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

the Capataz would call desperation.‘I fancy I hear another shower on the water,’ he observedin a tone of quiet content. ‘I hope it will catch us up.’Nostromo ceased chirruping at once. ‘You hear anothershower?’ he said, doubtfully. A sort of thinning of thedarkness seemed to have taken place, and Decoud could seenow the outline of his companion’s figure, and even the sailcame out of the night like a square block of dense snow.The sound which Decoud had detected came along thewater harshly. Nostromo recognized that noise partaking ofa hiss and a rustle which spreads out on all sides of a steamermaking her way through a smooth water on a quiet night.It could be nothing else but the captured transport withtroops from Esmeralda. She carried no lights. The noise ofher steaming, growing louder every minute, would stop attimes altogether, and then begin again abruptly, and soundstartlingly nearer; as if that invisible vessel, whose positioncould not be precisely guessed, were making straightfor the lighter. Meantime, that last kept on sailing slowlyand noiselessly before a breeze so faint that it was only byleaning over the side and feeling the water slip throughhis fingers that Decoud convinced himself they were movingat all. His drowsy feeling had departed. He was glad toknow that the lighter was moving. After so much stillnessthe noise of the steamer seemed uproarious and distracting.There was a weirdness in not being able to see her. Suddenlyall was still. She had stopped, but so close to them that thesteam, blowing off, sent its rumbling vibration right overtheir heads.