Золотой жук. Уровень 1 / The Gold-bug

”

During his monologue, his voice was so loud as if he was speaking to someone at distance. I took the pistols hardly realizing what I was doing. He continued:

“Now think about the voices upstairs; it was proved they were not the voices of the women. It shows that the old lady could not kill her daughter first and then commit suicide. I speak of this point mostly for the sake of method; it would be simply impossible for her to do such damage to her daughter and herself, as she is not that strong. The voices were of a third party.

Now, did you notice anything peculiar in what people said about those voices?”

I remarked that, while all the witnesses agreed that the gruff voice belonged to a Frenchman, there was much disagreement about the shrill one.

“That was the evidence itself,” said Dupin, “but it was not the peculiarity of the evidence. You observed nothing distinctive. Yes, everyone agreed about the gruff voice being of a Frenchman, and everyone disagreed about the shrill voice.

The strange thing is that when an Italian, an Englishman, a Spaniard, and a Frenchman tried to describe it, each one spoke of it as that of a foreigner. Each is sure that it was not the voice of one of his own countrymen. Now, how strangely unusual must that voice have really been![4 - Now, how strangely unusual must that voice have really been! – Насколько же необычен был этот голос!] People recognized several European languages in its tone – but not a single word.

“I don’t know what you think now. But I believe these facts are enough to lead us to the only possible answer… I will not say it yet.

“Let us now take ourselves again, in our thoughts, to this chamber. What shall we first seek here? All possible ways for murderers to escape. The police examined the floors, the ceilings, and the masonry of the walls, in every direction. But I don’t trust their eyes so I examined the house with my own.

“There were no secret doors.

The opening above the fireplace is not big enough for even a large cat. There is only one way to escape left. The windows. Now, this may not seem possible. We must prove that it is possible.

“There are two windows in the room. One of them is wholly visible; the lower part of the other is hidden by furniture. Both of them are made of two parts; to open the window one must lift up the bottom half. I looked carefully at the first of these windows.