).

“They ain’t no sense in it, I know (в этом никакого смысла нет, я знаю),” he mumbled apologetically (пробормотал он, оправдываясь; apologetically – принося извинения, извиняющимся тоном; сконфуженно). “But keepin’ grub back an hour ain’t goin’ to hurt none, I reckon (но отложить еду на час вреда не составит: «никому не повредит», я полагаю).”

 He straightened up, and, while he reached for matches in the pocket of his overalls, his eyes travelled across the pool to the side-hill. His fingers had clutched the match-box, but they relaxed their hold and the hand came out empty. The man wavered perceptibly. He looked at his preparations for cooking and he looked at the hill.

“Guess I’ll take another whack at her,” he concluded, starting to cross the stream.

“They ain’t no sense in it, I know,” he mumbled apologetically. “But keepin’ grub back an hour ain’t goin’ to hurt none, I reckon.”

A few feet back from his first line of test-pans he started a second line (на несколько футов назад от его первого ряда проб он начал второй ряд). The sun dropped down the western sky (солнце падало = опускалось по западному небосклону), the shadows lengthened (тени удлинялись), but the man worked on (но человек продолжал работать). He began a third line of test-pans (он начал третий ряд проб). He was cross-cutting the hillside (он продолжал продвигаться поперек склона; cross-cut – поперечный), line by line, as he ascended (ряд за рядом, поднимаясь вверх; to ascend – восходить). The centre of each line produced the richest pans (середина каждого ряда давала наиболее богатые пробы), while the ends came where no colors showed in the pan (тогда как по краям пробы не давали золота). And as he ascended the hillside the lines grew perceptibly shorter (и по мере того как он поднимался по склону, ряды становились заметно короче). The regularity with which their length diminished (закономерность, с которой их длина уменьшалась) served to indicate that somewhere up the slope the last line would be so short as to have scarcely length at all (служила показателем, что где-то выше по склону последний ряд будет таким коротким, что едва ли вообще «будет иметь длину»), and that beyond could come only a point (и /ряд/ вдалеке мог превратиться только в точку). The design was growing into an inverted “V” (рисунок превращался в перевернутую букву «V»). The converging sides of this “V” (сходящиеся стороны этой «V») marked the boundaries of the gold-bearing dirt (обозначали границы золотоносного песка; dirt – грязь, земля; песок, из которого намывают золото; to bear – нести). The apex of the “V” was evidently the man’s goal (вершина перевернутого «V» была, по-видимому, целью человека; apex – вершина; высшая точка). Often he ran his eye along the converging sides and on up the hill (много раз пробегал он глазами вдоль сходящихся сторон и вверх по склону), trying to divine the apex (пытаясь определить высшую точку), the point where the gold-bearing dirt must cease (точку, где золотоносный песок должен закончиться). Here resided “Mr. Pocket” (здесь находился «Мистер Карман») – for so the man familiarly addressed the imaginary point above him on the slope, crying out (которому человек фамильярно адресовал воображаемую точку над ним на склоне, выкрикивая):

 A few feet back from his first line of test-pans he started a second line. The sun dropped down the western sky, the shadows lengthened, but the man worked on. He began a third line of test-pans. He was cross-cutting the hillside, line by line, as he ascended. The centre of each line produced the richest pans, while the ends came where no colors showed in the pan. And as he ascended the hillside the lines grew perceptibly shorter. The regularity with which their length diminished served to indicate that somewhere up the slope the last line would be so short as to have scarcely length at all, and that beyond could come only a point. The design was growing into an inverted “V.” The converging sides of this “V" marked the boundaries of the gold-bearing dirt. The apex of the “V" was evidently the man’s goal. Often he ran his eye along the converging sides and on up the hill, trying to divine the apex, the point where the gold-bearing dirt must cease. Here resided “Mr. Pocket" – for so the man familiarly addressed the imaginary point above him on the slope, crying out: