Nostromo - A Tale of the Seaboard.pdf - Planet eBook

chief of the police, the chief of the customs, the general, all,all, are the officials of that Gould.’Thereupon an intrepid but low and argumentative murmurwould flow on for a space in the ministerial cabinet,and the prominent man’s passion would end in a cynicalshrug of the shoulders. After all, he seemed to say, what didit matter as long as the minister himself was not forgottenduring his brief day of authority? But all the same, the unofficialagent of the San Tome mine, working for a good cause,had his moments of anxiety, which were reflected in his lettersto Don Jose Avellanos, his maternal uncle.‘No sanguinary macaque from Sta. Marta shall set footon that part of Costaguana which lies beyond the San Tomebridge,’ Don Pepe used to assure Mrs. Gould. ‘Except, ofcourse, as an honoured guest—for our Senor Administradoris a deep politico.’ But to Charles Gould, in his ownroom, the old Major would remark with a grim and soldierlycheeriness, ‘We are all playing our heads at this game.’Don Jose Avellanos would mutter ‘Imperium in imperio,Emilia, my soul,’ with an air of profound self-satisfactionwhich, somehow, in a curious way, seemed to contain aqueer admixture of bodily discomfort. But that, perhaps,could only be visible to the initiated. And for the initiatedit was a wonderful place, this drawing-room of the CasaGould, with its momentary glimpses of the master—ElSenor Administrador—older, harder, mysteriously silent,with the lines deepened on his English, ruddy, out-of-doorscomplexion; flitting on his thin cavalryman’s legs across thedoorways, either just ‘back from the mountain’ or with jin-