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

swarthy men, and Europeans or North Americans of superiorstanding, whose faces looked very white amongst themajority of dark complexions and black, glistening eyes.Captain Mitchell would lie back in the chair, castingaround looks of satisfaction, and tender over the table acase full of thick cigars.‘Try a weed with your coffee. Local tobacco. The blackcoffee you get at the Amarilla, sir, you don’t meet anywherein the world. We get the bean from a famous cafeteria inthe foot-hills, whose owner sends three sacks every year asa present to his fellow members in remembrance of the fightagainst Gamacho’s Nationals, carried on from these verywindows by the caballeros. He was in town at the time, andtook part, sir, to the bitter end. It arrives on three mules—not in the common way, by rail; no fear!—right into thepatio, escorted by mounted peons, in charge of the Mayoralof his estate, who walks upstairs, booted and spurred, anddelivers it to our committee formally with the words, ‘Forthe sake of those fallen on the third of May.’ We call it Tresde Mayo coffee. Taste it.’Captain Mitchell, with an expression as though makingready to hear a sermon in a church, would lift the tiny cupto his lips. And the nectar would be sipped to the bottomduring a restful silence in a cloud of cigar smoke.‘Look at this man in black just going out,’ he would begin,leaning forward hastily. ‘This is the famous Hernandez,Minister of War. The Times’ special correspondent, whowrote that striking series of letters calling the OccidentalRepublic the ‘Treasure House of the World,’ gave a whole ar-