Читать книгу Pitcairn's Island. Sea Adventure Novel онлайн

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“Have I said it was in the stores?”

“Hark ’ee, Isaac! If ye’ve been thievin’ from the medicine chest ...”

“I’ve done no such thing. I’ll tell ’ee, mates,” he proceeded, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. “A few days back while we was rippin’ out the cabin partitions, I found eight quarts o’ brandy under what was Old Sawbones’s bed-place. I reckon he’d hid it away for his own use on a thirsty day. Anyway, there it was, packed careful in a canvas bag. Sez I when I found it: ‘This’ll belong to nobody but Isaac Martin. It’s not ship’s stores, it’s finder’s luck’; so I hid it away, and last night, after we’d come ashore, I found a safe place to stow it. But I’d no mind to be greedy with it. Ye’ll allow that, for I’ve told what there was no need to tell if I’d meant to keep it.”

“That’s plain truth, God bless ye!” said McCoy. “If I’d found it I doubt but I’d been hog enough to drink the lot of it on the sly.”

“Ye would so, Will,” said Mills. “Ye’ve your good points, but sharin’ anything in the way o’ grog’s not one of ’em. Where’s this brandy now, Isaac?”