دانلود رمان انگلیسی “پرونده‌ی اسباب‌بازی‌سازان”

Mid-morning, March 1925, on a rubber plantation somewhere in Malaya. The house sat on the side of a hill in a clearing cut from the jungle. It overlooked a plantation of rubber trees and, from the verandah, the canopy below gave the impression of a glossy green, billowing sea. It was a warm morning of soft air under low clouds. Lying there, lazing comfortably in a hammock, was a policeman wearing a faded uniform of shorts and shirt. His boots were on the plank floor below him, and his cap lay on the table. “Freddie, you are one of the worst loafers I’ve ever come across,” said Charles Meakin, a man of about forty who had just appeared from the house and come onto the verandah. Precisely yet casually dressed for the warm Malayan weather, he had sharp features and a small, clipped moustache. “It’s too hot to do anything,” said Freddie Glover, a man in his late twenties. He was over six feet tall — or long, in this instance, handsome — but not overly so, tanned, brown-eyed, and with dark blond hair. He possessed an air of languid importance even while lying down. “Rubbish, man. I know it’s your last day, and all that, but you should be up and doing something — anything.” “Technically, Charles, yesterday was my last day. But as your storeroom was burgled last night, I could hardly leave you in the lurch.” He made no effort to move from his comfortable position. “And how do you expect to recover my precious gooseberry jam while lazing in a hammock? It was my last jar, too.” “As you’re the only person with the keys, and as you swore to me that the jam was in the storeroom yesterday because you saw it there, and as you locked up and there are no signs of forced entry, it then follows that a supernatural force has been at work which makes the case a tricky one requiring much thought — hence the apparent ‘lazing’ in a hammock.” “Can’t stand here listening to your twaddle. I’ve got my rounds to do, so get my jam back. Aunt Agatha won’t be sending any more for months to come.”