The Maltese Falcon

Коллекция текстов · detective

1. Spade & Archer
   Samuel Spade’s jaw was long and bony, his chin a jutting v under the more flexible v of his mouth. His nostrils curved back to make another…
2. Death in the Fog
   A telephone-bell rang in darkness. When it had rung three times bed-springs creaked, fingers fumbled on wood, something small and hard thud…
3. Three Women
   When Spade reached his office at ten o’clock the following morning Effie Perine was at her desk opening the morning’s mail. Her boyish face…
4. The Black Bird
   Miss Wonderly, in a belted green crêpe silk dress, opened the door of apartment 1001 at the Coronet. Her face was flushed. Her dark red hai…
5. The Levantine
   Spade did not look at the pistol. He raised his arms and, leaning back in his chair, intertwined the fingers of his two hands behind his he…
6. The Undersized Shadow
   For half an hour after Joel Cairo had gone Spade sat alone, still and frowning, at his desk. Then he said aloud in the tone of one dismissi…
7. G in the Air
   In his bedroom that was a living-room now the wall-bed was up, Spade took Brigid O’Shaughnessy’s hat and coat, made her comfortable in a pa…
8. Horse Feathers
   Brigid O’Shaughnessy was huddled in the armchair by the table. Her forearms were up over her cheeks, her knees drawn up until they hid the…
9. Brigid
   Spade returned to the living-room and sat on an end of the sofa, elbows on knees, cheeks in hands, looking at the floor and not at Brigid O…
10. The Belvedere Divan
    Beginning day had reduced night to a thin smokiness when Spade sat up. At his side Brigid O’Shaughnessy’s soft breathing had the regularity…
11. The Fat Man
    The telephone-bell was ringing when Spade returned to his office after sending Brigid O’Shaughnessy off to Effie Perine’s house. He went to…
12. Merry-Go-Round
    Spade rode down from Gutman’s floor in an elevator. His lips were dry and rough in a face otherwise pale and damp. When he took out his han…
13. The Emperor’s Gift
    Gutman opened the door. A glad smile lighted his fat face. He held out a hand and said: “Ah, come in, sir! Thank you for coming. Come in.”…
14. La Paloma
    Spade, coming around the corner from the elevator at a few minutes past six in the morning, saw yellow light glowing through the frosted gl…
15. Every Crackpot
    Spade and Detective-sergeant Polhaus ate pickled pigs’ feet at one of big John’s tables at the States Hof Brau. Polhaus, balancing pale bri…
16. The Third Murder
    Spade went into the Hotel Sutter and telephoned the Alexandria. Gutman was not in. No member of Gutman’s party was in. Spade telephoned the…
17. Saturday Night
    Carrying the parcel lightly under his arm, walking briskly, with only the ceaseless shifting of his eyes to denote wariness, Spade went, pa…
18. The Fall-Guy (1)
    Spade, with his arms around Brigid O’Shaughnessy, smiled meagerly over her head and said: “Sure, we’ll talk.” Gutman’s bulbs jounced as he…
19. The Fall-Guy (2)
    Spade looked from one of them to the other. He had stopped smiling. His face held no expression at all. “I say what I please,” he told them…
20. The Russian’s Hand (1)
    The boy lay on his back on the sofa, a small figure that was—except for its breathing—altogether corpselike to the eye. Joel Cairo sat besi…
21. The Russian’s Hand (2)
    “Yes, sir, that I did.” The fat man took a crumpled bill from his vest-pocket, smoothed it on a wide thigh, took the envelope holding the n…
22. If They Hang You (1)
    For all of five minutes after the outer door had closed behind Casper Gutman and Joel Cairo, Spade, motionless, stood staring at the knob o…
23. If They Hang You (2)
    He moved his shoulders a little and said: “Well, a lot of money would have been at least one more item on the other side of the scales.” Sh…