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

up Sulaco again, and what he said was, ‘The insurgent armyhas taken possession of the Government transport in thebay and are filling her with troops, with the intention ofgoing round the coast to Sulaco. Therefore look out foryourselves. They will be ready to start in a few hours, andmay be upon you before daybreak.’‘This is all he could say. They drove him away from hisinstrument this time for good, because Bernhardt has beencalling up Esmeralda ever since without getting an answer.’After setting these words down in the pocket-book whichhe was filling up for the benefit of his sister, Decoud liftedhis head to listen. But there were no sounds, neither in theroom nor in the house, except the drip of the water fromthe filter into the vast earthenware jar under the woodenstand. And outside the house there was a great silence. Decoudlowered his head again over the pocket-book.‘I am not running away, you understand,’ he wrote on.‘I am simply going away with that great treasure of silverwhich must be saved at all costs. Pedro Montero from theCampo and the revolted garrison of Esmeralda from the seaare converging upon it. That it is there lying ready for themis only an accident. The real objective is the San Tome mineitself, as you may well imagine; otherwise the OccidentalProvince would have been, no doubt, left alone for manyweeks, to be gathered at leisure into the arms of the victoriousparty. Don Carlos Gould will have enough to do tosave his mine, with its organization and its people; this ‘Imperiumin Imperio,’ this wealth-producing thing, to whichhis sentimentalism attaches a strange idea of justice. He