It was typical of the young Santino, before he became older and crueler, that he
extended his protection to the community he lived in. Sonny paid a personal call to the
home-improvement firm owner and told him not to send any of his men into the Long
Beach area ever again. As soon as the Corleone Family set up their usual business
liaison with the local police force they were informed of all such complaints and all
crimes by professional criminals. In less than a year Long Beach became the most
crime-free town of its size in the United States. Professional stickup artists and strong-
arms received one warning not to ply (усердно работать, заниматься чем-либо; ply –
сгиб, складка; уклон, склонность) their trade in the town. They were allowed one
offense (обида, оскорбление; проступок, нарушение; преступление). When they
committed a second they simply disappeared. The flimflam (трюк, мошенническая
проделка) home-improvement gyp (мошенничество; плут) artists, the door-to-door
con men (жулики /сленг/) were politely warned that they were not welcome in Long
Beach. Those confident con men who disregarded the warning were beaten within an
inch of their lives (чуть не до смерти; within an inch of = closely, near to). Resident
young punks who had no respect for law and proper authority were advised in the most
fatherly fashion to run away from home. Long Beach became a model city.
Мультиязыковой проект Ильи Франка www.franklang.ru
What impressed the Don was the legal validity (действительность, законность
[v∂'lıdıtı]; valid [‘vжlıd] – действительный, имеющий силу) of these sales swindles
(swindle – надувательство). Clearly there was a place for a man of his talents in that
other world which had been closed to him as an honest youth. He took appropriate
steps to enter that world.
And so he lived happily on the mall in Long Beach, consolidating and enlarging his
66
empire, until after the war was over, the Turk Sollozzo broke the peace and plunged the
Don's world into its own war, and brought him to his hospital bed.
Book 4
Chapter 15
In the New Hampshire village, every foreign phenomenon was properly noticed by
housewives peering from windows, storekeepers lounging (to lounge – сидеть
развалясь, праздно проводить время) behind their doors. And so when the black
automobile bearing New York license plates stopped in front of the Adams' home, every
citizen knew about it in a matter of minutes.
Kay Adams, really a small-town girl despite her college education, was also peering
from her bedroom window. She had been studying for her exams and preparing to go
downstairs for lunch when she spotted the car coming up the street, and for some
reason she was not surprised when it rolled to a halt (/автомобиль/ остановился) in
front of her lawn. Two men got out, big burly men who looked like gangsters in the
movies to her eyes, and she flew down the stairs to be the first at the door. She was
sure they came from Michael or his family and she didn't want them talking to her father
and mother without any introduction. It wasn't that she was ashamed of any of Mike's
friends, she thought; it was just that her mother and father were old-fashioned New
England Yankees and wouldn't understand her even knowing such people.
She got to the door just as the bell rang and she called to her mother, "I'll get it." She
opened the door and the two big men stood there. One reached inside his breast pocket
like a gangster reaching for a gun and the move so surprised Kay that she let out a little
gasp but the man had taken out a small leather case which he flapped open to show an