Читать книгу Lieutenant Hornblower онлайн

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"There's the point of interception" said Hornblower. "Now we can check against the dead reckoning."

Even Bush could follow the simple steps necessary to plot the ship's course by dead reckoning since noon yesterday. The pencil in the steady fingers made a tiny x on the chart.

"We're still being set to the s'uth'ard, you see" said Hornblower. "We're not far enough east yet for the Gulf Stream to set us to the nor'ard."

"Didn't you say you'd never navigated these waters before?" asked Bush.

"Yes."

"Then how----? Oh, I suppose you've been studying."

To Bush it was as strange that a man should read up beforehand and be prepared for conditions hitherto unknown as it was strange to Hornblower that a man should find trouble in mathematics.

"At any rate, there we are" said Hornblower, tapping the chart with the pencil.

"Yes" said Bush.

They both looked at the chart with the same thought in mind.

"What d'ye think Number One'll do?" asked Bush.

Buckland might be legally in command of the ship, but it was too early yet to speak of him as the captain--"the captain" was still that weeping figure swathed in canvas on the cot in the cabin.