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

with his chin on his breast and his arms crossed. Mitchell’sastonishment knew no bounds. He cried out; the other twoexclaimed also. But he hurried on, diagonally, across the bigcavern-like hall. Lots of thoughts, surmises, hints of caution,and so on, crowded his head to distraction.‘Is he actually keeping you?’ shouted the chief engineer,whose single eyeglass glittered in the firelight.An officer from the top of the stairs was shouting urgently,‘Bring them all up—all three.’In the clamour of voices and the rattle of arms, CaptainMitchell made himself heard imperfectly: ‘By heavens! thefellow has stolen my watch.’The engineer-in-chief on the staircase resisted the pressurelong enough to shout, ‘What? What did you say?’‘My chronometer!’ Captain Mitchell yelled violently atthe very moment of being thrust head foremost through asmall door into a sort of cell, perfectly black, and so narrowthat he fetched up against the opposite wall. The door hadbeen instantly slammed. He knew where they had put him.This was the strong room of the Custom House, whencethe silver had been removed only a few hours earlier. It wasalmost as narrow as a corridor, with a small square aperture,barred by a heavy grating, at the distant end. CaptainMitchell staggered for a few steps, then sat down on theearthen floor with his back to the wall. Nothing, not evena gleam of light from anywhere, interfered with CaptainMitchell’s meditation. He did some hard but not very extensivethinking. It was not of a gloomy cast. The old sailor,with all his small weaknesses and absurdities, was consti-