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

dows. In the whole sunlit range of empty balconies alongthe street only one white figure would be visible high upabove the clear pavement—the wife of the Senor Administrador—leaningover to see the escort go by to the harbour,a mass of heavy, fair hair twisted up negligently on her littlehead, and a lot of lace about the neck of her muslin wrapper.With a smile to her husband’s single, quick, upward glance,she would watch the whole thing stream past below her feetwith an orderly uproar, till she answered by a friendly signthe salute of the galloping Don Pepe, the stiff, deferential inclinationwith a sweep of the hat below the knee.The string of padlocked carts lengthened, the size of theescort grew bigger as the years went on. Every three monthsan increasing stream of treasure swept through the streetsof Sulaco on its way to the strong room in the O.S.N. Co.’sbuilding by the harbour, there to await shipment for theNorth. Increasing in volume, and of immense value also;for, as Charles Gould told his wife once with some exultation,there had never been seen anything in the world toapproach the vein of the Gould Concession. For them both,each passing of the escort under the balconies of the CasaGould was like another victory gained in the conquest ofpeace for Sulaco.No doubt the initial action of Charles Gould had beenhelped at the beginning by a period of comparative peacewhich occurred just about that time; and also by the generalsoftening of manners as compared with the epoch ofcivil wars whence had emerged the iron tyranny of GuzmanBento of fearful memory. In the contests that broke out