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

the engineer. ‘When this question of the silver arose, CaptainMitchell naturally was very warmly of the opinion thathis Capataz was the only man fit for the trust. As a sailor, ofcourse, I suppose so. But as a man, don’t you know, Gould,Decoud, and myself judged that it didn’t matter in the leastwho went. Any boatman would have done just as well. Pray,what could a thief do with such a lot of ingots? If he ran offwith them he would have in the end to land somewhere, andhow could he conceal his cargo from the knowledge of thepeople ashore? We dismissed that consideration from ourminds. Moreover, Decoud was going. There have been occasionswhen the Capataz has been more implicitly trusted.’‘He took a slightly different view,’ the doctor said. ‘I heardhim declare in this very room that it would be the most desperateaffair of his life. He made a sort of verbal will here inmy hearing, appointing old Viola his executor; and, by Jove!do you know, he—he’s not grown rich by his fidelity to yougood people of the railway and the harbour. I suppose heobtains some—how do you say that?—some spiritual valuefor his labours, or else I don’t know why the devil heshould be faithful to you, Gould, Mitchell, or anybody else.He knows this country well. He knows, for instance, thatGamacho, the Deputy from Javira, has been nothing elsebut a ‘tramposo’ of the commonest sort, a petty pedlar ofthe Campo, till he managed to get enough goods on creditfrom Anzani to open a little store in the wilds, and gothimself elected by the drunken mozos that hang about theEstancias and the poorest sort of rancheros who were in hisdebt. And Gamacho, who to-morrow will be probably one