Английский с Г. К. Честертоном. Рассказы об отце Брауне

 “Well, Flambeau,” says the voice, “you really look like a Flying Star; but that always means a Falling Star at last.”

The silver, sparkling figure above seems to lean forward in the laurels and, confident of escape, listens to the little figure below.

“You never did anything better, Flambeau. It was clever to come from Canada (with a Paris ticket, I suppose) just a week after Mrs. Adams died, when no one was in a mood to ask questions. It was cleverer to have marked down the Flying Stars and the very day of Fischer’s coming. But there’s no cleverness, but mere genius, in what followed. Stealing the stones, I suppose, was nothing to you. You could have done it by sleight of hand in a hundred other ways besides that pretence of putting a paper donkey’s tail to Fischer’s coat. But in the rest you eclipsed yourself.”

The silvery figure among the green leaves seems to linger as if hypnotised (кажется, что серебристая фигура в зеленой листве медлит, точно загипнотизированная), though his escape is easy behind him (хотя путь к бегству открыт: «бегство незатруднительно позади него»); he is staring at the man below (он пристально глядит на человека внизу).

“Oh, yes,” says the man below (говорит человек внизу), “I know all about it (я знаю все об этом). I know you not only forced the pantomime, but put it to a double use (я знаю, что вы не просто навязали эту пантомиму, но сумели извлечь из нее двойную пользу). You were going to steal the stones quietly (вы собирались украсть эти камни без лишнего шума: «тихо»); news came by an accomplice that you were already suspected (известие поступило от /вашего/ сообщника, что вас уже подозревают; to suspect – подозревать), and a capable police officer was coming to rout you up that very night (а опытный полицейский офицер должен прибыть сегодня вечером, чтобы разыскать вас; to rout – разбить наголову; обнаружить; искать). A common thief would have been thankful for the warning and fled (заурядный вор сказал бы спасибо за предупреждение и скрылся; to flee); but you are a poet (но вы – поэт)… You already had the clever notion of hiding the jewels in a blaze of false stage jewellery (у вас была уже блестящая идея спрятать бриллианты: «драгоценные камни» среди блеска бутафорских драгоценностей; to hide – прятать; jewel – драгоценный камень; ювелирное изделие; jewellery – драгоценности).