Знак четырех

УДК 
372.8
ББК 
81.2 Англ-93
 
Д 55

ISBN 978-5-9925-0601-3

Дойл А. К.
Д 55 Знак четырех: Книга для чтения на английском языке. — СПб.: КАРО, 2010. — 224 с. — (Серия «Detective Story»).

ISBN 978-5-9925-0601-3

«Знак четырех» — один из четырех романов Артура 
Конан Дойла о знаменитом сыщике Шерлоке Холмсе и его 
друге и соратнике докторе Ватсоне.
В книге приводится полный неадаптированный текст 
романа, снабженный комментариями и словарем. Для учащихся старших классов языковых школ, студентов младших 
классов языковых вузов и всех любителей детективного 
жанра.

УДК 372.8
ББК 81.2 Англ-93

© КАРО, 2010

Об авторе

Сэр Артур Игнатиус Конан Дойл (1859–1930) — 
знаменитый английский писатель, автор всемирно известных детективных произведений о Шерлоке Холмсе, а также приключенческих и научно-фантастических 
романов о профессоре Челленджере, юмористических 
произведений о бригадире Жераре, исторических романов («Белый отряд» и др.).
Будущий писатель родился в семье ирландских католиков. Его отец Чарльз Алтамонт, архитектор и художник, совсем молодым женился на юной Мэри Фоули, 
страстно любившей литературу. Именно мать привила 
мальчику любовь к сочинительству — он всю жизнь писал ей подробные письма обо всем, что с ним происходило.
Семья испытывала серьезные финансовые трудности¸ и богатые родственники предложили оплачивать 
обучение мальчика в иезуитском колледже, где он провел долгие семь лет и откуда вынес ненависть к религиозным и классовым предрассудкам, а также к телесному наказанию.
В 1876 г., окончив колледж, молодой человек вернулся домой и переписал на себя имущество отца, к тому 
времени потерявшего рассудок. Решая, чем ему заниматься в жизни, Артур, не без влияния Чарльза Уоллера, молодого врача, снимавшего комнату у миссис Дойл, 

ОБ АВТОРЕ

выбрал карьеру врача и поступил в Эдинбургский университет. 
С 1881 г. Конан Дойл занялся врачебной практикой, 
сначала совместной, затем индивидуальной. В 1891 г. он 
решил сделать литературу своей основной профессией.
В 1884 г. Конан Дойл начал работу над социальнобытовым романом с криминально-детективным сюжетом «Торговый дом Гердлстон» (сказывается влияние 
Диккенса) про циничных и жестоких негоциантов-стяжа телей. Весной 1886 г. появился «Этюд в багровых тонах», и с этого времени писатель приобрел мировую 
славу.
«Скандал в Богемии», первый рассказ из серии «Приключения Шерлока Холмса», вышел в свет в 1891 г. В течение двух лет писатель создавал рассказ за рассказом и в 
конце концов начал тяготиться собственным персонажем. Его попытка «покончить» с Холмсом в схватке с 
профессором Мориар ти  оказалась неудачной: полюбившегося читающей публике героя пришлось «воскресить». Холмсовская эпопея увенчалась романом «Со бака 
Баскервилей» (1900), который относят к классике детективного жанра.
Современники Конан Дойла были склонны преуменьшать значение Холмса, усматривая в нем некий гибрид 
Дюпена (героя Эдгара По), Лекока (героя Эмиля Габорио) 
и Каффа (героя Уилки Коллинза). С течением времени 
стало ясно, насколько Холмс отличается от предшественников: сочетание необычных качеств подняло его над 
временем. Необычайная популярность Шерлока Холмса 
и доктора Ватсона постепенно переросла в отрасль новой мифологии, центром которой по сей день остается 
квартира в Лондоне на Бейкер-стрит, 221-б.

Chapter I

THE SCIENCE OF DEDUCTION

Sherlock Holmes took his bottle from the 
corner of the mantel-piece and his hypodermic 
syringe from its neat morocco case. With his long, 
white, nervous fi ngers he adjusted the delicate 
needle, and rolled back his left  shirt-cuff . For 
some little time his eyes rested thoughtfully upon 
the sinewy forearm and wrist all dotted and 
scarred with innumerable puncture-marks. 
Finally he thrust the sharp point home, pressed 
down the tiny piston, and sank back into the 
velvet-lined arm-chair with a long sigh of satisfac tion.
Th ree times a day for many months I had 
witnessed this performance, but custom had not 
reconciled my mind to it. On the contrary, from 
day to day I had become more irritable at the sight, 

CHAPTER I

6

and my conscience swelled nightly within me at 
the thought that I had lacked the courage to 
protest. Again and again I had registered a vow 
that I should deliver my soul upon the subject, 
but there was that in the cool, nonchalant air of 
my companion which made him the last man with 
whom one would care to take anything approaching to a liberty. His great powers, his 
masterly manner, and the experience which I had 
had of his many extraordinary qualities, all made 
me diffi  dent and backward in crossing him.
Yet upon that aft ernoon, whether it was the 
Beaune1 which I had taken with my lunch, or the 
additional exasperation produced by the extreme 
deliberation of his manner, I suddenly felt that I 
could hold out no longer.
“Which is it to-day?” I asked, —“morphine or 
cocaine?”
He raised his eyes languidly from the old blackletter volume which he had opened. “It is cocaine,” 
he said, —“a seven-per-cent solution. Would you 
care to try it?”
“No, indeed,” I answered, brusquely. “My 
constitution has not got over the Afghan cam
1 the Beaune — красное французское вино, произведенное в регионе г. Бон

