Читать книгу The Castaways of the Flag: The Final Adventures of the Swiss Family Robinson онлайн

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While merely afloat like this, it was little use to remain at the helm. But the boatswain declined to leave his post. With the tiller under his arm, he tried at least to avoid the lurching which tilted the boat to one side and another, and thus to spare his companions excessive shaking.

It was about three o’clock in the morning when John Block felt a light breath pass across his cheeks, roughened and hardened as they were by the salt sea air.

“Can the wind be getting up?” he murmured as he rose.

He turned towards the south, and wetting his finger in his mouth, held it up. There was a distinct sensation of coldness, caused by the evaporation, and now a distant rippling sound became audible.

He turned to the passenger sitting on the middle bench, near one of the women.

“Mr. Fritz!” he said.

Fritz Robinson raised his head and bent round.

“What do you want, bo’sun?” he asked.

“Look over there—towards the east.”

“What do you think you see?”

“If I’m not mistaken, a kind of rift, like a belt, on the water-line.”