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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“I have been talking with Moetua,” she said. “There is trouble coming, and Williams is the cause of it. Do you know why he sent Fasto with them to-day?”

“I suppose he wanted some eggs,” said the gardener, drowsily.

“Perhaps he likes eggs, but he likes Hutia better. He meets her in the bush each time he can get Fasto out of the way. And Tararu is a jealous husband, though a fool. Jealous! Yet he would like to be the lover of Mills’s girl!”

“Of Prudence? That child?”

“Child!” Jenny gazed down at him, shaking her head wonderingly. “You yourself are only a child,” she said. “You understand only your plants and trees.”

John Williams was working alone on his house, while Martin and Mills carried plank up the path from Bounty Bay. The framing of the two-story dwelling was now finished, and he was sawing and notching the rafters. The three women had worked well in preparing the thatch, and he planned to finish the roof before beginning on the walls and floor. It was close to midday and the sun was hot in the clearing. Williams was naked to the waist; the sweat streamed down his chest, matted with coarse black hair. He put down his saw and dashed the perspiration from his eyes.