Артур Дойл - Приключения Шерлока Холмса / The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (сборник)
“Well then, I won’t tell you. So now!”
“Oh, it is not important; but I don’t know why you should be so angry over such a trifle.”
“Angry! You’d be as angry as me, maybe, if you were as annoyed as I am. When I pay good money for a good thing there should be an end of the business; but it’s ‘Where are the geese?’ and ‘Who did you sell the geese to?’ and ‘What will you take for the geese?’ One would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the fuss that is made over them.”
“Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been making inquiries,” said Holmes carelessly. “If you won’t tell us the bet is off, that is all. But I’m always ready to back my opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver[65] on it that the bird I ate is country bred.”
“Well, then, you’ve lost your fiver, for it’s town bred,” snapped the salesman.
“It’s nothing of the kind.[66]”
“I say it is.”
“I don’t believe it.”
“D’you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that went to the Alpha were town bred.”
“You’ll never persuade me to believe that.”
“Will you bet, then?”
“It’s merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But I’ll have a sovereign on with you[67], just to teach you not to be stubborn.”
The salesman chuckled grimly. “Bring me the books, Bill,” said he.
The small boy brought round a small thin book and a great greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging lamp.
“Now then, Mr. Cocksure[68],” said the salesman, “I thought that I was out of geese, but before I finish you’ll find that there is still one left in my shop. You see this little book?”
“Well?”
“That’s the list of the people from whom I buy. D’you see? Well, then, here on this page are the country people, and the numbers after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just read it out to me.”
“Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road – 249,” read Holmes.
“Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger.”
Holmes turned to the page indicated. “Here you are, ‘Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.’ ”
“Now, then, what’s the last entry?”
“ ‘December 22d. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.’ ”
“Quite so. There you are. And underneath?”
“ ‘Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.’ ”
“What have you to say now?”
Sherlock Holmes looked deeply disappointed. He took a sovereign from his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off he stopped under a lamppost and laughed in the hearty, noiseless manner which was typical of him.
“When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the ‘Pink ‘un’[69] in his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet,” said he. “I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of him, that man would not have given me such complete information as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a wager. Well, Watson, we are, I guess, nearing the end of our quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott tonight, or whether we should reserve it for tomorrow. It is clear from what that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves who are anxious about the matter, and I should—”
His remarks were suddenly interrupted by a loud noise which broke out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while Breckinridge, the salesman, standing at the door of his stall, was shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure.
“I’ve had enough of you and your geese,” he shouted. “I wish you were all at the devil together. If you come annoying me with your silly talk again I’ll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. Oakshott here and I’ll answer her, but what have you to do with it? Did I buy the geese off you?”
“No; but one of them was mine,” whined the little man.
“Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it.”
“She told me to ask you.”
“Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care[70]. I’ve had enough of it. Get out of this!” He rushed fiercely forward, and the inquirer flitted away into the darkness.
“Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road,” whispered Holmes. “Come with me, and we will see who this fellow is.” Making his way through the scattered knots of people who lounged round the stalls, my companion speedily caught the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He jumped off round, and I could see in the gaslight that every vestige of colour had disappeared from his face.
“Who are you, then? What do you want?” he asked in a quavering voice.
“You will excuse me,” said Holmes politely, “but I could not help overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. I think that I could be useful to you.”
“You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?”
“My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other people don’t know.”
“But you can know nothing of this?”
“Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are triyng to trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. Henry Baker is a member.”
“Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have needed to meet,” cried the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. “I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter.”
Sherlock Holmes called a four-wheeler which was passing. “In that case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this wind-swept marketplace,” said he. “But please tell me, before we go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of helping.”
The man hesitated for a moment. “My name is John Robinson,” he answered with a sidelong glance.
“No, no; the real name,” said Holmes sweetly. “It is always awkward doing business with a fictious name.”
A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. “Well then,” said he, “my real name is James Ryder.”
“Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Please step into the cab, and I will soon be able to tell you everything which you would wish to know.”
The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure whether he is on the edge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, revealed the nervous tension within him.
Exercises
Comprehension
1. Comment on the way Holmes leads the investigation and draws the information he needs from different people. How does his tactics reveal itself in the conversation?
“Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?”
“Sold out of geese, I see.”
“If you won’t tell us the bet is off, that is all. But I’m always ready to back my opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the bird I ate is country bred.”
“Excuse me, I know everything of it.”
Here are some expressions that may prove useful:
to justify one’s curiosity
to show one is aware of smth
to gain smb by paying him a compliment
to bring up the topic occasionally
2. Find some more examples of Holmes working with different types of people. How does his approach change?
Grammar
3. Study the construction in italics. Note the meaning of inability to keep from doing something.
“You will excuse me,” said Holmes politely, “but I could not help overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. I think that I could be useful to you.”
4. Translate the following sentences from Russian into English using the phrase from the exercise 3. NB! Some of them don’t fall into the pattern above. Which sentences are these?
1) На последних страницах книги она не могла удержаться от слез.
2) Это же твой День рождения! Я не мог не прийти.
3) Глядя на Парфенон, невозможно не восхититься его безупречной гармоничностью.
4) Я не мог сдержать смех при виде разъяренного лица директора.
5) Нельзя не отметить логичность доводов автора, однако, читая статью, невозможно отделаться от ощущения узости его подхода к проблеме.
6) Такое давление на искусство со стороны власти не может не вызывать протест.
7) Сегодня первый теплый день весны, и я просто не мог не купить мороженое!
Vocabulary
5. There are different descriptions of people’s reactions revealed in behavior, gesture or appearance. Find out what emotions are expressed by a certain reaction. Give as many suggestions as you can.
Speaking
6. Look at the map of London given below. Using the information from the chapter, describe the route our heroes followed during their adventure.
Interesting facts about Great Britain
Covent Garden is a historic marketplace which occupies a large area in the London City center. During the Middle Ages the territory belonged to Westminster Abbey. There were gardens and also an area where the markets and got its name – at first it sounded as “Convent Garden”, in which convent means monastery.
Henry VIII took for himself the land which belonged to Westminster Abbey, including the convent garden, and his son granted it as a gift to John Russel, Earl of Bedford. His family owned the land from 1552 to 1918. There emerged new buildings, piazza and the church of St. Paul’s. Gradually it began to be associated with an overcrowded place where poverty and crime throve. For example, Covent Garden impressed Charles Dickens who exclaimed: “Good Heaven! What wild visions of prodigies of wickedness, want, and beggary, arose in my mind out of that place!”
Writing
