16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
of vision. When he had been walking for an
hour he did this again after a longer pause
than usual and to his infinite delight he saw no
less than twelve condors wheeling and wheeling
high in the pale sky between him and
Lima. He walked a few paces more, sat on a
mile-stone and fixed them with his pocketglass.
No possibility of error: enormous birds:
not perhaps as wide as the wandering albatross
but more massive by far – a different
kind of flight, a different use of the air entirely.
Perfect flight, perfect curves: never a movement
of those great wings. Round and round,
rising and falling, rising and rising still until at
the top of their spiral they glided away in a
long straight line towards the north-east.
He walked on with a smile of pure happiness
on his face; and presently, just after he had
passed a posada where carts and wagons
stood under the shade of carob-trees while