Captain Blood: His Odyssey / Одиссея капитана Блада. Рафаэль Сабатини
Читать онлайн.| Название | Captain Blood: His Odyssey / Одиссея капитана Блада |
|---|---|
| Автор произведения | Рафаэль Сабатини |
| Жанр | |
| Серия | Abridged & Adapted |
| Издательство | |
| Год выпуска | 1922 |
| isbn | 978-5-6044983-0-9 |
Colonel Bishop nodded. He answered loudly. “They’re thin and weak; there won’t be much use of them in the plantation.” He looked at them again. He seemed annoyed and disappointed that they were in no better condition. Then he started talking to Captain Gardner and the master of the Jamaica Merchant for some minutes. The master of the ship made a list for him.
Then he came up to the men. He stopped before young Pitt, and stood for a moment looking at him. Then he felt the muscles of the young man’s arm, and told him open his mouth so that he might see his teeth. The Colonel nodded.
He spoke to Gardner over his shoulder.
“Fifteen pounds for this one.”
The Captain did not agree with the price. “Fifteen pounds! It isn’t half what I wanted to ask for him.”
“It is twice as much as I wanted to give,” said the Colonel.
“Even thirty pounds are not enough, your honour.”
“I can get a negro for that. These white men die quickly. They can’t work.”
They argued over the price for some time. Pitt, a sensitive man, was quiet and did not move. Only the colour in his cheeks showed how dificf ult it was for him to control himself.
Peter Blood was annoyed that he had to listen to their argument.
In the background, moving slowly along the line of prisoners, went the lady. She was talking to the Governor and did not hear what the Colonel was saying. Did she care at all?
Colonel Bishop went on.
“I’ll give you twenty pounds. Not a penny more.”
Captain Gardner realised that Colonel Bishop would not change his mind and sighed. The Colonel only looked at Mr. Blood and stopped in front of a middle-aged man. His name was Wolverstone and he had lost an eye at Sedgemoor. The Colonel and Captain Gardner started arguing about the price again.
Peter Blood stood there in the sunlight. The air was different from any air that he had ever breathed. It smelled of wood and flowers. He did not want to talk. Young Pitt did not want to talk either. He stood at Peter Blood’s side and thought that he might not see him again. In the last months, he had learnt to love and depend on Peter Blood. He felt lonely and miserable.
Other people came and looked at them, and went. Blood did not pay attention to them. And then something happened at the end of the line. Gardner was speaking in a loud voice to the people that had waited until Colonel Bishop had finished. Blood noticed that the girl was speaking to Bishop and pointing up the line. Bishop looked in the direction in which she was pointing. Then slowly, he went up the line with Gardner, the lady, and the Governor.
The lady made the Colonel stop in front of Blood.
“But this is the man I meant,” she said.
“This one?” Colonel Bishop asked. Peter Blood was now looking into a pair of brown eyes on a yellow face. “A bag of bones. What should I do with him?”
He was turning away when Gardner spoke.
“He may be thin, but healthy. When half of them were sick, this man helped them. Say fifteen pounds for him, Colonel. That’s cheap enough. He’s strong, though he is thin. And he can bear the heat when it comes. The climate will never kill him.”
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