16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
can you give me some water for our wounded
men? They are dying of thirst.'
'Do you surrender?'
The man half raised himself to reply – he was
clearly no seaman – and cried, 'How can you
speak so at such a time, sir? Shame on you.'
His voice was harsh, high-pitched and furiously
indignant. Jack's expression did not
change, but after a pause in which the raft
drifted nearer he hailed the bosun on the
forecastle: 'Mr Bulkeley, there. Let the Doctor's
skiff be lowered down with a couple of breakers
in it.'
'If you have a surgeon aboard, it would be a
Christian act in him to relieve their pain,' said
the man on the raft, now closer still.
'By God...' began Jack, and there were exclamations
all along the gangway; but as
Stephen and Martin had already gone below