Английский язык с Р. Л. Стивенсоном. Остров сокровищ

ruination [ru:ɪ`neɪʃn] buoy [bɔɪ] hostage [`hɔstɪʤ] downhearted [daun`hɑ:tɪd] trifle [traɪfl]

“Ah, the others!” returned John. “They’re a nice lot, aint they? You say this cruise is bungled. Ah! by gum, if you could understand how bad it’s bungled, you would see! We’re that near the gibbet that my neck’s stiff with thinking on it. You’ve seen ’em, maybe, hanged in chains, birds about ’em, seamen p’inting ’em out as they go down with the tide. ‘Who’s that? Says one. “That! Why, that’s John Silver. I knowed him well,’ says another. And you can hear the chains a-jangle as you go about and reach for the other buoy. Now, that about where we are, every mother’s son of us, thanks to him, and Hands, and Anderson, and other ruination fools of you. And if you want to know about number four, and that boy, why, shiver my timbers! isn’t he a hostage? Are we a-going to waste a hostage? No, not us; he mighty be our last chance, and I shouldn’t wonder. Kill that boy? not me, mates! And number three? Ah, well, there’s a deal to say to number three. Maybe you don’t count it nothing to have a real college doctor come to see you every day — you, John, with your head broke — or you, George Merry, that had the ague shakes upon you not six hours agone, and has your eyes the colour of lemon peel to this same moment on the clock? And maybe, perhaps you didn’t know there was a consort coming, either? But there is; and not so long till then; and we’ll see who’ll be glad have a hostage when it comes to that. And as for number two and why I made a bargain — well, you came crawling on your knees to me to make it — on your knees you came, you was that downhearted — and you’d have starved, too, if hadn’t — but that’s a trifle! you look there — that’s why!”

And he cast down upon the floor a paper that I instantly recognised (и он швырнул на пол бумагу, которую я тотчас узнал)

— none other than the chart on yellow paper (не что иное, как карта на желтой бумаге), with the three red crosses (с тремя красными крестами), that I had found in the oilcloth at the bottom of the captain’s chest (которую я нашел /завернутую/ в промасленную ткань на дне сундука капитана /Билли Бонса/). Why the doctor had given to him was more than I could fancy (почему доктор отдал /ее/ ему, было больше, чем я мог вообразить = было для меня загадкой).

But if it were inexplicable to me (но если это было необъяснимо для меня), the appearance of the chart was incredible to the surviving mutineers

(/то/ вид карты был /еще более/ невероятным для выживших мятежников; incredible — неправдоподобный, неслыханный). They leaped upon it like cats upon a mouse (они накинулись на нее, как коты на мышь; to leap — прыгать, скакать, бросаться). It went from hand to hand, one tearing it from another (она переходила из рук в руки, один вырывал ее у другого); and by the oaths and the cries and the childish laughter with which they accompanied their examination (и по ругательствам и крикам, по детскому смеху, которыми они сопровождали рассматривание /карты/; examination — осмотр, экспертиза, изучение)

, you would have thought, not only they were fingering the very gold (вы бы подумали, что они не только трогают само золото; to finger — трогать, перебирать пальцами, вертеть в руках), but were at sea with it, besides, in safety (но и находятся в море с ним, притом — в безопасности).

“Yes,” said one (сказал один), “that’s Flint, sure enough (это Флинт, точно). J. F., and a score below

(Дж. Ф., и подпись внизу; score — метка, черта, зарубка), with a clove hitch to it; so he done ever (и мертвый узел на ней, он так всегда делал = подписывался; clove hitch — выбленочный узел, мертвый узел; выбленки — тонкие смоленые веревочки, укрепленные поперек вант наподобие ступенек для подъема на мачты).”

оilcloth [`ɔɪlklɔθ] inexplicable [ɪnɪk`splɪkəbl] childish [`tʃaɪldɪʃ] laughter [`lɑ:ftə]