during ['djuqrIN], assiduous [q'sIdjuqs], illusion [I'lu:Z(q)n], irascibility [I"rxsI'bIlItI], irascible [I'rxsIbl], petulant ['petjulqnt]
He walked rapidly away: he didn't bother to see whether he was being followed, to check up on the shadow. But passing by the end of the street he happened to turn and there just around the corner, pressed against a wall to escape notice, was a thick stocky figure. Martins stopped and stared. There was something familiar about that figure: perhaps, he thought, I have grown unconsciously used to him during these last twenty-four hours: perhaps he is one of those who have so assiduously checked my movements. Martins stood there, twenty yards away, staring at the silent motionless figure in the dark side-street who stared back at him. A police spy, perhaps, or an agent of those other men, those men who had corrupted Harry first and then killed him: even possibly the third man?
It was not the face that was familiar, for he could not make out so much as the angle of the jaw: nor a movement, for the body was so still that he began to believe that the whole thing was an illusion caused by shadow. He called sharply. "Do you want anything?" and there was no reply. He called again with the irascibility of drink. "Answer, can't you?" and an answer came, for a window curtain was drawn petulantly back by some sleeper he had awakened and the light fell straight across the narrow street and lit up the features of Harry Lime.
12
DO YOU BELIEVE in ghosts (вы верите в привидения)?" Martins said to me (спросил меня Мартинс).
"Do you (а вы)?"
"I do now (верю теперь)."
"I also believe that drunk men see things (я также верю, что пьяные люди видят /разные/ вещи)—sometimes rats, sometimes worse (иногда крыс, иногда хуже)."
He hadn't come to me at once with his story (он не пришел ко мне сразу со своей историей)—only the danger to Anna Schmidt (только опасность, угрожающая Анне Шмидт) tossed him back into my office (забросила его назад = отбросила его в мою контору), like something the sea washed up (как что-то, что море выбросило на берег: «вымыло вверх»), tousled, unshaven (растрепанного, небритого), haunted by an experience he couldn't understand (не имеющего покоя от опыта, который он не мог понять; to haunt — часто заезжать проведать, навещать /какое-л. место, людей и т. п./; мучить; не давать покоя /о мыслях и т. п./; /о привидении/ жить, обитать; являться). He said, "If it had been just the face (если это было бы просто лицо), I wouldn't have worried (я бы не беспокоился). I'd been thinking about Harry (я думал о Гарри), and I might easily have mistaken a stranger (и мог легко перепутать чужого /принять кого-либо за Гарри/; to mistake — ошибаться; неправильно понимать; принять кого-л. за другого или что-л. за другое). The light was turned off again at once, you see (свет был снова немедленно погашен, видите ли; to turn off — выключать), I only got one glimpse (я только получил одно мимолетное впечатление; glimpse — проблеск, слабый свет, слабая вспышка; мелькание; мимолетное впечатление), and the man made off down the street (и человек ушел дальше по улице; down — вниз; /вниз/ по; вдоль по /указывает на движение вниз или в более отдаленное место/)—if he was a man (если это был человек). There was no turning for a long way (не было никакого поворота на долгом пути), but I was so startled (но я был так поражен/напуган; to startle — испугать; поразить, сильно удивить) I gave him another thirty yards' start (что я дал ему еще тридцатиярдовую фору). He came to one of those newspaper kiosks (он подошел к одному из тех газетных киосков) and for a moment moved out of sight (и на мгновение пропал: «выдвинулся из видимости»). I ran after him (я побежал за ним). It only took me ten seconds to reach the kiosk (мне потребовалось только десять секунд, чтобы достичь киоска), and he must have heard me running (и он, должно быть, услышал меня бегущего = как я бегу), but the strange thing was he never appeared again (но странно было то, что он так и не появился снова). I reached the kiosk (я достиг киоска = добежал до киоска). There wasn't anybody there (там никого не было). The street was empty (улица была пуста). He couldn't have reached a doorway without my meeting him (он не мог бы достигнуть входной двери так, чтобы я его не встретил). He'd simply vanished (он просто исчез; to vanish — исчезать, пропадать /тж. vanish away/)."