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

whose one end was fastened to Senor Hirsch’s wrists, hadbeen thrown over a beam, and three soldiers held the otherend, waiting. He made no answer. His heavy lower lip hungstupidly. Sotillo made a sign. Hirsch was jerked up off hisfeet, and a yell of despair and agony burst out in the room,filled the passage of the great buildings, rent the air outside,caused every soldier of the camp along the shore to look upat the windows, started some of the officers in the hall babblingexcitedly, with shining eyes; others, setting their lips,looked gloomily at the floor.Sotillo, followed by the soldiers, had left the room. Thesentry on the landing presented arms. Hirsch went onscreaming all alone behind the half-closed jalousies whilethe sunshine, reflected from the water of the harbour, madean ever-running ripple of light high up on the wall. Hescreamed with uplifted eyebrows and a wide-open mouth—incredibly wide, black, enormous, full of teeth—comical.In the still burning air of the windless afternoon hemade the waves of his agony travel as far as the O. S. N.Company’s offices. Captain Mitchell on the balcony, tryingto make out what went on generally, had heard him faintlybut distinctly, and the feeble and appalling sound lingeredin his ears after he had retreated indoors with blanchedcheeks. He had been driven off the balcony several timesduring that afternoon.Sotillo, irritable, moody, walked restlessly about, heldconsultations with his officers, gave contradictory ordersin this shrill clamour pervading the whole empty edifice.Sometimes there would be long and awful silences. Several