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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McCoy nodded. “It’s no such a grand place for size, this Pitcairn’s Island; but Christian’s right—it’s safe. We’ll never be found.”

“And here we’ll bide to our last day!” said Mills. “Have ’ee thought o’ that, shipmates?” He smote his horny palms together. “God’s curse on the pack of us! What fools we’ve been to break up the ship!”

McCoy sat up abruptly. “Hearken to me, John. Ye and Isaac had your chance to stay at Tahiti, but I mind me weel ye was all for comin’ awa’ with the rest of us to a safer place. And now we’ve found it, ye’ll nae hae it. And what would ye hae done with the ship? Hoist her three hunnerd feet up the rocks? Where could we keep her?”

“It’s as Christian says,” Smith added. “We’re not free to go where we like.”

“And whose fault is that?” Mills replied. “If he’d minded his own bloody business ...”

“Aye,” said Martin, “we’d ha’ been home by now, or near it. We’ve a deal to be thankful for to Mr. Fletcher Christian!”

“I’d like well to hear ye tell him that,” said Smith. “Ye’ll be sayin’ next he drove us into the mutiny. There was no man more willin’ than yerself, Isaac Martin, to seize the ship.”