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

would have passed on, leaving the lighter to sink or swim afterhaving shouldered her thus out of her way, and withouteven getting a glimpse of her form, had it not been that, beingdeeply laden with stores and the great number of peopleon board, her anchor was low enough to hook itself into oneof the wire shrouds of the lighter’s mast. For the space oftwo or three gasping breaths that new rope held against thesudden strain. It was this that gave Decoud the sensationof the snatching pull, dragging the lighter away to destruction.The cause of it, of course, was inexplicable to him. Thewhole thing was so sudden that he had no time to think. Butall his sensations were perfectly clear; he had kept completepossession of himself; in fact, he was even pleasantly awareof that calmness at the very moment of being pitched headfirst over the transom, to struggle on his back in a lot ofwater. Senor Hirsch’s shriek he had heard and recognizedwhile he was regaining his feet, always with that mysterioussensation of being dragged headlong through the darkness.Not a word, not a cry escaped him; he had no time to seeanything; and following upon the despairing screams forhelp, the dragging motion ceased so suddenly that he staggeredforward with open arms and fell against the pile ofthe treasure boxes. He clung to them instinctively, in thevague apprehension of being flung about again; and immediatelyhe heard another lot of shrieks for help, prolongedand despairing, not near him at all, but unaccountably inthe distance, away from the lighter altogether, as if somespirit in the night were mocking at Senor Hirsch’s terrorand despair.