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

Nostromo detected the ironic tone. ‘I dare say, SenorDon Martin,’ he said, moodily. ‘There are very few thingsthat I am not equal to. Ask the foreign signori. I, a man ofthe people, who cannot always understand what you mean.But as to this lot which I must leave here, let me tell you thatI would believe it in greater safety if you had not been withme at all.’An exclamation escaped Decoud, and a short pause followed.‘Shall I go back with you to Sulaco?’ he asked in anangry tone.‘Shall I strike you dead with my knife where you stand?’retorted Nostromo, contemptuously. ‘It would be the samething as taking you to Sulaco. Come, senor. Your reputationis in your politics, and mine is bound up with the fateof this silver. Do you wonder I wish there had been no otherman to share my knowledge? I wanted no one with me, senor.’‘You could not have kept the lighter afloat without me,’Decoud almost shouted. ‘You would have gone to the bottomwith her.’‘Yes,’ uttered Nostromo, slowly; ‘alone.’Here was a man, Decoud reflected, that seemed as thoughhe would have preferred to die rather than deface the perfectform of his egoism. Such a man was safe. In silence hehelped the Capataz to get the grapnel on board. Nostromocleared the shelving shore with one push of the heavy oar,and Decoud found himself solitary on the beach like a manin a dream. A sudden desire to hear a human voice oncemore seized upon his heart. The lighter was hardly distin-