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

the cupolas, towers, and miradors rising above the trees, alldark, as if surrendered already to the night. The thoughtthat it was no longer open to him to ride through the streets,recognized by everyone, great and little, as he used to doevery evening on his way to play monte in the posada of theMexican Domingo; or to sit in the place of honour, listeningto songs and looking at dances, made it appear to him as atown that had no existence.For a long time he gazed on, then let the parted bushesspring back, and, crossing over to the other side of the fort,surveyed the vaster emptiness of the great gulf. The Isabelsstood out heavily upon the narrowing long band of red inthe west, which gleamed low between their black shapes,and the Capataz thought of Decoud alone there with thetreasure. That man was the only one who cared whether hefell into the hands of the Monterists or not, the Capataz reflectedbitterly. And that merely would be an anxiety for hisown sake. As to the rest, they neither knew nor cared. Whathe had heard Giorgio Viola say once was very true. Kings,ministers, aristocrats, the rich in general, kept the people inpoverty and subjection; they kept them as they kept dogs, tofight and hunt for their service.The darkness of the sky had descended to the line of thehorizon, enveloping the whole gulf, the islets, and the loverof Antonia alone with the treasure on the Great Isabel. TheCapataz, turning his back on these things invisible and existing,sat down and took his face between his fists. He feltthe pinch of poverty for the first time in his life. To findhimself without money after a run of bad luck at monte