16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
same steady determination. He had been gazing
from side to side; and now, giving Stephen
a significant look, he turned off the road into
the last carob-trees. By this point the road had
wound some way from the Rimac, which could
be heard roaring in the gorge below, but a
small tributary stream ran through among the
trees and in this Stephen and the mule drank
heartily.
'You are a good honest creature, sure, and
you bear an excellent character,' said Stephen,
'so I shall take off your saddle, confident you
will not play the fool.'
The mule flung himself to the ground and
rolled, waving his legs; and while Stephen sat
under the lee of a carob's wall (each tree was
surrounded by what looked like a well-head)
grazed on what meagre herbage the grove
could provide. Stephen ate bread and good
Peruvian cheese with Peruvian wine; and in