Читать книгу The Captain from Connecticut онлайн

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"Mr. Hunningford?"

"Captain Hunningford, sir. And I have the honour to address----?"

"Josiah Peabody."

"Of the United States frigate Delaware," supplemented Hunningford, looking round the ship with a keen professional eye.

"I have been beating about waiting for you for the last week," said Peabody irritably.

"And I, sir," said Hunningford, with sublime insouciance, "have been waiting for you for two months."

He was a man as tall as Peabody, and even thinner, and without Peabody's heavy shoulders. He had a lean, mobile face and a twinkle in his eye--it was the face of a young man in strange contrast with his snow-white hair.

"What news have you for me?" demanded Peabody.

Hunningford looked round the deck.

"I would prefer," he said gently, "to tell you that in conditions a little more private."

"Come below," said Peabody curtly.

He led the visitor down the companionway, pausing outside the door of the main cabin he heard Styles' voice lifted in song, and directly afterwards the rest of the company joined in the chorus.