Золотой жук. Уровень 1 / The Gold-bug

“Sit down, my friend,” said Dupin. “I suppose you’re here for the orangutan. A very fine animal. How old do you suppose it to be?”

“I have no way of telling how old it is, but it can’t be more than four or five years old. Have you got it here?”

“Oh no, we could not keep him here. He is at a live. Are you prepared to identify the property?”

“To be sure I am, sir.”

“I wish I could keep it.”

“Of course I will pay you for finding and keeping the animal. Anything within reason.

”

“Well,” replied my friend, “that is all very fair, to be sure. Let me think! – what should I have? Oh! I will tell you. My reward shall be this. You shall give me all the information in your power about these murders in the Rue Morgue.”

Dupin said the last words in a very low tone, and very quietly. Just as quietly, too, he walked toward the door. He locked it and put the key in his pocket. Then he drew a pistol from his bosom and placed it on the table.

The sailor’s face flushed up as if he were struggling with suffocation.

He started to his feet and grasped his cudgel, but the next moment he fell back into his seat. He spoke not a word. I pitied him from the bottom of my heart[8 - from the bottom of my heart – от всей души].

“My friend,” said Dupin, in a kind tone, “We mean you no harm whatever. I perfectly well know that you are innocent of the killings in the Rue Morgue. But it is true that you know something about the killer.

It is a matter of honor for you to tell all you know.”

“So help me God!” said he, after a brief pause, “I will tell you all I know about this affair. But I do not expect you to believe half of it.”

The story was this. Lately he and some other sailors made a voyage to the Indian Archipelago. They landed at Borneo[9 - Borneo – Борнео, третий по величине остров в мире; находится в центре Малайского архипелага в юго-восточной Азии].

He and his friend went to a forest on an excursion of pleasure. There they captured the orangutan. Soon after his friend died and the animal fell into his own exclusive possession. He took it with him in Paris. The animal caused a lot of trouble but he managed to keep it secretly in his apartments for the time being[10 - for the time being – до поры до времени]. His ultimate goal was to sell it.