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

death from the misty atmosphere of regrets and hopes. Decoudshook himself, shuddered a bit, though the air thatdrifted past him was warm. He had the strangest sensationof his soul having just returned into his body from thecircumambient darkness in which land, sea, sky, the mountains,and the rocks were as if they had not been.Nostromo’s voice was speaking, though he, at the tiller,was also as if he were not. ‘Have you been asleep, Don Martin?Caramba! If it were possible I would think that I, too,have dozed off. I have a strange notion somehow of havingdreamt that there was a sound of blubbering, a sounda sorrowing man could make, somewhere near this boat.Something between a sigh and a sob.’‘Strange!’ muttered Decoud, stretched upon the pile oftreasure boxes covered by many tarpaulins. ‘Could it bethat there is another boat near us in the gulf? We could notsee it, you know.’Nostromo laughed a little at the absurdity of the idea.They dismissed it from their minds. The solitude could almostbe felt. And when the breeze ceased, the blacknessseemed to weigh upon Decoud like a stone.‘This is overpowering,’ he muttered. ‘Do we move at all,Capataz?’‘Not so fast as a crawling beetle tangled in the grass,’ answeredNostromo, and his voice seemed deadened by thethick veil of obscurity that felt warm and hopeless all aboutthem. There were long periods when he made no sound, invisibleand inaudible as if he had mysteriously stepped outof the lighter.