20 лучших повестей на английском / 20 Best Short Novels

I was a-strollin’ down, thinkin’ between ourselves how uncommon handy a four of gin hot would be, when suddenly the glint of a light caught my eye in the window of that same house. Now, I knew that them two houses in Lauriston Gardens was empty on account of him that owns them who won’t have the drains seed too, though the very last tenant what lived in one of them died o’ typhoid fever. I was knocked all in a heap, therefore, at seeing a light in the window, and I suspected as something was wrong. When I got to the door—’

�You stopped, and then walked back to the garden gate,’ my companion interrupted.

Rance gave a violent jump, and stared at Sherlock Holmes with the utmost amazement upon his features.

�Why, that’s true sir,’ he said; �though how you come to know it, Heaven only knows. Ye see when I got up to the door, it was so still and so lonesome, that I thought I’d be none the worse for some one with me. I ain’t afeard of anything on this side o’ the grave; but I thought that maybe it was him that died o’ the typhoid inspecting the drains what killed him.

�There was no one in the street?’

�Not a livin’ soul, sir, nor as much as a dog. Then I pulled myself together and went back and pushed the door open. All was quiet inside, so I went into the room where the light was a-burnin’.

�Yes, I know all that you saw. You walked round the room several times, and you knelt down by the body, and then you walked through and tried the kitchen door, and then—’

John Rance sprang to his feet with a frightened face and suspicion in his eyes. �Where was you hid to see all that?’ he cried. �It seems to me that you knows a deal more than you should.

Holmes laughed and threw his card across the table to the constable. �Don’t get arresting me for the murder,’ he said. �I am one of the hounds and not the wolf; Mr. Gregson or Mr. Lestrade will answer for that. Go on, though. What did you do next?’

Rance resumed his seat, without, however, losing his mystified expression. �I went back to the gate and sounded my whistle. That brought Murcher and two more to the spot.