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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Cole gazed after him anxiously; then, seeing that the people had stopped rowing for a moment in their astonishment, he roared out:—

“Pull, I say! Do you want to drag the line out of the captain’s hands? Pull, damn your blood!”

He was paying out line as he shouted, and gazing earnestly down into the water. Captain Bligh came to the surface, drew three or four long breaths, and dived once more. Nearly a minute passed before he reappeared. This time he swam to the stern of the boat and pulled himself aboard. For a moment or two he sat on the gunwale, breathing rapidly.

“By God, sir,” I remarked. “I’m glad you did not ask me to dive.”

He laughed grimly. “I was none too eager to go down; but I’ll ask no one to do what I fear to do myself. The thought of the monstrous shark was never out of my mind.” He shivered. “Nelson, what was that other thing we saw—a crocodile?”

“I’ve little doubt of it,” Nelson replied. “Captain Cook saw what he believed were crocodiles in these waters.”

Bligh shivered in spite of himself. “I’m as glad to be in the boat again,” he said. “We are in a bad position here, and these currents are the devil; they seem to set four ways at once.”