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

of a slight colic which had declared itself suddenly, and therattling teeth of repressed panic, had a genuineness whichimpressed the envoy. It was a cold fit. The colonel explainedthat he was unable to think, to listen, to speak. With an appearanceof superhuman effort the colonel gasped out thathe was not in a state to return a suitable reply or to executeany of his Excellency’s orders. But to-morrow! To-morrow!Ah! to-morrow! Let his Excellency Don Pedro be withoutuneasiness. The brave Esmeralda Regiment held the harbour,held—And closing his eyes, he rolled his aching headlike a half-delirious invalid under the inquisitive stare of theenvoy, who was obliged to bend down over the hammockin order to catch the painful and broken accents. Meantime,Colonel Sotillo trusted that his Excellency’s humanitywould permit the doctor, the English doctor, to come outof town with his case of foreign remedies to attend uponhim. He begged anxiously his worship the caballero nowpresent for the grace of looking in as he passed the CasaGould, and informing the English doctor, who was probablythere, that his services were immediately required byColonel Sotillo, lying ill of fever in the Custom House. Immediately.Most urgently required. Awaited with extremeimpatience. A thousand thanks. He closed his eyes wearilyand would not open them again, lying perfectly still, deaf,dumb, insensible, overcome, vanquished, crushed, annihilatedby the fell disease.But as soon as the other had shut after him the door ofthe landing, the colonel leaped out with a fling of both feetin an avalanche of woollen coverings. His spurs having be-