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

less words, busied themselves in making for the Isabels. Thelast shower had brought with it a gentle but steady breeze.The danger was not over yet, and there was no time for talk.The lighter was leaking like a sieve. They splashed in the waterat every step. The Capataz put into Decoud’s hands thehandle of the pump which was fitted at the side aft, and atonce, without question or remark, Decoud began to pumpin utter forgetfulness of every desire but that of keepingthe treasure afloat. Nostromo hoisted the sail, flew back tothe tiller, pulled at the sheet like mad. The short flare of amatch (they had been kept dry in a tight tin box, thoughthe man himself was completely wet), disclosed to the toilingDecoud the eagerness of his face, bent low over the boxof the compass, and the attentive stare of his eyes. He knewnow where he was, and he hoped to run the sinking lighterashore in the shallow cove where the high, cliff-like end ofthe Great Isabel is divided in two equal parts by a deep andovergrown ravine.Decoud pumped without intermission. Nostromosteered without relaxing for a second the intense, peeringeffort of his stare. Each of them was as if utterly alone withhis task. It did not occur to them to speak. There was nothingin common between them but the knowledge that thedamaged lighter must be slowly but surely sinking. In thatknowledge, which was like the crucial test of their desires,they seemed to have become completely estranged, as ifthey had discovered in the very shock of the collision thatthe loss of the lighter would not mean the same thing tothem both. This common danger brought their differences