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

murs of recognition and obsequious greetings, towards thehuge circus-like erection. The throng thickened; the guitarstinkled louder; other horsemen sat motionless, smokingcalmly above the heads of the crowd; it eddied and pushedbefore the doors of the high-roofed building, whence issueda shuffle and thumping of feet in time to the dance musicvibrating and shrieking with a racking rhythm, overhungby the tremendous, sustained, hollow roar of the gombo.The barbarous and imposing noise of the big drum, thatcan madden a crowd, and that even Europeans cannot hearwithout a strange emotion, seemed to draw Nostromo on toits source, while a man, wrapped up in a faded, torn poncho,walked by his stirrup, and, buffeted right and left, begged‘his worship’ insistently for employment on the wharf. Hewhined, offering the Senor Capataz half his daily pay forthe privilege of being admitted to the swaggering fraternityof Cargadores; the other half would be enough for him, heprotested. But Captain Mitchell’s right-hand man—‘invaluablefor our work—a perfectly incorruptible fellow’—afterlooking down critically at the ragged mozo, shook his headwithout a word in the uproar going on around.The man fell back; and a little further on Nostromo hadto pull up. From the doors of the dance hall men and womenemerged tottering, streaming with sweat, trembling inevery limb, to lean, panting, with staring eyes and partedlips, against the wall of the structure, where the harpsand guitars played on with mad speed in an incessant rollof thunder. Hundreds of hands clapped in there; voicesshrieked, and then all at once would sink low, chanting in