16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
up to a point below the beacon, from which
he commanded an immense stretch of ocean
bounded by a hard, unusually distinct horizon.
He swept this clear line with his glass, and
there indeed, due west, was what he had been
looking for yesterday afternoon and evening,
slowly drinking cold tea as he did so – a remote
fleck of white in the sun between sea
and sky. He climbed up to the beacon itself,
sitting where a rock-fall gave him a firm rest
for the telescope and focused with the utmost
care. At this height she was already topsails
up, with another ship behind her; and well before
likelihood became certainty his heart was
eased, filled with happiness. She was surely
the Franklin, and she was bringing in a prize.
Presently, when the sun was hot on the back
of his head, she was hull up, and he was
wholly satisfied, head and heart. He had
commanded her, and now he could not be