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He affirmed and reaffirmed this resolution in the drawingroomsof Sta. Marta, in a soft and implacable voice, andwith such malicious glances that Mr. Gould’s best friendsadvised him earnestly to attempt no bribery to get the matterdropped. It would have been useless. Indeed, it would nothave been a very safe proceeding. Such was also the opinionof a stout, loud-voiced lady of French extraction, the daughter,she said, of an officer of high rank (officier superieur del’armee), who was accommodated with lodgings within thewalls of a secularized convent next door to the Ministry ofFinance. That florid person, when approached on behalf ofMr. Gould in a proper manner, and with a suitable present,shook her head despondently. She was good-natured,and her despondency was genuine. She imagined she couldnot take money in consideration of something she couldnot accomplish. The friend of Mr. Gould, charged with thedelicate mission, used to say afterwards that she was theonly honest person closely or remotely connected with theGovernment he had ever met. ‘No go,’ she had said with acavalier, husky intonation which was natural to her, and usingturns of expression more suitable to a child of parentsunknown than to the orphaned daughter of a general officer.‘No; it’s no go. Pas moyen, mon garcon. C’est dommage,tout de meme. Ah! zut! Je ne vole pas mon monde. Je ne suispas ministre—moi! Vous pouvez emporter votre petit sac.’For a moment, biting her carmine lip, she deplored inwardlythe tyranny of the rigid principles governing thesale of her influence in high places. Then, significantly, andwith a touch of impatience, ‘Allez,’ she added, ‘et dites bien
a votre bonhomme—entendez-vous?—qu’il faut avaler lapilule.’After such a warning there was nothing for it but to signand pay. Mr. Gould had swallowed the pill, and it was asthough it had been compounded of some subtle poison thatacted directly on his brain. He became at once mine-ridden,and as he was well read in light literature it took to hismind the form of the Old Man of the Sea fastened uponhis shoulders. He also began to dream of vampires. Mr.Gould exaggerated to himself the disadvantages of his newposition, because he viewed it emotionally. His position inCostaguana was no worse than before. But man is a desperatelyconservative creature, and the extravagant novelty ofthis outrage upon his purse distressed his sensibilities. Everybodyaround him was being robbed by the grotesque andmurderous bands that played their game of governmentsand revolutions after the death of Guzman Bento. His experiencehad taught him that, however short the plundermight fall of their legitimate expectations, no gang in possessionof the Presidential Palace would be so incompetentas to suffer itself to be baffled by the want of a pretext. Thefirst casual colonel of the barefooted army of scarecrowsthat came along was able to expose with force and precisionto any mere civilian his titles to a sum of 10,000 dollars;the while his hope would be immutably fixed upon a gratuity,at any rate, of no less than a thousand. Mr. Gould knewthat very well, and, armed with resignation, had waited forbetter times. But to be robbed under the forms of legalityand business was intolerable to his imagination. Mr. Gould,
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Nostromo: A Taleof the SeaboardBy J
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AUTHOR’S NOTE‘NOSTROMO’ is th
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him: ‘What’s to prevent me repo
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Misrule.’ That work was never pub
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ter the usual exordium of his remor
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invective. She did not quite unders
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CHAPTER ONEIN THE time of Spanish r
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the sky above a razor-backed ridge
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At night the body of clouds advanci
Page 19 and 20: CHAPTER TWOTHE only sign of commerc
Page 21 and 22: ject with studied negligence.‘Smi
Page 23 and 24: against the rushes of the rabble, t
Page 25 and 26: Mitchell, after directing the comma
Page 27 and 28: CHAPTER THREEIT MIGHT have been sai
Page 29 and 30: ing fowls, pounding corn in wooden
Page 31 and 32: It was trying to the nerves. Old Vi
Page 33 and 34: The children kneeling on the floor
Page 35 and 36: Linda raised her eyes to her face f
Page 37 and 38: fumes floated upwards in sunshine,
Page 39 and 40: while the negro brakesmen sat carel
Page 41 and 42: ters of her hair, and the eyelashes
Page 43 and 44: Italian—the publication of the Br
Page 45 and 46: Giorgio’s old age. It cast a gloo
Page 47 and 48: CHAPTER FIVEIN THIS way only was th
Page 49 and 50: out-of-the-way place Sulaco is!—a
Page 51 and 52: aristocratic old Spanish families,
Page 53 and 54: showed some talent as guerilla chie
Page 55 and 56: could set in motion mighty machines
Page 57 and 58: face, a pair of eyes gazing straigh
Page 59 and 60: not connected with Nostromo, and in
Page 61 and 62: here. And I suppose they are homesi
Page 63 and 64: swift pasotrote, straight out of so
Page 65 and 66: Perhaps he had just dismounted on h
Page 67 and 68: Worked in the early days mostly by
Page 69: with many arguments and entreaties,
Page 73 and 74: teen, a matter of prime importance
Page 75 and 76: a personal point of view, too, as o
Page 77 and 78: ‘That’s different. I’ve been
Page 79 and 80: and generosity, had the fastidious
Page 81 and 82: with that girl, and his mind of the
Page 83 and 84: aspect of the world.The latest phas
Page 85 and 86: fat coachman sat muffled up on the
Page 87 and 88: mine by the hour with her husband w
Page 89 and 90: face, and his whole, long-limbed, l
Page 91 and 92: thought that no one could know her
Page 93 and 94: there was an implication of calm an
Page 95 and 96: on facts; and Charles Gould, whose
Page 97 and 98: lip is what you’ll want; and you
Page 99 and 100: inaccessible to profane eyes. Some
Page 101 and 102: me whether his talk is the voice of
Page 103 and 104: stairs, and before he gave her the
