Читать книгу The Captain from Connecticut онлайн

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Murray was beside him, descended from his chilly post aloft.

"She's coming down on us fast, sir," he said. He had a notable tendency to gesticulate with his hands when he spoke.

Hubbard was at his captain's other shoulder now, tall and saturnine, a master of his profession, and yet in this unhappy moment feeling the need for company and conversation.

"Those damned two-deckers," he said. "They need a gale of wind to move 'em, and that one has it. Standing rigging like chain cable, sir, and canvas as thick as this pea-jacket of mine."

The two of them looked sidelong at their captain, in need of reassurance. Hubbard was older than Peabody, Murray hardly younger, and yet he felt paternal towards them.

"D'you think he went through Plum Gut, sir?" asked Murray.

"No doubt about it," said Hubbard, but Murray still looked to his captain for confirmation.

"Yes," said Peabody.

The implications were manifold. A captain who had the nerve to take a two-decker through Plum Gut had nerve enough for anything else whatever, and he had brains as well, and the ability to use them.