THE SCIENCE OF DEDUCTION

7

paign yet.1 I cannot aff ord to throw any extra 
strain upon it.”
He smiled at my vehemence. “Perhaps you are 
right, Watson,” he said. “I suppose that its infl uence is physically a bad one. I fi nd it, howe ver, 
so transcendently stimulating and clarifying to 
the mind that its secondary action is a matter of 
small moment.”
“But consider!” I said, earnestly. “Count the 
cost! Your brain may, as you say, be roused and 
excited, but it is a pathological and morbid 
process, which involves increased tissue-change 
and may at last leave a permanent weakness. You 
know, too, what a black reaction comes upon you. 
Surely the game is hardly worth the candle. Why 
should you, for a mere passing pleasure, risk the 
loss of those great powers with which you have 
been endowed? Remember that I speak not only 
as one comrade to another, but as a medical man 
to one for whose constitution he is to some extent 
answerable.”
He did not seem off ended. On the contrary, he 
put his fi nger-tips together and leaned his elbows 

1 My constitution has not got over the Afghan 
campaign yet. — Мой организм еще не вполне оправился после афганской кампании.

CHAPTER I

8

on the arms of his chair, like one who has a relish 
for conversation.
“My mind,” he said, “rebels at stagnation. Give 
me problems, give me work, give me the most 
abstruse cryptogram or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere. I 
can dispense then with artifi cial stimulants. But 
I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for 
mental exaltation. Th at is why I have chosen my own 
particular profession, — or rather created it, for I 
am the only one in the world.”
“Th e only unoffi  cial detective?” I said, raising 
my eyebrows.
“Th e only unoffi  cial consulting detective,” he 
answered. “I am the last and highest court of appeal 
in detection. When Gregson or Lestrade or Athelney 
Jones are out of their depths — which, by the way, 
is their normal state — the matter is laid before me. 
I examine the data, as an expert, and pronounce a 
specialist’s opinion. I claim no credit in such cases. 
My name fi gures in no newspaper. Th e work itself, 
the pleasure of fi nding a fi eld for my peculiar powers, 
is my highest reward. But you have yourself had 
some experience of my methods of work in the 
Jeff er son Hope case.”
“Yes, indeed,” said I, cordially. “I was never so 
struck by anything in my life. I even embodied it 

THE SCIENCE OF DEDUCTION

9

in a small brochure with the somewhat fantastic 
title of ‘A Study in Scarlet.’”
He shook his head sadly. “I glanced over it,” 
said he. “Honestly, I cannot congratulate you upon 
it. Detection is, or ought to be, an exact science, 
and should be treated in the same cold and 
unemotional manner. You have attempted to tinge 
it with romanticism, which produces much the 
same eff ect as if you worked a love-story or an 
elopement into the fi ft h proposition of Euclid.1”
“But the romance was there,” I remonstrated. 
“I could not tamper with the facts.”
“Some facts should be suppressed, or at least 
a just sense of proportion should be observed in 
treating them. Th e only point in the case which 
deserved mention was the curious analytical 
reasoning from eff ects to causes by which I succeeded in unraveling it.”
I was annoyed at this criticism of a work which 
had been specially designed to please him. I 
confess, too, that I was irritated by the egotism 
which seemed to demand that every line of my 
pamphlet should be devoted to his own special 

1 as if you worked a love-story or an elopement 
into the fi ft h proposition of Euclid — как если бы вы 
включили историю о сбежавшей с любовником жене 
в пятый постулат Эвклида

CHAPTER I

10

doings. More than once during the years that I 
had lived with him in Baker Street I had observed 
that a small vanity underlay my companion’s quiet 
and didactic manner. I made no remark, however, 
but sat nursing my wounded leg. I had a Jezail1 
bullet through it some time before, and, though 
it did not prevent me from walking, it ached 
wearily at every change of the weather.
“My practice has extended recently to the 
Continent,” said Holmes, aft er a while, fi lling up 
his old brier-root pipe. “I was consulted last week 
by Francois Le Villard, who, as you probably 
know, has come rather to the front lately in the 
French detective service. He has all the Celtic 
power of quick intuition, but he is defi cient in the 
wide range of exact knowledge which is essential 
to the higher developments of his art. Th e case 
was concerned with a will, and possessed some 
features of interest. I was able to refer him to two 
parallel cases, the one at Riga in 1857, and the 
other at St. Louis in 1871, which have suggested 
to him the true solution. Here is the letter which 
I had this morning acknowledging my assistance.” 
He tossed over, as he spoke, a crumpled sheet of 

1 Jezail — длинноствольный кремневый мушкет, 
оружие пуштунов (самоназвание афганцев)