Page 105 and 106: the heat of the day, she rode on a
Page 107 and 108: of lust between bands of absurd dev
Page 109 and 110: ents must have been great, after al
Page 111 and 112: tercourse was to strike as offensiv
Page 113 and 114: When in Sulaco it was his practice
Page 115 and 116: enclosures within the old ramparts,
Page 117 and 118: Thus professionally spoke Don Pepe,
Page 119 and 120: sword and in a shabby uniform with
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first, in a pointed straw hat, then
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dying on hillsides, in the long gra
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and weight, would be caught up by t
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ment. From the heavy family coaches
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had been fitted out; a price had be
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fore she had settled in her town-ho
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gling spurs and riding-whip under h
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the white gleam of ranging eyes; an
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at the end of his rule (which had k
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were badly wanted for this great de
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Chief of the State Costaguana had e
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which I, having been in my time acc
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Going ashore in the same boat with
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carriage, who returned smiles and f
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murs of recognition and obsequious
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‘Is that true?’ she cooed, joyo
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Nostromo, the Mediterranean sailor
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PART SECONDThe Isabels
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The harbour was busy, too, with the
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ing company of nearly naked skeleto
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It was the rule for all the women o
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cific mandate to establish the pros
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much of the ignominy of the situati
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could unsettle the public opinion i
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in Tonoro. They had come to offer h
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otic send-off. It was not his part
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of a lover ensconced in a doorway o
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tion to become a poet like that oth
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‘It’s like a tile falling on my
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formed that she ventured to treat s
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‘I am inexpressibly grateful for
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French language. The big black lett
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thick stick. No! He had earned enou
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costume caused by the anxious lende
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ars of a strong wooden cage. Si, se
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The carriage rolled noiselessly on
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‘Yes,’ muttered old Viola, sava
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‘I shall want a horse presently,
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shriek, and Decoud, from his back s
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ciple is old.’He ruminated his di
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of feminine and intimate delicacy.D
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aising her hand. After a time he wh
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Decoud talking publicly with Antoni
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make war you may retreat, but not w
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and all his Negro Liberals hanging
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She made an energetic gesture of ne
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have ploughed the sea.’ He did no
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first pause. Their comparative isol
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Jose Avellanos. Don Jose, lifting u
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have carried so far, though there w
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something unlawful behind his pries
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for reparation from a penitent coun
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‘Very well,’ he agreed with the
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the skirt of his soutane at each en
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confirmatory word, a grunt of assen
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sign, made no sound. The impenetrab
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so.’ And now he was going. It was
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stairs, where the Madonna with the
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there was to say a long time ago. T
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upon the great bare wall. ‘It is
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Decoud affected suddenly the utmost
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country, whatever Father Corbelan m
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ceptibilities, and at the present m
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do no harm. And it was quite possib
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sentimentalists to deal with.’‘
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iously.‘Upon the whole,’ he con
Page 253 and 254:
CHAPTER SEVENIT WAS part of what De
