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

he found himself in the great hall, sombre and full of acridsmoke.A fire built against the staircase had burnt down impotentlyto a low heap of embers. The hard wood had failedto catch; only a few steps at the bottom smouldered, with acreeping glow of sparks defining their charred edges. At thetop he saw a streak of light from an open door. It fell uponthe vast landing, all foggy with a slow drift of smoke. Thatwas the room. He climbed the stairs, then checked himself,because he had seen within the shadow of a man cast uponone of the walls. It was a shapeless, highshouldered shadowof somebody standing still, with lowered head, out of hisline of sight. The Capataz, remembering that he was totallyunarmed, stepped aside, and, effacing himself upright in adark corner, waited with his eyes fixed on the door.The whole enormous ruined barrack of a place, unfinished,without ceilings under its lofty roof, was pervadedby the smoke swaying to and fro in the faint cross draughtsplaying in the obscurity of many lofty rooms and barnlikepassages. Once one of the swinging shutters came againstthe wall with a single sharp crack, as if pushed by an impatienthand. A piece of paper scurried out from somewhere,rustling along the landing. The man, whoever he was, didnot darken the lighted doorway. Twice the Capataz, advancinga couple of steps out of his corner, craned his neck in thehope of catching sight of what he could be at, so quietly, inthere. But every time he saw only the distorted shadow ofbroad shoulders and bowed head. He was doing apparentlynothing, and stirred not from the spot, as though he were