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

windows of the houses, and showing his white teeth all thetime. But one of my Cargadores, who had been a soldier,told me that he had once ordered a man to be flayed alive inthe remote Campo, where he was sent recruiting amongstthe people of the Estancias. It has never entered his headthat the Compania had a man capable of baffling his game.’The murmuring loquacity of the Capataz disturbed Decoudlike a hint of weakness. And yet, talkative resolutionmay be as genuine as grim silence.‘Sotillo is not baffled so far,’ he said. ‘Have you forgottenthat crazy man forward?’Nostromo had not forgotten Senor Hirsch. He reproachedhimself bitterly for not having visited the lightercarefully before leaving the wharf. He reproached himselffor not having stabbed and flung Hirsch overboard at thevery moment of discovery without even looking at his face.That would have been consistent with the desperate characterof the affair. Whatever happened, Sotillo was alreadybaffled. Even if that wretch, now as silent as death, did anythingto betray the nearness of the lighter, Sotillo—if Sotilloit was in command of the troops on board—would be stillbaffled of his plunder.‘I have an axe in my hand,’ Nostromo whispered, wrathfully,‘that in three strokes would cut through the side downto the water’s edge. Moreover, each lighter has a plug in thestern, and I know exactly where it is. I feel it under the soleof my foot.’Decoud recognized the ring of genuine determinationin the nervous murmurs, the vindictive excitement of the