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

the paper was going through the press. And it is curious tohave met a man for whom the value of life seems to consistin personal prestige.‘I am waiting for him here now. On arriving at the posadakept by Viola we found the children alone down below,and the old Genoese shouted to his countryman to go andfetch the doctor. Otherwise we would have gone on to thewharf, where it appears Captain Mitchell with some volunteerEuropeans and a few picked Cargadores are loading thelighter with the silver that must be saved from Montero’sclutches in order to be used for Montero’s defeat. Nostromogalloped furiously back towards the town. He has beenlong gone already. This delay gives me time to talk to you.By the time this pocket-book reaches your hands much willhave happened. But now it is a pause under the hoveringwing of death in this silent house buried in the black night,with this dying woman, the two children crouching withouta sound, and that old man whom I can hear throughthe thickness of the wall passing up and down with a lightrubbing noise no louder than a mouse. And I, the only otherwith them, don’t really know whether to count myself withthe living or with the dead. ‘Quien sabe?’ as the people hereare prone to say in answer to every question. But no! feelingfor you is certainly not dead, and the whole thing, thehouse, the dark night, the silent children in this dim room,my very presence here—all this is life, must be life, since itis so much like a dream.’With the writing of the last line there came upon Decouda moment of sudden and complete oblivion. He swayed over