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

ed and feared Captain Fidanza, the unquestioned patron ofsecret societies, a republican like old Giorgio, and a revolutionistat heart (but in another manner), was on the pointof jumping overboard from the deck of his own schooner.That man, subjective almost to insanity, looked suicide deliberatelyin the face. But he never lost his head. He waschecked by the thought that this was no escape. He imaginedhimself dead, and the disgrace, the shame going on.Or, rather, properly speaking, he could not imagine himselfdead. He was possessed too strongly by the sense of hisown existence, a thing of infinite duration in its changes, tograsp the notion of finality. The earth goes on for ever.And he was courageous. It was a corrupt courage, but itwas as good for his purposes as the other kind. He sailedclose to the cliff of the Great Isabel, throwing a penetratingglance from the deck at the mouth of the ravine, tangled inan undisturbed growth of bushes. He sailed close enough toexchange hails with the workmen, shading their eyes on theedge of the sheer drop of the cliff overhung by the jib-headof a powerful crane. He perceived that none of them hadany occasion even to approach the ravine where the silverlay hidden; let alone to enter it. In the harbour he learnedthat no one slept on the island. The labouring gangs returnedto port every evening, singing chorus songs in theempty lighters towed by a harbour tug. For the moment hehad nothing to fear.But afterwards? he asked himself. Later, when a keepercame to live in the cottage that was being built some hundredand fifty yards back from the low lighttower, and four hun-