Winger's Landfall by Stuart Lauder

Author:Stuart Lauder [Lauder, Stuart]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, General, Mystery/Adventure, LGBT
Google: HIoU0QEACAAJ
Publisher: Eyre & Spottiswoode
Published: 1961-12-31T14:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

The bell clanged and the dove-grey light forced itself under Harry’s eyelids. Instantly alert, he rolled onto his stomach and peered round the air shaft. Archaically turbanned and smocked like a boys’-adventure corsair, the look-out picked his way through the huddled sleepers back to the prow, soon to be gilded as a living figurehead leading the ship into the dawn. Harry slid his hand, butterfly-soft, down the boy’s back to give his rump a warning shake, and, lips to the warm sleeping ear, murmured, “Princey!”

In a moment the boy had wakened, blinked fearfully at Harry, and had gone as he came, slithering sinuously, flat against the deck, around the corner of the deckhouse.

… Something tells me I didn’t debauch that one! Harry thought, rolling onto his back and outstaring a waning star… . He’s had some practice. But let’s not ask too many questions. Let’s not complain.

He closed his eyes, relaxed, waiting for the dreadful, hearty footsteps on the ladder, the shouted summons, the stewed tea getting cold in the peak.

The sun sprang out of the sea like the Lion of Judah, rattling spars and tossing a mane of brilliance, so that the water paled at the sight of it, and the ship obediently clad itself in golden livery. Five albatrosses, or, formed a heraldic device abaft the ship.

The sun cast its spears low through the windows of the bar, transfixing the Lascars who swarmed infuriatingly all round the deck. Harry and the boy, perforce, kept to their own ends of the room but invented excuses to meet and pass.

“Where were you, anyrate?” Harry asked him.

“Just round the corner,” said Prince gruffly. “With the lads.”

“Didn’t they notice nothing?’’

“Nah,” the boy sounded surlily proud. “They were spark out. Snoring like pigs.”

Passing him presently, Harry touched him and said. “I don’t want you to take all the risks. I’ll come tonight.”

“Nah,” said Prince scornfully. “It’s too dodgy. You’re so blooming big you’d be spotted.”

“True enough,’’ said Harry wonderingly, slightly perturbed by the cockiness. He bit his tongue to keep it silent … No questions, mind! No sense in spoiling things yet. Still three days and nights to Colombo, and, with luck, the weather might hold as far as Aden. After that, to judge by past experience, it would be difficult. After Aden the rack began to stretch and the screws to turn.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.