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

670 страница из 953

“What’s a twenty-fifth of an ounce of bread, sir?” asked old Purcell, grimly. “I’ve no complaint! I’d as soon have none as what we get. I reckon I could fetch Java with no bread at all!”

Bligh gave a short, harsh laugh. “I believe you might!” he said.

“Once inside the reefs,” remarked Nelson, “we’ll need little bread. There’ll be shellfish, and no doubt we shall find various fruits and berries on the islets.”

Tinkler smacked his lips, and grinned. Like the other midshipmen, he had withstood the hardships better than the grown men. Even Hallet seemed to have grown but little thinner.

I had violent pains in my stomach throughout this day and suffered much from tenesmus, as did nearly every man in the boat. Two or three were constantly at the gunwales, attempting what they were never able to perform, for not one of us, since leaving the Bounty, had had evacuation by stool. At nightfall I lay down in the bilges in a kind of stupor, till dawn. I was awakened by Bligh’s voice.

“Don’t move!” he said.