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

CHAPTER THREEDIRECTLY they were alone, the colonel’s severe officialmanner changed. He rose and approached the doctor.His eyes shone with rapacity and hope; he became confidential.‘The silver might have been indeed put on board thelighter, but it was not conceivable that it should have beentaken out to sea.’ The doctor, watching every word, noddedslightly, smoking with apparent relish the cigar which Sotillohad offered him as a sign of his friendly intentions. Thedoctor’s manner of cold detachment from the rest of theEuropeans led Sotillo on, till, from conjecture to conjecture,he arrived at hinting that in his opinion this was a putupjob on the part of Charles Gould, in order to get hold of thatimmense treasure all to himself. The doctor, observant andself-possessed, muttered, ‘He is very capable of that.’Here Captain Mitchell exclaimed with amazement,amusement, and indignation, ‘You said that of CharlesGould!’ Disgust, and even some suspicion, crept into histone, for to him, too, as to other Europeans, there appearedto be something dubious about the doctor’s personality.‘What on earth made you say that to this watch-stealingscoundrel?’ he asked. ‘What’s the object of an infernal lie ofthat sort? That confounded pick-pocket was quite capableof believing you.’He snorted. For a time the doctor remained silent in the