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

CHAPTER TWOCAPTAIN MITCHELL, pacing the wharf, was askinghimself the same question. There was always the doubtwhether the warning of the Esmeralda telegraphist—afragmentary and interrupted message—had been properlyunderstood. However, the good man had made up his mindnot to go to bed till daylight, if even then. He imaginedhimself to have rendered an enormous service to CharlesGould. When he thought of the saved silver he rubbed hishands together with satisfaction. In his simple way he wasproud at being a party to this extremely clever expedient. Itwas he who had given it a practical shape by suggesting thepossibility of intercepting at sea the north-bound steamer.And it was advantageous to his Company, too, which wouldhave lost a valuable freight if the treasure had been leftashore to be confiscated. The pleasure of disappointing theMonterists was also very great. Authoritative by temperamentand the long habit of command, Captain Mitchell wasno democrat. He even went so far as to profess a contemptfor parliamentarism itself. ‘His Excellency Don VincenteRibiera,’ he used to say, ‘whom I and that fellow of mine,Nostromo, had the honour, sir, and the pleasure of savingfrom a cruel death, deferred too much to his Congress. Itwas a mistake—a distinct mistake, sir.’The guileless old seaman superintending the O.S.N. ser-