16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
sudden flashes.
Jack returned to his reflexions: Stephen's
point of view had of course to do with intelligence.
This had almost certainly been the
case for many, many years, and on occasion
Jack had been officially required to seek his
advice on political matters. But he had no notion
of Stephen's present task: he did not wish
to know, either, ignorance being the surest
guarantee of discretion. Nor could he imagine
how such a man as Dutourd could be any
hindrance to whatever task it was. Surely no
government, however besotted, could ever
think of using such a prating, silly fellow as an
intelligence agent or any sort of envoy.
He turned the matter over this way and that.
It was an exercise as useful as trying to solve
an equation with innumerable terms of which
only two could be read. To windward there
was a vast expiring sigh as a sperm whale sur-