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

thick stick. No! He had earned enough military glory to satiateany man, he insisted to Mrs. Gould, trying at the sametime to put an air of gallantry into his attitude. A few jettyhairs hung sparsely from his upper lip, he had a salient nose,a thin, long jaw, and a black silk patch over one eye. Hisother eye, small and deep-set, twinkled erratically in all directions,aimlessly affable. The few European spectators, allmen, who had naturally drifted into the neighbourhood ofthe Gould carriage, betrayed by the solemnity of their facestheir impression that the general must have had too muchpunch (Swedish punch, imported in bottles by Anzani) atthe Amarilla Club before he had started with his Staff on afurious ride to the harbour. But Mrs. Gould bent forward,self-possessed, and declared her conviction that still moreglory awaited the general in the near future.‘Senora!’ he remonstrated, with great feeling, ‘in thename of God, reflect! How can there be any glory for a manlike me in overcoming that bald-headed embustero withthe dyed moustaches?’Pablo Ignacio Barrios, son of a village alcalde, generalof division, commanding in chief the Occidental Militarydistrict, did not frequent the higher society of the town. Hepreferred the unceremonious gatherings of men where hecould tell jaguar-hunt stories, boast of his powers with thelasso, with which he could perform extremely difficult featsof the sort ‘no married man should attempt,’ as the sayinggoes amongst the llaneros; relate tales of extraordinarynight rides, encounters with wild bulls, struggles with crocodiles,adventures in the great forests, crossings of swollen