her fortune away if she could but get the gem back.”
“It was lost, if I remember right, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan,” I remarked.
“Precisely so, on December 22d, just five days ago. John Horner, a plumber, was accused of having stolen it from the lady’s jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case has been referred to the Assizes[59]. I have something about it here, I believe.” He looked through his newspapers, glancing over the dates, until at last he read the following paragraph:
“Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was accused of having upon the 22d inst., stolen from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might fix the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been called away. When he returned, he found that Horner had disappeared, that the bureau had been open, and that the small jewel-case in which the Countess used to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the dressing-table. Ryder gave the alarm immediately, and Horner was arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to the Countess, declared that she had heard Ryder’s cry of dismay when the robbery was discovered, and had rushed into the room, where she found out the gem was missing. Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest of Horner, who struggled madly, and insisted on his innocence. He had shown signs of intense emotion during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was carried out of court.”
“Hum! So much for[60] the police-court,” said Holmes thoughtfully, putting aside the paper. “The question is what sequence of events is leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly become much more important and less innocent. Here is the stone; the stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must find this gentleman and reveal his part in this little mystery. To do this, we must try the simplest means first and advertise in all the evening papers.”
“What will you say?”
“Give me a pencil and that sheet of paper. Now, then:
Found at the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. Henry Baker can have these things by applying at 6:30 this evening at 221B, Baker Street.
That is short and clear.”
“Very. But will he see it?”
“Well, I am sure he is keeping an eye on the papers because he has lost too much for a poor man. He was clearly so scared by breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson that all he wanted was to run away, but since then he must have bitterly regretted dropping the bird. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency and have this put in the evening papers.”
“In which, sir?”
“Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James’s, Evening News Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you.”
“Very well, sir. And this stone?”
“Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say[61], Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place of the one which your family is now devouring.”
When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and held it against the light. “It’s a bonny[62] thing,” said he. “Just see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and focus of crime. Every good stone is. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a bloody crime. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and it is remarkable because it has every characteristic of the carbuncle, except that it is blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallized charcoal. Who would think that so pretty a toy would lead to the gallows and the prison? I’ll lock it up in my strongbox now and write to the Countess to say that we have it.”
“Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?”
“I cannot tell.”
“Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had anything to do with the matter?”
