Возвращение Шерлока Холмса

УДК 
372.8
ББК 
81.2 Англ-93
 
Д 55

ISBN 978-5-9925-0517-7

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

ISBN 978-5-9925-0517-7.

Предлагаем вниманию читателей рассказы из книги 
Артура Конан Дойла «Возвращение Шерлока Холмса».
Неадаптированный текст рассказов снабжен комментариями и словарем. Книга предназначена для старшеклассников, студентов языковых вузов и всех любителей 
детективного жанра.

УДК 372.8
ББК 81.2 Англ-93

© КАРО, 2010

Шерлок Холмс — литературный персонаж, созданный сэром Артуром Конан Дойлом, любимый герой 
многих поколений поклонников детективного жанра.
Впервые он появляется в повести «Этюд в багровых 
тонах» (1887). Ему тогда около 27 лет. Это высокий и худой молодой человек, видимо, стесненный в средствах, 
потому что ищет компаньона для совместного съема 
квартиры, и доктор Ватсон, недавно вернувшийся из 
Афганистана, идеально подходит на эту роль, потому что 
он не задает лишних вопросов, спокойно относится к 
странным посетителям Холмса, его химическим опытам, 
беспрерывному курению трубки и не всегда мелодичной 
игре на скрипке.
Холмс — яркая личность. Талантливый скрипач, хороший боксер, искусный актер, химик, он посвятил свою 
жизнь карьере частного детектива. В расследованиях он 
опирается не столько на букву закона, сколько на свои 
жизненные принципы и правила. Неоднократно Холмс 
позволял людям, по его мнению, оправданно совершавшим преступление, избежать наказания. Холмс не меркантилен, его в первую очередь занимает работа. За свой 
труд по раскрытию преступлений Шерлок Холмс берет 
справедливое вознаграждение, но если его очередной 
клиент беден, может взять плату символически или вообще отказаться от нее.

Главный герой
Конан Дойла

Холмс — житель викторианской Англии, лондонец, 
великолепно знающий свой город. За пределы города 
(страны) он выезжает только в случае крайней необходимости, большинство же дел разгадывает, не выходя из гостиной, называя их «делами на одну трубку».
В быту Холмс неприхотлив, безразличен к удобствам и роскоши. Его нельзя назвать рассеянным, но 
он несколько равнодушен к порядку в комнате и аккуратности в обращении с вещами: например, проводит 
рискованные химические эксперименты в своей квартире и тренируется в стрельбе по стене комнаты (выбивает выстрелами вензель королевы или просто расстреливает мух).
Что касается отношений с женщинами, то Холмс выступает как убежденный холостяк, ни разу не испытавший романтических чувств ни к одной женщине. 
Неоднократно заявляет, что вообще их не любит, хотя 
неизменно вежлив с дамами и готов им помочь. Только 
раз в жизни Холмс был, можно сказать, влюблен в некую 
Ирен Адлер, героиню рассказа «Скандал в Богемии».
Конан Дойл считал книги о Шерлоке Холмсе «легким чтивом» и в какой-то момент, раздраженный тем, 
что читатели предпочитают детективные произведения 
и практически игнорируют его исторические романы, 
решил устранить своего героя (рассказ «Последнее дело Холмса»). Но поток возмущенных писем от читателей, в том числе и от членов королевской семьи, заставил его «оживить» знаменитого сыщика, в результате 
чего появилась книга «Возвращение Шерлока Холмса». 
В общей же сложности Холмс появляется в 56 рассказах и 4 повестях Конан Дойла, имевших неизменный 
успех у публики.

The Empty House

It was in the spring of the year 1894 that all London 
was interested, and the fashionable world dismayed, 
by the murder of the Honourable Ronald Adair under 
most unusual and inexplicable circumstances. Th e 
public has already learned those particulars of the 
crime which came out in the police investigation, but 
a good deal was suppressed upon that occasion, since 
the case for the prosecution was so overwhelmingly 
strong that it was not necessary to bring forward all 
the facts. Only now, at the end of nearly ten years, am 
I allowed to supply those missing links which make 
up the whole of that remarkable chain. Th e crime was 
of interest in itself, but that interest was as nothing to 
me compared to the inconceivable sequel, which 
aff orded me the greatest shock and surprise of any 
event in my adventurous life. Even now, aft er this long 
interval, I fi nd myself thrilling as I think of it, and 
feeling once more that sudden fl ood of joy, amazement, 

THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES

6

and incredulity which utterly submerged my mind. 
Let me say to that public, which has shown some 
interest in those glimpses which I have occasionally 
given them of the thoughts and actions of a very 
remarkable man, that they are not to blame me if I 
have not shared my knowledge with them, for I should 
have considered it my fi rst duty to do so, had I not 
been barred by a positive prohibition from his own 
lips, which was only withdrawn upon the third of last 
month.
It can be imagined that my close intimacy with 
Sherlock Holmes had interested me deeply in crime, 
and that aft er his disappearance I never failed to read 
with care the various problems which came before the 
public. And I even attempted, more than once, for my 
own private satisfaction, to employ his methods in 
their solution, though with indiff erent success. Th ere 
was none, however, which appealed to me like this 
tragedy of Ronald Adair. As I read the evidence at the 
inquest, which led up to a verdict of willful murder 
against some person or persons unknown, I realized 
more clearly than I had ever done the loss which the 
community had sustained by the death of Sherlock 
Holmes. Th ere were points about this strange business 
which would, I was sure, have specially appealed to 
him, and the eff orts of the police would have been 
supplemented, or more probably anticipated, by the 
trained observation and the alert mind of the fi rst 
criminal agent in Europe. All day, as I drove upon my 
round, I turned over the case in my mind and found 

