“What’s in here?” he asked, pointing to the safe.
“My stepfather’s business papers.”
“Oh! you have seen inside, then?”
“Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of papers.”
“There isn’t a cat in it, for example?”
“No. What a strange idea!”
“Well, look at this!” He took up a small saucer of milk which stood on the top of it.
“No; we don’t keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon.”
“Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is a big cat, and yet a saucer of milk will not satisfy its wants. There is one thing which I should like to see for myself.” He bent over the chair and examined it with the greatest attention.
“Thank you. That is quite clear,” said he, putting his lens in his pocket. “Hello! Here is something interesting!”
He pointed to a small dog lash that hung on one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was tied into a loop.
“What do you think of that, Watson?”
“It’s a common lash. But I don’t know why it is tied.”
“That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, it’s a wicked world, and when a clever man turns his brains to crime[24] it is the worst of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and with your permission we shall go outside.”
I had never seen my friend’s face so gloomy.
Exercises
1. Answer the questions:
1. Who met Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson on the road leading to Stoke Moran?
2. What did the house look like?
3. What did Sherlock Holmes and Miss Stoner think about the repairs in the house?
4. Why did Sherlock Holmes examine the window of Miss Stoner’s room? What did he find?
5. What did Miss Stoner’s room look like?
6. What did Sherlock Holmes find out about the bell and the ventilator in the room?
7. What was Dr. Roylott’s room like?
8. What seemed unusual to Sherlock Holmes in Dr. Roylott’s room?
9. What did Sherlock Holmes say after he examined Dr. Roylott’s room?
Think and say
1. Why was Miss Stoner frightened when she learned of Dr. Roylott’s visit to Sherlock Holmes?
2. What does the look of the house and the rooms tell you about the people who lived in Stoke Moran?
2. Find the following words and phrases in the text and reproduce situations from the text with them. Give Russian equivalents.
1. an excuse to do smth
2. to throw light on / upon smth
3. crime
to commit a crime
3. Paraphrase the underlined parts of the sentences so as to use the phrases above and from the previous parts.
1. The French window led to a verandah.
2. Dr. Roylott started repairs to explain why his stepdaughter should move to another room.
3. The death certificate said that it was a heart attack that caused the death but the family didn’t believe it and asked the detective to look into it.
4. His mother’s illness was only something he mentioned to leave the party early. It was clear from the beginning he didn’t like it there.
5. A detective has sometimes to become the friend of people to get information he needs.
6. When Bob was on the way to the birthday party, he had a sudden idea that he didn’t have a birthday present.
7. Many years ago, when he was a young man, Dan’s uncle broke the law, but his family can’t forgive him even now.
4. Complete the sentences with the words and phrases above and from the previous parts in the correct form.
1. A few strange deaths… in the town before the police started investigation.
2. Sherlock Holmes was able… even the darkest and tragic cases.
3. Alice’s mother always used the girl’s poor health as… not to let the girl go out with her friends.
4. Tom didn’t want… his cousin to a discotheque because he didn’t… dancing. He could even say he hated dancing.
5. Has it ever… to you that your mum needs your help in housework?
6. Most people think it is not polite… other people without a telephone call before it.
7. The book… unknown facts of the great scientist’s life.
8. If you are interested in… books, go over to those shelves. We have all kinds of books – classical detective stories by Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie, hard-boiled detective novels by Raymond Chandler and others, modern police novels.
VI
“It is very important, Miss Stoner,” said he, as we have already left the house and were standing in the park, “that you should absolutely follow my advice in every detail.”
“I shall certainly do so. I am in your hands.”
“In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in your room.”
Both Miss Stoner and I looked at him in surprise.
“Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that there is a hotel in the village over there?”
“Yes, the Crown.”
“Very good. Your windows can be seen from there?”
“Certainly.”
“You must go to your room, saying you have a headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when he goes to his room, you must open your window, and put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then go quietly into the room where you slept before. I have no doubt that you can sleep there for one night.”
“Oh, yes, easily. But what will you do?”
“We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate the cause of this noise which you heard.”
“I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already come to some conclusion,” said Miss Stoner.
“Perhaps I have.”
“Then, tell me what was the cause of my sister’s death.”
“I should like to have clearer evidence before I speak.”
“But you can tell me whether my own idea is correct, and if she died of fear.”
“No, I do not think so. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you, for Dr. Roylott must not see us here. Good-bye, and if you do what I have told you, nothing will threaten you.”
Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in getting a room at the Crown. It was on the upper floor, and from our window we could see Stoke Moran. In the evening we saw Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, and a few minutes later we saw a light among the trees as the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms.
“Do you know, Watson,” said Holmes as we sat together in our hotel room, “I have really some doubts about taking you to-night. It is certainly dangerous.”
“Can I be of help to you?[25]”
“Oh, yes.”
“Then I shall certainly come.”
“It is very kind of you.”
“You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms than I have.”
“No. I imagine that you saw all that I did.”
“I saw nothing unusual except the bell-rope, but why it is important I cannot imagine.”
“You saw the ventilator, too?”
“Yes, but I do not think that it is such an unusual thing to have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that no one could pass through it.”
“I knew that we should find a ventilator even before we came to Stoke Moran.”
“My dear Holmes!”
“Oh, yes, I did. You remember Miss Stoner said that her sister could smell Dr. Roylott’s cigar. Now, of course that meant that there was an opening between the two rooms.”
“But it is so small!”
“Well, the dates are strange. A ventilator is made, a bell-rope is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the bed dies. Does that not strike you?”