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

with astonishment and wonder. But since they did not immediatelyproceed to plunge their swords into his breast,the brazen side of his character asserted itself. Passing thesleeve of his uniform over his face he pulled himself together,His truculent glance turned slowly here and there,checked the noise where it fell; and the stiff body of the lateSenor Hirsch, merchant, after swaying imperceptibly, madea half turn, and came to a rest in the midst of awed murmursand uneasy shuffling.A voice remarked loudly, ‘Behold a man who will neverspeak again.’ And another, from the back row of faces,timid and pressing, cried out—‘Why did you kill him, mi colonel?’‘Because he has confessed everything,’ answered Sotillo,with the hardihood of desperation. He felt himself cornered.He brazened it out on the strength of his reputation withvery fair success. His hearers thought him very capable ofsuch an act. They were disposed to believe his flatteringtale. There is no credulity so eager and blind as the credulityof covetousness, which, in its universal extent, measuresthe moral misery and the intellectual destitution of mankind.Ah! he had confessed everything, this fractious Jew,this bribon. Good! Then he was no longer wanted. A suddendense guffaw was heard from the senior captain—abig-headed man, with little round eyes and monstrously fatcheeks which never moved. The old major, tall and fantasticallyragged like a scarecrow, walked round the body of thelate Senor Hirsch, muttering to himself with ineffable complacencythat like this there was no need to guard against