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

losing party. But I did not tell them anything about Sotillo,for fear they would take it into their heads to try to gethold of the harbour again, either to oppose him or welcomehim—there’s no saying which. There was Gould’s silver, onwhich rests the remnant of our hopes. Decoud’s retreat hadto be thought of, too. I think the railway has done prettywell by its friends without compromising itself hopelessly.Now the parties must be left to themselves.’‘Costaguana for the Costaguaneros,’ interjected the doctor,sardonically. ‘It is a fine country, and they have raiseda fine crop of hates, vengeance, murder, and rapine—thosesons of the country.’‘Well, I am one of them,’ Charles Gould’s voice sounded,calmly, ‘and I must be going on to see to my own crop oftrouble. My wife has driven straight on, doctor?’‘Yes. All was quiet on this side. Mrs. Gould has taken thetwo girls with her.’Charles Gould rode on, and the engineer-in-chief followedthe doctor indoors.‘That man is calmness personified,’ he said, appreciatively,dropping on a bench, and stretching his well-shaped legsin cycling stockings nearly across the doorway. ‘He must beextremely sure of himself.’‘If that’s all he is sure of, then he is sure of nothing,’ saidthe doctor. He had perched himself again on the end of thetable. He nursed his cheek in the palm of one hand, while theother sustained the elbow. ‘It is the last thing a man oughtto be sure of.’ The candle, half-consumed and burning dimlywith a long wick, lighted up from below his inclined face,