16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
faced, black in a corruscation of green light,
an enormous solitary bull. His spout drifted
across the launch itself, and he could be
heard drawing in the air, breathing for quite
some time; then easily, smoothly, he shouldered
over and dived, showing his flukes in a
final blaze.
Jack continued with his pointless exercise,
with one pause when Johnson spelled him,
until the end of the watch, ending with no
more valuable observation than that with
which he had begun: if Dutourd was in any
way a threat to Stephen on shore it was his
clear self-evident duty to get the man aboard
again if it could be done, and if it could not,
then at least to take Stephen off.
From the end of the watch at four he slept
until six, blessing himself for this eye, but uneasy
about the failing breeze, still right in their
teeth, but barely carrying the launch close-