THE EMPTY HOUSE

7

no explanation which appeared to me to be adequate. 
At the risk of telling a twice-told tale, I will recapitulate 
the facts as they were known to the public at the 
conclusion of the inquest.
Th e Honourable Ronald Adair was the second son 
of the Earl of Maynooth, at that time governor of one 
of the Australian colonies. Adair’s mother had 
returned from Australia to undergo the operation for 
cataract, and she, her son Ronald, and her daughter 
Hilda were living together at 427 Park Lane. Th e youth 
moved in the best society — had, so far as was known, 
no enemies and no particular vices. He had been 
engaged to Miss Edith Woodley, of Carstairs, but the 
engagement had been broken off  by mutual consent 
some months before, and there was no sign that it had 
left  any very profound feeling behind it. For the rest 
{sic} the man’s life moved in a narrow and conventional 
circle, for his habits were quiet and his nature 
unemotional. Yet it was upon this easy-going young 
aristocrat that death came, in most strange and unexpected form, between the hours of ten and eleventwenty on the night of March 30, 1894.
Ronald Adair was fond of cards — playing continually, but never for such stakes as would hurt him. 
He was a member of the Baldwin, the Cavendish, and 
the Bagatelle card clubs. It was shown that, aft er dinner 
on the day of his death, he had played a rubber of whist 
at the latter club. He had also played there in the 
aft ernoon. Th e evidence of those who had played with 
him — Mr. Murray, Sir John Hardy, and Colonel 

THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES

8

Moran — showed that the game was whist, and that 
there was a fairly equal fall of the cards1. Adair might 
have lost fi ve pounds, but not more. His fortune was 
a considerable one, and such a loss could not in any 
way aff ect him. He had played nearly every day at one 
club or other, but he was a cautious player, and usually 
rose a winner. It came out in evidence that, in partnership with Colonel Moran, he had actually won as 
much as four hundred and twenty pounds in a sitting, 
some weeks before, from Godfrey Milner and Lord 
Balmoral. So much for his recent history as it came 
out at the inquest.
On the evening of the crime, he returned from the 
club exactly at ten. His mother and sister were out 
spending the evening with a relation. Th e servant 
deposed that she heard him enter the front room on 
the second fl oor, generally used as his sitting-room. 
She had lit a fi re there, and as it smoked she had 
opened the window. No sound was heard from the 
room until eleven-twenty, the hour of the return of 
Lady Maynooth and her daughter. Desiring to say 
good-night, she attempted to enter her son’s room. 
Th e door was locked on the inside, and no answer 
could be got to their cries and knocking. Help was 
obtained, and the door forced. Th e unfortunate young 
man was found lying near the table. His head had been 
horribly mutilated by an expanding revolver bullet, 

1 there was a fairly equal fall of the cards — (разг.) что 
игроки остались почти при своих

THE EMPTY HOUSE

9

but no weapon of any sort was to be found in the room. 
On the table lay two banknotes for ten pounds each 
and seventeen pounds ten in silver and gold, the 
money arranged in little piles of varying amount. 
Th ere were some fi gures also upon a sheet of paper, 
with the names of some club friends opposite to them, 
from which it was conjectured that before his death 
he was endeavouring to make out his losses or winnings at cards.
A minute examination of the circumstances served 
only to make the case more complex. In the fi rst place, 
no reason could be given why the young man should 
have fastened the door upon the inside. Th ere was the 
possibility that the murderer had done this, and had 
aft erwards escaped by the window. Th e drop was at 
least twenty feet, however, and a bed of crocuses in 
full bloom lay beneath. Neither the fl owers nor the 
earth showed any sign of having been disturbed, nor 
were there any marks upon the narrow strip of grass 
which separated the house from the road. Apparently, 
therefore, it was the young man himself who had 
fastened the door. But how did he come by his death? 
No one could have climbed up to the window without 
leaving traces. Suppose a man had fi red through the 
window, he would indeed be a remarkable shot who 
could with a revolver infl ict so deadly a wound. Again, 
Park Lane is a frequented thoroughfare; there is a cab 
stand within a hundred yards of the house. No one 
had heard a shot. And yet there was the dead man and 
there the revolver bullet, which had mushroomed out, 

THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES

10

as soft -nosed bullets will, and so infl icted a wound 
which must have caused instantaneous death. Such 
were the circumstances of the Park Lane Mystery, 
which were further complicated by entire absence of 
motive, since, as I have said, young Adair was not 
known to have any enemy, and no attempt had been 
made to remove the money or valuables in the 
room.
All day I turned these facts over in my mind, 
endeavouring to hit upon some theory which could 
reconcile them all, and to find that line of least 
resistance which my poor friend had declared to be 
the starting-point of every investigation. I confess that 
I made little progress. In the evening I strolled across 
the Park, and found myself about six o’clock at the 
Oxford Street end of Park Lane. A group of loafers 
upon the pavements, all staring up at a particular 
window, directed me to the house which I had come 
to see. A tall, thin man with coloured glasses, whom 
I strongly suspected of being a plain-clothes detective, 
was pointing out some theory of his own, while the 
others crowded round to listen to what he said. I got 
as near him as I could, but his observations seemed 
to me to be absurd, so I withdrew again in some 
disgust. As I did so I struck against an elderly, 
deformed man, who had been behind me, and I 
knocked down several books which he was carrying. 
I remember that as I picked them up, I observed the 
title of one of them, Th e Origin of Tree Worship, and 
it struck me that the fellow must be some poor