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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“So I think,” said Bligh. “There could have been nothing in our bowels until within a day or two past. You look another man, Mr. Nelson, now that you have had rest and better food. We shall all have time to gain new strength before we push off for Timor.”

“I mean to survive,” Nelson replied, smiling faintly; “if only to defeat the purpose of the wretches who condemned us to this misery.”

“Spoken like a man, sir,” said Bligh. A cold glint came into his eyes and his lips were set in a thin line. “By God! I could sail the launch to England, if necessary, with nothing but water in my belly, for the sake of bringing them to justice!”

He rose to his feet and strode back and forth across the little flat-topped eminence where we rested; then he halted before us. Pale, hollow-eyed, his shreds of clothing hanging loosely upon his bones, he yet had within him a fund of energy that amazed me. Mention of the mutineers had stirred him as the call of a trumpet stirs an old cavalry horse. He laughed in his harsh mirthless way. “They flatter themselves that they have seen the last of me,” he said; “the God-damned inhuman, black-hearted bastards! But Divine Providence sees them and will help me to track them down!”