Артур Конан Дойл - Человек с рассечённой губой. Книга для чтения на английском языке

“Why,” said my wife, pulling up her veil, “it is Kate Whitney. How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when you came in.”

009. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ngnihOuEF5IdtTE4eVSkT3PG3pKXkAaL/view?usp=sharing

“I didn’t know what to do, so I came straight to you.” That was always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds to a lighthouse.

010. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YYltIO7Lu9MlBJmxgj8n7TSkCT7Gx0QY/view?usp=sharing

“It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or should you rather that I sent James off to bed?”

011. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZckaTG9OK1JL87M52KU4ffgjxBxTCWbL/view?usp=sharing

“Oh, no, no! I want the doctor’s advice and help, too. It’s about Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about him!”

012. https://drive.google.com/file/d/12XJ76HDRFQ-O4Hp3BkYJX4n7JtDhtbrs/view?usp=sharing

It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her husband’s trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend and school companion.

013. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1U9hFy05rd-j7I6rsZRfvAnxioUQBw3VF/view?usp=sharing

We soothed and comforted her by such words as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it possible that we could bring him back to her?

014. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_nZcI5q1IZc9L84o5Xg3NeoOJGs7LQPH/view?usp=sharing

It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and shattered, in the evening.

015. https://drive.google.com/file/d/11qTgqlLP3NY2uOOD3C1_F7eBsiPmSn7d/view?usp=sharing

But now the spell had been upon him eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane.

016. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OJF7J49yNXrnesMXxmjban17dCRH-NfF/view?usp=sharing

But what was she to do? How could she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him?

017. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LN8V45PRFOMDDI1vq1xlB5erm1en9CAu/view?usp=sharing

There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney’s medical adviser, and as such I had influence over him.

018. https://drive.google.com/file/d/11iZ8AkgVOXbBmfNSliI0ZdsX8lmhD2cn/view?usp=sharing

I could manage it better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the address which she had given me.

019. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LLPOcui8ZDqXcF-iny63Yo0V2DW4nlIk/view?usp=sharing

And so in ten minutes I had left my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to be.

020. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kW-AossgjV__1JBCosSsFaRgd5JVZqp2/view?usp=sharing

But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east of London Bridge.

021. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yZAGcdXcRIlmRDnRed1QeM0Rc0d8wiQk/view?usp=sharing

Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search.

022. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XZY-B4FGsV-hkX3Ncf5Q07t2fpRgupnU/view?usp=sharing

Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the forecastle of an emigrant ship.

023. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zw_hXo11flNSNlDh9fbExCIdATK0JOgx/view?usp=sharing

Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer.

024. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mCPFltC0KEmPzrxUB07gZu7nHjEnSodq/view?usp=sharing

Out of the black shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of the metal pipes.

025. https://drive.google.com/file/d/13QYu1pKwVXWkII0KS41_sn54u0QRwdae/view?usp=sharing

The most lay silent, but some muttered to themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour.

026. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EsO0Dt6iv0sT6hFHYW_a2gkoQHsqtdHK/view?usp=sharing

At the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon his knees, staring into the fire.

027. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oK8S29_aw4Hb66duQW13DiQfSTuyn5dS/view?usp=sharing

As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth.

“Thank you. I have not come to stay,” said I. “There is a friend of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him.”

028. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JjnGnqrsebxZzSJrrxsaOM0Ul_5S-irl/view?usp=sharing

There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and unkempt, staring out at me.