"No, but now read this note from Harbin to Kurtz —which we dictated. Look at the date. This is the result."
He read them both through twice. "You see what I mean?" If one watched a world come to an end, a plane dive from its course, I don't suppose one would chatter, and a world for Martins had certainly come to an end, a world of easy friendship, hero-worship, confidence that had begun twenty years before ... in a school corridor. Every memory—afternoons in the long grass, the illegitimate shoots on Brickworth Common, the dreams, the walks, every shared experience was simultaneously tainted, like the soil of an atomised town. One could not walk there with safety for a long while. While he sat there, looking at his hands and saying nothing, I fetched a precious bottle of whisky out of a cupboard and poured out two large doubles. "Go on," I said, "drink that," and he obeyed me as though I were his doctor. I poured him out another.
He said slowly (он сказал медленно), "Are you certain (вы уверены) that he was the real boss (что он был настоящим боссом)?"
"It's as far back as we have got so far (это так далеко назад, как мы добрались пока что = насколько мы могли проследить, кто руководит)."
"You see he was always apt to jump before he looked (видите ли, он был всегда склонен прыгнуть прежде, чем он посмотрел)."
I didn't contradict him (я не возражал ему), though that wasn't the impression he had before given of Lime (хотя это не было тем впечатлением, которое ему до этого дали о Лайме). He was searching round for some comfort (он искал немного утешения; round — вокруг).
"Suppose (предположим)," he said, "someone had got a line on him (кто-то получил сведения о нем: «получил линию на него»), forced him into this racket (втянул: «принудил» его в эту аферу), as you forced Harbin to doublecross (как вы принудили Харбина к предательству своих; to doublecross — обмануть, перехитрить)..."
"It's possible (это возможно)."
"And they murdered him in case he talked when he was arrested (и они убили его, на случай если он заговорил бы, когда он был бы арестован)."
"It's not impossible (это не невозможно)."
"I'm glad they did (я рад, что они /это/ сделали)," he said. "I wouldn't have liked to hear Harry squeal (мне бы не понравилось услышать, как Гарри доносит: «услышать Гарри стучать»)." He made a curious little dusting movement with his hand on his knee (он сделал забавное маленькое стряхивающее движение своей рукой по своему колену) as much as to say (как бы говоря: «так много, как чтобы сказать»), "That's that (так-то вот;