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

ed here with mosquitoes before the late improvements; apeculiar harbour brand, sir, renowned for its ferocity. Theywere like a cloud about my head, and I shouldn’t wonderthat but for their attacks I would have dozed off as I walkedup and down, and got a heavy fall. I kept on smoking cigarafter cigar, more to protect myself from being eaten up alivethan from any real relish for the weed. Then, sir, when perhapsfor the twentieth time I was approaching my watch tothe lighted end in order to see the time, and observing withsurprise that it wanted yet ten minutes to midnight, I heardthe splash of a ship’s propeller—an unmistakable sound toa sailor’s ear on such a calm night. It was faint indeed, becausethey were advancing with precaution and dead slow,both on account of the darkness and from their desire ofnot revealing too soon their presence: a very unnecessarycare, because, I verily believe, in all the enormous extentof this harbour I was the only living soul about. Even theusual staff of watchmen and others had been absent fromtheir posts for several nights owing to the disturbances. Istood stock still, after dropping and stamping out my cigar—acircumstance highly agreeable, I should think, tothe mosquitoes, if I may judge from the state of my face nextmorning. But that was a trifling inconvenience in comparisonwith the brutal proceedings I became victim of on thepart of Sotillo. Something utterly inconceivable, sir; morelike the proceedings of a maniac than the action of a saneman, however lost to all sense of honour and decency. ButSotillo was furious at the failure of his thievish scheme.’In this Captain Mitchell was right. Sotillo was indeed