Surprise was anchored in a tropical lagoon, with soft breakers crashing on the protecting reef and the westering moon silvering a road to the horizon, while the Doctor and the Captain jawed and jawed and jawed over the last bottle of the good wine.
Killick seethed and sucked his teeth as the Doctor emptied the bottle and put it to the side, saying, "Nonsense, Jack, the legend of the mermaid is simply drink-rattled men or sailors delirious with hunger, seeing Trichesus manatus and hallucinating their soft curves into something more familiar--"
Out of resentment, then, Killick stewed, and sighed, and watched the flashing, glistening forms off the port stern as they cavorted in the surf at the entrance to the lagoon -- and told no one what he'd seen to his dying day.
Aubrey-Maturin, Killick, the perils of drinking the last of the good bottles
Killick seethed and sucked his teeth as the Doctor emptied the bottle and put it to the side, saying, "Nonsense, Jack, the legend of the mermaid is simply drink-rattled men or sailors delirious with hunger, seeing Trichesus manatus and hallucinating their soft curves into something more familiar--"
Out of resentment, then, Killick stewed, and sighed, and watched the flashing, glistening forms off the port stern as they cavorted in the surf at the entrance to the lagoon -- and told no one what he'd seen to his dying day.