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Артур Конан Дойл / Arthur Conan Doyle

Собака Баскервилей / The Hound of the Baskervilles

© Подготовка. Харвест, 2006

Chapter 1

Mr. Sherlock Holmes

“Well, Watson, what do you make of it?”

Holmes was sitting with his back to me, and I had given him no sign of my occupation.

“How did you know what I was doing? I believe you have eyes in the back of your head. ”

“I think,” said I, following as far as I could the methods of my companion, “that Dr. Mortimer is a successful, elderly medical man, well-esteemed since those who know him give him this mark of their appreciation. ”

“Good!” said Holmes. “Excellent!”

“I think also that the probability is in favour of his being a country practitioner who does a great deal of his visiting on foot. ”

“Why so?”

“Perfectly sound!” said Holmes.

“Interesting, though elementary,” said he as he returned to his favourite corner of the settee.

“There are certainly one or two indications upon the stick. It gives us the basis for several deductions. ”

“Has anything escaped me?” I asked with some self-importance. “I trust that there is nothing of consequence which I have overlooked?”

“I am afraid, my dear Watson, that most of your conclusions were erroneous. Not that you are entirely wrong in this instance. The man is certainly a country practitioner. And he walks a good deal. ”