16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
unlucky day – but these winds died with the
midnight stars or at least with the rising sun.
Would the Doctor like a ball of coca-leaves?
Stephen had been so very near death from a
racing heart, an inability to breathe at such a
height and physical exhaustion that he had
almost forgotten his pouch; and at this point
he did not possess the bodily strength or the
spiritual resolution to grope for it under his
clothes. He accepted gratefully, fumbling
across the llama's neck for the proffered quid.
It had not been in his cheek five minutes before
the extremity, the almost mortal extremity
of fatigue died away. In ten minutes he was
perfectly capable of reaching his own supply
of leaves and ash, and of rearranging himself
with what small degree of physical comfort the
space allowed. He also felt a certain grateful
warmth from the llama's head; but quite apart
from that, mental comfort and a sense of di-