Читать книгу Men Against the Sea – Book Set. The Greatest Maritime Adventure Novels: The Bounty Trilogy, Lost Island, The Hurricane, Botany Bay, The Far Lands, Tales of the South Seas… онлайн

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I gazed, not at the water, but at the beautiful girl at my side. She wore only a light kilt of white cloth, and her bare shoulder and arm, turned to me, were smooth as satin and of the most exquisite proportions. Her feet and hands, small and delicately made, might have been envied by a princess, and Phidias himself could have produced in cold marble nothing one-half so lovely as her young breasts, bared in all innocence. In her face I saw sweetness and strength.

“Tehani!” I said, and took her hand in both of mine.

She made no answer, but raised her head slowly and turned to me. Then all at once, and without a word between us, she was in my arms. The faint perfume of her hair intoxicated me, and for a time the beating of my heart made speech impossible. It was the girl who spoke first.

“Byam,” she asked, stroking my wet hair caressingly, “have you no wife?”

“No,” I replied.

“I have no husband,” said the girl.

At that moment I heard a woman’s voice calling from downstream: “Tehani! Tehani O!” The girl hailed back, bidding the caller to wait, and turned to me.