Александр Левкин - Адаптированный текст повести А. К. Дойла «Знак четырех» на английском языке с транскрипцией и видеопрезентацией. Учебное пособие

03_004

I have just found, on consulting the back files of the Times, that Major Sholto, of Upper Norword, late of the 34th Bombay Infantry, died upon the 28th of April, 1882.»

«I may be very obtuse, Holmes, but I fail to see what this suggests.»

03_005

«No? You surprise me. Look at it in this way, then. Captain Morstan disappears. The only person in London whom he could have visited is Major Sholto. Major Sholto denies having heard that he was in London. Four years later Sholto dies.

03_006

WITHIN A WEEK OF HIS DEATH Captain Morstan’s daughter receives a valuable present, which is repeated from year to year, and now culminates in a letter which describes her as a wronged woman. What wrong can it refer to except this deprivation of her father?

03_007

And why should the presents begin immediately after Sholto’s death, unless it is that Sholto’s heir knows something of the mystery and desires to make compensation? Have you any alternative theory which will meet the facts?»

03_008

«But what a strange compensation! And how strangely made! Why, too, should he write a letter now, rather than six years ago? Again, the letter speaks of giving her justice. What justice can she have? It is too much to suppose that her father is still alive. There is no other injustice in her case that you know of.»

03_009

«There are difficulties; there are certainly difficulties,» said Sherlock Holmes, pensively. «But our expedition of to-night will solve them all. Ah, here is a four-wheeler, and Miss Morstan is inside. Are you all ready? Then we had better go down, for it is a little past the hour.»

03_010

I picked up my hat and my heaviest stick, but I observed that Holmes took his revolver from his drawer and slipped it into his pocket. It was clear that he thought that our night’s work might be a serious one.

03_011

Miss Morstan was muffled in a dark cloak, and her sensitive face was composed, but pale.

03_012

She must have been more than woman if she did not feel some uneasiness at the strange enterprise upon which we were embarking, yet her self-control was perfect, and she readily answered the few additional questions which Sherlock Holmes put to her.

03_013

«Major Sholto was a very particular friend of papa’s,» she said. «His letters were full of allusions to the major. He and papa were in command of the troops at the Andaman Islands, so they were thrown a great deal together.

03_014

By the way, a curious paper was found in papa’s desk which no one could understand. I don’t suppose that it is of the slightest importance, but I thought you might care to see it, so I brought it with me. It is here.»

03_015

Holmes unfolded the paper carefully and smoothed it out upon his knee. He then very methodically examined it all over with his double lens.

03_016

«It is paper of native Indian manufacture,» he remarked. «It has at some time been pinned to a board. The diagram upon it appears to be a plan of part of a large building with numerous halls, corridors, and passages.

03_017

At one point is a small cross done in red ink, and above it is «3.37 from left,» in faded pencil-writing. In the left-hand corner is a curious hieroglyphic like four crosses in a line with their arms touching.

03_018

Beside it is written, in very rough and coarse characters, «The sign of the four, – Jonathan Small, Mahomet Singh, Abdullah Khan, Dost Akbar.» No, I confess that I do not see how this bears upon the matter. Yet it is evidently a document of importance.

03_019

It has been kept carefully in a pocket-book; for the one side is as clean as the other.»

03_020

«It was in his pocket-book that we found it.»

«Preserve it carefully, then, Miss Morstan, for it may prove to be of use to us. I begin to suspect that this matter may turn out to be much deeper and more subtle than I at first supposed. I must reconsider my ideas.»

03_021

He leaned back in the cab, and I could see by his drawn brow and his vacant eye that he was thinking intently. Miss Morstan and I chatted in an undertone about our present expedition and its possible outcome, but our companion maintained his impenetrable reserve until the end of our journey.

03_022

It was a September evening, and not yet seven o’clock, but the day had been a dreary one, and a dense drizzly fog lay low upon the great city. Mud-colored clouds drooped sadly over the muddy streets.

03_023

Down the Strand the lamps were but misty splotches of diffused light which threw a feeble circular glimmer upon the slimy pavement. The yellow glare from the shop-windows streamed out into the steamy, vaporous air, and threw a murky, shifting radiance across the crowded thoroughfare.

03_024

There was, to my mind, something eerie and ghost-like in the endless procession of faces which flitted across these narrow bars of light, – sad faces and glad, haggard and merry. Like all human kind, they flitted from the gloom into the light, and so back into the gloom once more.

03_025

I am not subject to impressions, but the dull, heavy evening, with the strange business upon which we were engaged, combined to make me nervous and depressed. I could see from Miss Morstan’s manner that she was suffering from the same feeling. Holmes alone could rise superior to petty influences.

03_026

He held his open note-book upon his knee, and from time to time he jotted down figures and memoranda in the light of his pocket-lantern.

03_027

At the Lyceum Theatre the crowds were already thick at the side-entrances. In front a continuous stream of hansoms and four-wheelers were rattling up, discharging their cargoes of shirt-fronted men and beshawled, bediamonded women.

03_028

We had hardly reached the third pillar, which was our rendezvous, before a small, dark, brisk man in the dress of a coachman accosted us.

03_029

«Are you the parties who come with Miss Morstan?» he asked.

«I am Miss Morstan, and these two gentlemen are my friends,» said she.

03_030

He bent a pair of wonderfully penetrating and questioning eyes upon us. «You will excuse me, miss,» he said with a certain dogged manner, «but I was to ask you to give me your word that neither of your companions is a police-officer.»

«I give you my word on that,» she answered.

03_031