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

above reproach, became the terror of all the thieves in thetown. We were infested, infested, overrun, sir, here at thattime by ladrones and matreros, thieves and murderers fromthe whole province. On this occasion they had been flockinginto Sulaco for a week past. They had scented the end,sir. Fifty per cent. of that murdering mob were professionalbandits from the Campo, sir, but there wasn’t one thathadn’t heard of Nostromo. As to the town leperos, sir, thesight of his black whiskers and white teeth was enough forthem. They quailed before him, sir. That’s what the force ofcharacter will do for you.’It could very well be said that it was Nostromo alone whosaved the lives of these gentlemen. Captain Mitchell, on hispart, never left them till he had seen them collapse, panting,terrified, and exasperated, but safe, on the luxuriant velvetsofas in the first-class saloon of the Minerva. To the verylast he had been careful to address the ex-Dictator as ‘YourExcellency.’‘Sir, I could do no other. The man was down—ghastly,livid, one mass of scratches.’The Minerva never let go her anchor that call. The superintendentordered her out of the harbour at once. No cargocould be landed, of course, and the passengers for Sulaconaturally refused to go ashore. They could hear the firingand see plainly the fight going on at the edge of the water.The repulsed mob devoted its energies to an attack upon theCustom House, a dreary, unfinished-looking structure withmany windows two hundred yards away from the O.S.N. Offices,and the only other building near the harbour. Captain