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

Then all was still—as still as when you wake up in yourbed in a dark room from a bizarre and agitated dream. Thelighter rocked slightly; the rain was still falling. Two gropinghands took hold of his bruised sides from behind, andthe Capataz’s voice whispered, in his ear, ‘Silence, for yourlife! Silence! The steamer has stopped.’Decoud listened. The gulf was dumb. He felt the waternearly up to his knees. ‘Are we sinking?’ he asked in a faintbreath.‘I don’t know,’ Nostromo breathed back to him. ‘Senor,make not the slightest sound.’Hirsch, when ordered forward by Nostromo, had not returnedinto his first hiding-place. He had fallen near themast, and had no strength to rise; moreover, he feared tomove. He had given himself up for dead, but not on any rationalgrounds. It was simply a cruel and terrifying feeling.Whenever he tried to think what would become of him histeeth would start chattering violently. He was too absorbedin the utter misery of his fear to take notice of anything.Though he was stifling under the lighter’s sail whichNostromo had unwittingly lowered on top of him, he didnot even dare to put out his head till the very moment of thesteamer striking. Then, indeed, he leaped right out, spurredon to new miracles of bodily vigour by this new shape ofdanger. The inrush of water when the lighter heeled overunsealed his lips. His shriek, ‘Save me!’ was the first distinctwarning of the collision for the people on board the steamer.Next moment the wire shroud parted, and the releasedanchor swept over the lighter’s forecastle. It came against