16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
traveller reached the middle, the first false step
being the last.
'How long does it take to fall a thousand
feet?' he asked himself, and as the troop set
out he tried to make the calculation; but his
arithmetical powers were and always had
been weak. 'Long enough to make an act of
contrition, at all events,' he said, abandoning
the answer of seven hours and odd seconds
as absurd.
On and on: up and up. This had been the
pattern for a great while, but now the up and
up was growing far more pronounced ; now it
was often a question of leading his mule
again; and now he had to concentrate his
mind on keeping up wherever the road grew
steep. His breath was coming short; his heart
beat a hundred and twenty strokes a minute;
his eyesight wavered.