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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“Ye’ve a snug little harbour here, Jack,” he said as he set down his burden. “All Bristol-fashion, too! So ye’re bound to live alone?”

“Aye.”

Mills shrugged his shoulders. “I’ve no cause to meddle, but if it’s Hutia ye’re still pinin’ for, why don’t ye take her and be damned to the Indians?”

“I’ve no wish to stir up trouble. Christian’s been fair with us. I’ll do what I can to be fair in my turn. I’ll try living alone away from the sight of her, but I’m not sayin’ how this’ll end. Thank ’ee for the lift, John,” he added. “Tell the lads I’ll come over when there’s work for the forge.”

The shadows were long in the clearing, for it was late afternoon. Grass was already beginning to hide the ashes about the blackened stumps. As he sat on the doorstep of his house, the slope of the ground to the west gave Williams a view of the sea above the tree-tops. Snow-white terns, in pairs, sailed back and forth overhead. It was their mating season and they were pursuing one another, swooping and tumbling in aerial play. No wind was astir; the air, saturated with moisture, was difficult to breathe. Williams rose, cursing the heat, went to the small cookhouse behind his cabin, and kindled a fire to prepare his evening meal. At last the sun set angrily, behind masses of banked-up clouds, dull crimson and violet. It was not a night for sleep. The blacksmith was on foot before dawn, and the first grey of morning found him crossing the ridge, on his way to Christian’s house.