Читать книгу Lieutenant Hornblower онлайн

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"But he's held us up to contempt before the hands. He's set Hobbs to spy on us."

"That'll be a proof of how desperate his situation was, surrounded by us criminals. If we arrest him we're guilty until we've proved ourselves innocent. Any court's bound to be on the captain's side. Mutiny means hanging."

Hornblower was putting into words all the doubts that Bush felt in his bones and yet had been unable to express.

"That's right" whispered Bush.

"What about Wellard?" whispered Roberts. "Did you hear him scream the last time?"

"He's only a volunteer. Not even a midshipman. No friends. No family. What's the court going to say when they hear the captain had a boy beaten half a dozen times? They'll laugh. So would we if we didn't know. Do him good, we'd say, the same as it did the rest of us good."

A silence followed this statement of the obvious, broken in the end by Buckland whispering a succession of filthy oaths that could give small vent to his despair.

"He'll bring charges against us" whispered Roberts. "The minute we're in company with other ships. I know he will."