16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
conversation, merely observing that he had
seen an albatross, several seals, and a most
prodigious whale. Stephen spoke, in a desultory
fashion, about ice-islands, and the sudden
change in colour at the point of cleavage
when some great mass fell into the sea. 'This I
have observed in a telescope,' he said, then
paused, for Jack's head was sinking on his
breast.
'If you please, sir,' cried Reade, bouncing in,
alive with youthful joy, 'Captain Pullings says
would you like to step on deck.'
'Eh?' asked Captain Aubrey.
Reade said it again and Jack heaved himself
up, all seventeen stone. Reade led him blinking
aft, passed him a telescope and said,
'There, sir: directly to windward.'
Jack gazed, changed the glass to his good
eye, gazed again, his tired face lighting with a