Читать книгу Pitcairn's Island. Sea Adventure Novel онлайн

59 страница из 96

“That’s truth,” said McCoy. “Give Christian his due. We was all of a mind, there.”

“The man’s clean daft. Is there one of ye can’t see it?”

“Daft! ...”

“Sit ye quiet, Alex. So he is, and we’ve all been daft with him. He’s queer by nature, that’s my belief, and since we took the ship he thinks the world ain’t big enough to hide him and us in. He’s a master talker when he’s a mind to talk; that I’ll say, else he’d never coaxed a man of us off Tahiti. What if a ship did come there? Couldn’t we ha’ hid in the mountains? There’s places a plenty where God himself couldn’t ha’ found us. Or if we was afeared o’ that, we’d only to take a big Indian canoe and sail to Eimeo or one of them islands to leeward, a good hundred miles from Tahiti. We could ha’ played hide-and-seek with a dozen King’s ships till they got sick o’ the chase and went off home. Then we’d live easy for ten or fifteen years till the next one came. Ain’t that common sense? Speak up, Will!”

“Aye,” McCoy replied, uneasily. “Like enough we might hae done it.”