Английский язык с Дж. Р. Р. Толкиеном. Хоббит

And Smaug laughed aloud (и Смауг громко рассмеялся). He had a wicked and a wily heart (у него было злобное и коварное сердце), and he knew his guesses were not far out (и он знал, что его догадки были не далеки от правды), though he suspected (хотя он и подозревал) that the Lake-men were at the back of the plans (что за всеми этими планами стоят Люди-с-Озера; to be at the back of smth. — скрываться за чем-либо, быть зачинщиком чего-либо), and that most of the plunder was meant to stop there (и что большую часть добычи предполагалось оставить там; plunder—грабеж, разбой; добыча, награбленное; to stop — останавливать (ся), оставаться, прекращать) in the town by the shore (в городе на берегу) that in his young days (который в дни его юности: «его молодые дни») had been called Esgaroth (назывался Эсгарот).

catch [kætʃ] delivery [dɪˈlɪv (ǝ) rɪ] cartage [ˈkɑ: tɪdʒ]

“Ha! Ha! You admit the ‘us’, ” laughed Smaug. “Why not say ‘us fourteen’ and be done with it. Mr. Lucky Number? I am pleased to hear that you had other business in these parts besides my gold. In that case you may, perhaps, not altogether waste your time.

“I don’t know if it has occurred to you that, even if you could steal the gold bit by bit — a matter of a hundred years or so — you could not get it very far? Not much use on the mountain-side? Not much use in the forest? Bless me! Had you never thought of the catch? A fourteenth share, I suppose, or something like it, those were the terms, eh? But what about delivery? What about cartage? What about armed guards and tolls?” And Smaug laughed aloud. He had a wicked and a wily heart, and he knew his guesses were not far out, though he suspected that the Lake-men were at the back of the plans, and that most of the plunder was meant to stop there in the town by the shore that in his young days had been called Esgaroth.