Приключения Шерлока Холмса / The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (сборник)

“I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I can’t follow you. For example, how did you deduce that this man was intellectual?”

For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. “It is a question of cubic capacity[53],” said he; “a man with so large a brain must have something in it.”

“The decline of his fortunes, then?”

“This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge appeared at that time. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no hat since, then he has certainly gone down in the world.”

“Well, that is clear enough. But how about the foresight and the moral retrogression?”

Sherlock Holmes laughed. “Here is the foresight,” said he putting his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. “They are never sold together with hats. If this man ordered one, it is a sign of a certain amount of foresight, as he went out of his way[54] to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, which is an obvious proof of retrogression. On the other hand, he has tried to conceal some of these stains upon the felt with ink, which is a sign that he has not entirely lost his self-respect.”

“Your reasoning is certainly plausible.”

“The other points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is grey, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the lower part of the lining. There are a large number of hair ends, cut by the scissors of the barber. They all appear to be sticky, and there is a smell of lime-cream. This dust, you will see, is not the grey dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while the marks of moisture upon the inside prove that the owner perspired very freely[55], and that’s why he could hardly be in good form.”

“But his wife – you said that she had stopped loving him.”

“This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear Watson, with such a dusty hat, and when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife’s affection.”

“But he might be a bachelor.”

“No, he was bringing home the goose as a gift to his wife. Remember the card upon the bird’s leg.”

“You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce that the gas is not laid on in his house?”

“One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt[56] that the man must often be brought into contact with burning tallow – walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in one hand and a candle in the other. Are you satisfied?”

“Well, it is very ingenious,” said I, laughing; “but since, as you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm done except for the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a waste of energy.”

Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the room with the face of a man who is dazed with astonishment.

Exercises

Comprehension

1. True or false?

1) Mr. Henry Baker was a bachelor.

2) The owner of the lost belongings could be found easily.

3) The hat indicated that he had always belonged to the lower class.

4) There had been no crime connected with the hat so far.

5) Being familiar with the deductive method, Watson, however, could not apply it.

6) Mr. Henry Baker was grateful to the commissionaire who had saved him from the roughs.

7) Sherlock Holmes retained the hat, although he had to eat the goose.

Vocabulary

2. Fill in the gaps with the following words. In some cases you will have to think of other words with identical roots.

disreputable, deduce, retrogression, genius

1) Dr. Watson can’t… as much as Sherlock Holmes from an ordinary old hat.

Sherlock Holmes is believed to have invented the famous… method which proved useful during so many inquiries. Logical… consists in moving from the general to the specific as opposed to induction.

2) The criminals have worked out an… robbery plan.

Is it true that one can never be… and evil at the same time?

3) Take off this… old coat! You remind me of all the Dickens’ characters at once.