16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
'To tell you the truth, I had not. But why
should he want them to go to her?'
'Because she is wearing American colours, in
course, whereas we wear the ensign. That is
the Captain's guile, do you see? In any case
they certainly know her, she having been aprivateering
in these waters since March; and
the look-out wants them to make sail for her
while there is yet time: they do not know she is
took. As the breeze lays now we should need
two long boards or tacks if you follow me to
come up with her, and by then she could just
squeeze under the Franklin's lee.'
'Little good would it do them.'
'None at all, Doctor. But they don't know it.
Nor they don't know what metal we carry.'
'Would it not mean abandoning their friends
over there in the east?'
'Oh yes. And it would mean abandoning