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G. K. Chesterton The Wisdom of Father Brown. The Paradise of Thieves. Part 5.


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G. K. Chesterton
The Wisdom of Father Brown
The Paradise of Thieves
Part 5.

Г. К. Честертон
Мудрость отца Брауна
Разбойничий рай
Часть 5.

 

"But, father," said Frank very warmly, "an Italian gentleman has led the way. You wouldn't have it said that the English hung back."

- Ну, что ты! - мягко возразил Фрэнк. - Разве ты хочешь, чтобы англичанин отстал от итальянца?

"It is useless," said the older man, who was trembling violently, "it is useless. We must submit to our lot."

- Не вмешивайся, - повторил старик, сильно дрожа. - Покоримся судьбе.

Father Brown looked at the banker; then he put his hand instinctively as if on his heart, but really on the little bottle of poison; and a great light came into his face like the light of the revelation of death.

Отец Браун посмотрел на него и схватился как будто бы за сердце: но, ощутив под пальцами стекло флакона, облегченно вздохнул, словно спасся от гибели.

Muscari meanwhile, without waiting for support, had crested the bank up to the road, and struck the brigand king heavily on the shoulder, causing him to stagger and swing round. Montano also had his cutlass unsheathed, and Muscari, without further speech, sent a slash at his head which he was compelled to catch and parry. But even as the two short blades crossed and clashed the King of Thieves deliberately dropped his point and laughed.

Мускари, не дожидаясь помощи, вылез на дорогу и ударил кулаком короля разбойников. Тот пошатнулся, сверкнули клинки, но, не успели они скреститься, бывший гид засмеялся и опустил руки.

"What's the good, old man?" he said in spirited Italian slang; "this damned farce will soon be over."

- Да ладно! - сказал он по-итальянски. - Скоро этому балагану конец.

"What do you mean, you shuffler?" panted the fire-eating poet. "Is your courage a sham as well as your honesty?"

- Ты о чем, негодяй? - закричал огнедышащий поэт. - Твоя храбрость - такой же обман, как твоя честь?

"Everything about me is a sham," responded the ex-courier in complete good humour. "I am an actor; and if I ever had a private character, I have forgotten it. I am no more a genuine brigand than I am a genuine courier. I am only a bundle of masks, and you can't fight a duel with that." And he laughed with boyish pleasure and fell into his old straddling attitude, with his back to the skirmish up the road.

- У меня нет ничего настоящего, - благодушно отвечал Эцца. - Я актер, и если были у меня свои качества, я о них забыл. Я не разбойник и не гид. Я - маска на маске, а с личинами не сражаются.

Darkness was deepening under the mountain walls, and it was not easy to discern much of the progress of the struggle, save that tall men were pushing their horses' muzzles through a clinging crowd of brigands, who seemed more inclined to harass and hustle the invaders than to kill them. It was more like a town crowd preventing the passage of the police than anything the poet had ever pictured as the last stand of doomed and outlawed men of blood. Just as he was rolling his eyes in bewilderment he felt a touch on his elbow, and found the odd little priest standing there like a small Noah with a large hat, and requesting the favour of a word or two.

Стемнело, но все же было видно, что разбойники скорее пугают коней, чем убивают людей, словно городская толпа, мешающая полиции проехать. Поэт в удивлении глядел на них, когда кто-то коснулся его локтя. Рядом стоял низенький священник, похожий на игрушечного Ноя в широкополой шляпе.

"Signor Muscari," said the cleric, "in this queer crisis personalities may be pardoned. I may tell you without offence of a way in which you will do more good than by helping the gendarmes, who are bound to break through in any case. You will permit me the impertinent intimacy, but do you care about that girl? Care enough to marry her and make her a good husband, I mean?"

- Синьор Мускари, - сказал он, - простите мне мою нескромность. Не обижайтесь на меня и не помогайте жандармам. Любите ли вы эту девушку? То есть достаточно ли вы ее любите, чтобы жениться на ней и быть ей хорошим мужем?

"Yes," said the poet quite simply.

- Да, - сказал Мускари.

"Does she care about you?"

- А она вас любит? - продолжал отец Браун.

"I think so," was the equally grave reply.

- Наверное, да, - серьезно ответил Мускари.

"Then go over there and offer yourself," said the priest: "offer her everything you can; offer her heaven and earth if you've got them. The time is short."

- Тогда идите к ней, - сказал священник, - предложите ей все, что у вас есть. Время не терпит.

"Why?" asked the astonished man of letters.

- Почему? - удивился поэт.

"Because," said Father Brown, "her Doom is coming up the road."

- Потому, - сказал священник, - что беда скачет к ней по дороге.

"Nothing is coming up the road," argued Muscari, "except the rescue."

- По дороге скачет спасение, - возразил Мускари.

"Well, you go over there," said his adviser, "and be ready to rescue her from the rescue."

- Вы идите, - повторил священник, - и спасите ее от спасения.

