Читать книгу Pitcairn's Island. Sea Adventure Novel онлайн

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“We passed where I hid it on the way up here. It’s a good piece from the camp. We can drink it somewheres thereabout and the rest none the wiser. What do ye say, Alex? Must I give it up as ship’s stores?”

“That’s no called for,” McCoy put in earnestly.

“To my thinkin’ it belongs to the ship and calls to be shared by all.”

“There’s three of us to say no to that,” said Mills.

Smith rose. “Do as ye please,” he said, “but it’s a bad beginning ye’re makin’. I’ll go along and leave ye to it.”

For a moment his companions looked after him in silence; then Martin called out, “If we’re asked for, Alex, tell ’em we’re walkin’ the island and will sleep the night out.”

Smith turned and waved his hand. A moment later he was lost to view in the forest, below.

McCoy shook his head admiringly. “He’s a grand stubborn character. And there’s no man fonder of his grog; there’s the wonder of it.”

“If we’d the brandy with us we could ha’ won him over for all his fine notions o’ what’s fair to the rest,” Martin replied. He rose to his feet. “Well, shipmates?”