What an exposure! |
- Красавец, не правда ли? - сказал инспектор. |
What can I do?" |
- Ему необходимо помыться, - заметил Холмс. |
Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him kindly on the shoulder. |
- Я уже и раньше об этом догадывался и захватил с собой весь инструмент. |
"If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. |
Он раскрыл чемоданчик и, к нашему изумлению, вынул из него большую губку. |
On the other hand, if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the details should find their way into the papers. |
- Хе-хе, да вы шутник! - засмеялся инспектор. |
Inspector Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. |
- Будьте любезны, откройте нам тихонько дверь, и мы живо придадим ему более приличный вид. |
The case would then never go into court at all." |
- Ладно, - оказал инспектор. |
"God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. |
- А то он и в самом деле позорит нашу тюрьму. |
"I would have endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. |
Инспектор открыл дверь, и мы втроем бесшумно вошли в камеру. |
"You are the first who have ever heard my story. |
Арестант шевельнулся, но сразу же заснул еще крепче. |
My father was a schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent education. |
Холмс подошел к рукомойнику, намочил свою губку и дважды с силой провел ею по лицу арестанта. |
I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. |
- Позвольте мне представить вас мистеру Невиллу Сент-Клеру из Ли, в графстве Кент! - воскликнул Холмс. |
One day my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. |
Никогда в жизни не видел я ничего подобного. |
There was the point from which all my adventures started. |
Лицо сползло с арестанта, как кора с дерева. |
It was only by trying begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to base my articles. |
Исчез грубый темный загар. |
When an actor I had, of course, learned all the secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for my skill. |
Исчез ужасный шрам, пересекавший все лицо наискосок. |
I took advantage now of my attainments. |
Исчезла разрезанная губа. |
I painted my face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. |
Исчез отталкивающий оскал зубов. |
Then with a red head of hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a beggar. |
Рыжие лохматые волосы исчезли от одного взмаха руки Холмса, и мы увидели бледного, грустного, изящного человека с черными волосами и нежной кожей, который, сидя в постели, протирал глаза и с недоумением глядел на нас, еще не вполне очнувшись от сна. |
For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no less than 26s. |
Внезапно он понял все, вскрикнул и зарылся головой в подушку. |
4d. |
- Боже, - закричал инспектор, - да ведь это и есть пропавший! |
"I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ served upon me for ?25. |
Я знаю его, я видел фотографию! |
I was at my wit's end where to get the money, but a sudden idea came to me. |
Арестант повернулся к нам с безнадежным видом человека, решившего не противиться судьбе. |
I begged a fortnight's grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. |
- Будь что будет! - сказал он. |
In ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. |
- За что вы меня держите здесь? |
"Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous work at ?2 a week when I knew that I could earn as much in a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on the ground, and sitting still. |
- За убийство мистера Невилла Сент... Тьфу! |
It was a long fight between my pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets with coppers. |
В убийстве вас теперь обвинить невозможно. |
Only one man knew my secret. |
Вас могли бы обвинить, пожалуй, только в попытке совершить самоубийство, - сказал инспектор, усмехаясь. |
He was the keeper of a low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. |
- Я двадцать семь лет служу в полиции, но ничего подобного не видел. |
This fellow, a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that my secret was safe in his possession. |
- Раз я мистер Невилл Сент-Клер, то, значит, преступления совершено не было и, следовательно, я арестован незаконно. |
"Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of money. |
- Преступления нет, но сделана большая ошибка, -сказал Холмс. |
I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London could earn ?700 a year-which is less than my average takings-but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. |
- Вы напрасно не доверились жене. |
All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take ?2. |
- Дело не в жене, а в детях, - пылко сказал арестант. |
"As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the country, and eventually married, without anyone having a suspicion as to my real occupation. |
- Я не хотел, чтобы они стыдились отца. |
My dear wife knew that I had business in the City. |
Боже, какой позор! |
She little knew what. |
Что мне делать? |
"Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. |
Шерлок Холмс сел рядом с ним на койку и ласково похлопал его по плечу. |
I gave a cry of surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from coming up to me. |
- Если вы позволите разбираться в вашем деле суду, вам, конечно, не избежать огласки, - оказал он. |
I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that she could not ascend. |
- Но если вам удастся убедить полицию, что за вами нет никакой вины, газеты ничего не узнают. |
Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. |
Инспектор Брэдстрит может записать ваши показания и передать их надлежащим властям, и дело до суда не дойдет. |
Even a wife's eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. |
- О, как я вам благодарен! - вскричал арестант. |
But then it occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that the clothes might betray me. |
- Я охотно перенес бы заточение, даже смертную казнь, лишь бы не опозорить детей раскрытием моей несчастной тайны! |
I threw open the window, reopening by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in the bedroom that morning. |
Вы первые услышите мою историю... |
Then I seized my coat, which was weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from the leather bag in which I carried my takings. |
Отец мой был учителем в Честерфилде, и я получил там превосходное образование. |
I hurled it out of the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. |
В юности я много путешествовал, работал на сцене и, наконец, стал репортером одной вечерней лондонской газеты. |
The other clothes would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. |
Однажды моему редактору понадобилась серия очерков о нищенстве в столице, и я вызвался написать их. |