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

tance.’Captain Mitchell was very nearly provoked to an answer.It displeased him to be liberated insultingly; but wantof sleep, prolonged anxieties, a profound disappointmentwith the fatal ending of the silver-saving business weighedupon his spirits. It was as much as he could do to concealhis uneasiness, not about himself perhaps, but about thingsin general. It occurred to him distinctly that something underhandwas going on. As he went out he ignored the doctorpointedly.‘A brute!’ said Sotillo, as the door shut.Dr. Monygham slipped off the window-sill, and, thrustinghis hands into the pockets of the long, grey dust coat hewas wearing, made a few steps into the room.Sotillo got up, too, and, putting himself in the way, examinedhim from head to foot.‘So your countrymen do not confide in you very much,senor doctor. They do not love you, eh? Why is that, I wonder?’The doctor, lifting his head, answered by a long, lifelessstare and the words, ‘Perhaps because I have lived too longin Costaguana.’Sotillo had a gleam of white teeth under the black moustache.‘Aha! But you love yourself,’ he said, encouragingly.‘If you leave them alone,’ the doctor said, looking withthe same lifeless stare at Sotillo’s handsome face, ‘they willbetray themselves very soon. Meantime, I may try to makeDon Carlos speak?’