Номер 10, страница 70 - гдз по английскому языку 11 класс рабочая тетрадь Вербицкая, Фрикер

Track eighteen.

I am afraid, my dear Watson, that most of your conclusions were wrong. When I said that you stimulated me, I meant, to be frank, that, in noting your mistakes, I was guided towards the truth. Not that you are entirely wrong. The man is certainly a country doctor, and he walks a good deal.

Ah, then I was right.

To that extent. I would suggest, though, that a present to a doctor is more likely to come from a hospital than from a hunt. And that when the initials CCH are placed before that hospital, the words Charing Cross very naturally suggest themselves.

Ah, you may be right.

The probability lies in that direction. And if we take this as a working hypothesis, we have a fresh basis from which to start our construction of this unknown visitor.

Well then, supposing that CCH does stand for Charing Cross Hospital. What further deductions may we make?

You know my methods, apply them.

I can only think of the obvious conclusion that the man has practiced in town before going to the country.

Ask yourself this: On what occasion would it be most probable that such a present would be given? When would his friends unite to give him a present? Obviously at the moment when Doctor Mortimer left the hospital in order to start a practice for himself. We know he's been given a present. We believe there has been a change from a town hospital to a country practice. Isn't it then possible to say that the present was given on the occasion of the change?

It certainly seems probable.

Now, you will observe that he could not have been on the staff of the hospital, since only a man well established in a London practice could hold such a position, and such a one would not leave for the country.

What was he then?

If he was in the hospital and yet not on the staff, he could only have been a house surgeon, or a house physician, little more than a senior student. And he left five years ago. The date is on the stick. So, your serious, middle-aged family doctor vanishes into thin air, my dear Watson. And there emerges a young fellow, under thirty, friendly, unambitious, absent-minded, and the possessor of a favorite dog, which I should describe roughly as being medium-sized.

I laughed as Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his sofa. "As to the latter part, I have no means of checking you," said I. "But at least it is not difficult to find out a few particulars about the man's age and professional career."

From my small medical shelf, I took down the medical directory and turned up the name. There were several Mortimers, but only one who could be our visitor. I read his record aloud. Mortimer, James, MRCS, eighteen eighty-two, Grimpen, Dartmoor, Devon. House surgeon from eighteen eighty-two to eighteen eighty-four, at Charing Cross Hospital.

"No mention of that local hunt, Watson," said Holmes with a smile. "But a country doctor, as you very astutely observed."

As to the adjectives, I said, if I remember right, friendly, unambitious, and absent-minded.

It is my experience that it is only a friendly man in this world who receives leaving presents, only an unambitious one who abandons a London career for the country, and only an absent-minded one who leaves his stick and not his visiting card after waiting an hour in your room.

And the dog?

Has been in the habit of carrying this stick behind his master. Being a heavy stick, the dog has held it tightly by the middle, and the marks of his teeth are very plainly visible. The dog's jaw, as shown in the space between these marks, is too broad, in my opinion, for a terrier, and not broad enough for a mastiff. It may have been, yes. It is a curly-haired spaniel.

He had risen and paced the room as he spoke. Now he halted in the window. There was such a ring of conviction in his voice that I glanced up in surprise. "My dear fellow, how can you possibly be so sure of that?"

For the very simple reason that I see the dog himself on our very doorstep, and there is the ring of its owner.