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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“Mr. Bligh!” he hailed in a subdued voice.

“Yes?”

“There’s a monstrous great tortoise asleep, scarce two cable-lengths ahead! Let me conn ye on to him, sir, and I’ll snatch his flipper! Many a one I’ve caught in the West Indies!”

Bligh nodded, with his eyes fixed on Lebogue. “Let no man make a sound,” he said.

We were running at about four knots, and since the boat would almost certainly have filled had we turned broadside to the sea, there was no time to prepare a noose or to consult as to the surest method of capturing the tortoise. I knew that the slightest sound of our feet on the boat’s bottom, or knock against her sides, would awaken the animal at once and send him away in alarm. Bligh was alert at the tiller, steering in accordance with the movements of Lebogue’s arm. Not a word was spoken; we scarcely dared turn our heads. Once, glancing out of the corner of my eye as the stern was lifted by a breaking wave, I caught a glimpse of the broad, arched back of the sleeping tortoise, close ahead on our starboard bow. Lebogue waved to starboard a little and then raised his arm as a signal to hold the course. Next moment he stepped softly down from the thwart and leaned far over the gunwale, whilst I heard the animal’s powerful thrashing in the sea. The tortoise was immensely heavy and strong, but Lebogue was a powerful man and determined not to let go. Before Smith or Lenkletter could seize his legs,—before any of us, in fact, could realize what was happening,—the tortoise had pulled him clean over the gunwale and into the sea.