16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
north-east by east – and their speed, rising to
ten knots one fathom now that the head-seas
had grown less lumpish. Behind them there
was the muffled sound of the changing watch,
the very small watch; and Jack said, 'Well,
turn in, Bonden, and get what sleep you can.'
He settled into the helmsman's place with the
living tiller under his hand and forearm, and
while his companions pumped and baled the
launch dry – a good deal of water had come
aboard earlier, but now there was no more
than the odd waft of spray – his mind moved
back to its essential preoccupations. His moral
conviction that Vidal had been party to Dutourd's
escape was irrational in that it was
based on no more than an instinctive distrust
of Vidal's first reply; but now that he reflected,
gathering all he had ever heard of Dutourd's
views and those of the Knipperdollings, all that
he knew about enthusiasm and the lengths to