Almost as he spoke the hedges were broken all along the ridge by a rush of the escaping brigands. They dived into bushes and thick grass like defeated men pursued; and the great cocked hats of the mounted gendarmerie were seen passing along above the broken hedge. Another order was given; there was a noise of dismounting, and a tall officer with cocked hat, a grey imperial, and a paper in his hand appeared in the gap that was the gate of the Paradise of Thieves. There was a momentary silence, broken in an extraordinary way by the banker, who cried out in a hoarse and strangled voice: "Robbed! I've been robbed!"

Тем временем разбойники, ломая кусты, кинулись врассыпную и нырнули в густую зелень, а над кустами возникли треуголки жандармов. Снова раздалась команда, люди спешились, и высокий офицер с седой эспаньолкой появился там, где все недавно падали в разбойничий рай. И вдруг банкир закричал: - Меня обокрали!

"Why, that was hours ago," cried his son in astonishment: "when you were robbed of two thousand pounds."

- Тебя давно обокрали, - удивился его сын. - Прошло часа два, как они забрали деньги.

"Not of two thousand pounds," said the financier, with an abrupt and terrible composure, "only of a small bottle."

- У меня забрали не деньги, а маленький флакон, - в спокойном отчаянии сказал банкир.

The policeman with the grey imperial was striding across the green hollow. Encountering the King of the Thieves in his path, he clapped him on the shoulder with something between a caress and a buffet and gave him a push that sent him staggering away. "You'll get into trouble, too," he said, "if you play these tricks."

Офицер с эспаньолкой шел к ним. Проходя мимо бывшего короля, он не то ударил, не то похлопал его по плечу и сказал: - За такие шутки может и не поздоровиться.

Again to Muscari's artistic eye it seemed scarcely like the capture of a great outlaw at bay. Passing on, the policeman halted before the Harrogate group and said: "Samuel Harrogate, I arrest you in the name of the law for embezzlement of the funds of the Hull and Huddersfield Bank."

Поэту показалось, что великих разбойников ловят не совсем так. Офицер подошел к Харрогитам и четко произнес: - Сэмюел Харрогит, именем закона я арестую вас за растрату банковских фондов.

The great banker nodded with an odd air of business assent, seemed to reflect a moment, and before they could interpose took a half turn and a step that brought him to the edge of the outer mountain wall. Then, flinging up his hands, he leapt exactly as he leapt out of the coach. But this time he did not fall into a little meadow just beneath; he fell a thousand feet below, to become a wreck of bones in the valley.

Банкир деловито кивнул, подумал, повернулся, ступил на край лужайки и прыгнул точно так же, как несколько часов тому назад. Но теперь внизу не было зеленого рая.

The anger of the Italian policeman, which he expressed volubly to Father Brown, was largely mixed with admiration. "It was like him to escape us at last," he said. "He was a great brigand if you like. This last trick of his I believe to be absolutely unprecedented. He fled with the company's money to Italy, and actually got himself captured by sham brigands in his own pay, so as to explain both the disappearance of the money and the disappearance of himself. That demand for ransom was really taken seriously by most of the police. But for years he's been doing things as good as that, quite as good as that. He will be a serious loss to his family."

Итальянский жандарм, выразил священнику и возмущение свое и восхищение. - Великий был разбойник, - сказал он. - Какую штуку выдумал! Сбежал с деньгами в Италию и нанял этих типов. В полиции многие поверили, что речь идет о выкупе. Он и раньше творил Бог знает что. Большая потеря!..

Muscari was leading away the unhappy daughter, who held hard to him, as she did for many a year after. But even in that tragic wreck he could not help having a smile and a hand of half-mocking friendship for the indefensible Ezza Montano. "And where are you going next?" he asked him over his shoulder.

Мускари уводил несчастную дочь, и она держалась за него так же крепко, как и много лет спустя. Но даже в таком горе он улыбнулся, проходя мимо Эццы, и спросил: - Куда же ты теперь отправишься?

"Birmingham," answered the actor, puffing a cigarette. "Didn't I tell you I was a Futurist? I really do believe in those things if I believe in anything. Change, bustle and new things every morning. I am going to Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Hull, Huddersfield, Glasgow, Chicago--in short, to enlightened, energetic, civilized society!"

- В Бирмингем, - отвечал актер, раскуривая сигарету. - Я тебе сказал, я - человек будущего. Если я во что-то верю, я верю в перемены, и хватку, и новизну. Поеду в Манчестер, в Ливерпуль, вХалл, в Хадерсфилд, в Глазго, в Чикаго - в современный, деловой, цивилизованный мир.

"In short," said Muscari, "to the real Paradise of Thieves."

- Словом, - сказал Мускари, - в разбойничий рай.

The end
Источник текста - http://www.gutenberg.org/
Конец рассказа
Источник текста - http://www.chelny.ru/city/books/
Перевод Н. Трауберг

В рассказе 6 622 слова, в том числе уникальных - 1668.


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