16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
and of course that is their duty; though which
came first, the deed or the doer, the goose or
the egg, I am not learned enough to tell.'
'Would it not be the owl, at all?'
'Never in life, my poor Stephen. Who ever
heard of a golden owl? But let me tell you why
we are cracking on like this in what promises
to be a very dirty night. There was an Englishman
called Shelton in the whaler's crew, a
foremast jack in Euryalus when Heneage
Dundas had her: he told us of a French fourmaster,
fitted out man-of-war fashion, Alastor
by name, that attacks anything she can overpower,
whatever its nation; a genuine pirate,
wearing the black flag, the Jolly Roger, which
means strike and like to or we shall kill every
man and boy aboard. We ask no quarter: we
give no quarter. We have checked Shelton's
account; we have looked at the whaler's chart,
pricked all the way from their leaving Callao