Артур Дойл - Приключения Шерлока Холмса / The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (сборник)

“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.

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?

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!

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.

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!”

7. What is peculiar about other places mentioned in the chapter? Choose one of them and prepare a report on it.

“Here we are!” said Holmes cheerly as we entered the room. “The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, Mr. Ryder. Please take the basket-chair. I will just put on my slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! You want to know what became of those geese?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Or rather, I believe, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in which you were interested – white, with a black bar across the tail.”

Ryder quivered with emotion. “Oh, sir,” he cried, “can you tell me where it went to?”