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death. That man seems to have a par
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for that, senor?’ Then it dawned
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dismantled houses acquired by the C
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vaguely about him, then dropped int
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man or beast,’ said the girl, pas
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holding a bottle, and sobbing gentl
Page 267 and 268:
handfuls of type, blown in the wind
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it were to an assembly of trained m
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clothed in the fair robes of an ide
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emaining forces had melted away dur
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‘Never mind, there is no lack of
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holds to it as some men hold to the
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humanity.‘He joined me on the har
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the paper was going through the pre
Page 283 and 284:
‘Teresa wants to see you, Nostrom
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for the glow of a heap of charcoal
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and hopes, had a great regard for h
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the one which they say is guarded b
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the stairs backwards, with the usua
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‘What bargain would your worship
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‘We are out in the gulf now,’ s
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In the featureless night Nostromo w
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and years to come. And yet, the day
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er. No, senor; there is no rest til
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the sensations awaked by what he ha
Page 305 and 306:
was limp—lifeless.The light of th
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shouts and imprecations, looking fo
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angry and threatening voice, ordere
Page 311 and 312:
had been making use of him, had tri
Page 313 and 314:
‘They are trying to make out wher
Page 315 and 316:
a naked mast. I will do it now, bef
Page 317 and 318:
windows of the houses, and showing
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mism. In comparison to it, the chan
Page 321 and 322:
daylight? He began to think that th
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him, and Barrios, with a rude and j
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intoxicated, and proceeded on their
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This was the first time Nostromo an
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would have passed on, leaving the l
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the breast of Senor Hirsch, who sim
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in aim, in view, in character, and
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I was in love with. Poor Teresa cou
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one of the two spades which belonge
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Nostromo detected the ironic tone.
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certainly before noon Sotillo would
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PART THIRDTHE LIGHTHOUSE
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of those imported workmen with the
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losing party. But I did not tell th
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of the far interior where the great
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ing by himself. I shall be sorry.
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story that will never grow old. Tha
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the treasure was of enormous import
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the wall, and narrow enough to be d
Page 359 and 360:
the engineer. ‘When this question
Page 361 and 362:
CHAPTER TWOCAPTAIN MITCHELL, pacing
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ecome the prey in person and fortun
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infuriated. Captain Mitchell, howev
Page 367 and 368:
The long building was surrounded by
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ing half a hundred-weight of sand.
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and had been dragged along for some
Page 373 and 374:
es, wanting in the misty idealism o
Page 375 and 376:
tain Mitchell could meet the realit
Page 377 and 378:
with his chin on his breast and his
Page 379 and 380:
founded fellow get wind of the affa
Page 381 and 382:
was sitting at the foot of the bed,
Page 383 and 384:
their eyes on the doctor. But at th
Page 385 and 386:
dark.‘Yes, that is exactly what I
Page 387 and 388:
friend’s character is not my idea
Page 389 and 390:
Only the slight limping shuffle cou
Page 391 and 392:
tance.’Captain Mitchell was very
Page 393 and 394:
creased. The guerrillero brother of
Page 395 and 396:
saw the irony of it. Father Corbela
Page 397 and 398:
drowning man catches at a straw. Fa
Page 399 and 400:
over his shoulder.‘Drive carefull
Page 401 and 402:
with the sergeant’s stripes on th
Page 403 and 404:
day to join the democrats. We are g
Page 405 and 406:
to turn, where the only chance of s
Page 407 and 408:
his back against the rim of the fou
Page 409 and 410:
had planned revolutions, who had be
Page 411 and 412:
efusing, almost touched by the anxi
Page 413 and 414:
senora had given into her charge th
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eyes, and in a tempestuous voice, b
Page 417 and 418:
make a full confession, Father Bero
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fetters were struck off by the ligh
Page 421 and 422:
of account the safety of her husban
Page 423 and 424:
cident had brought to a point all t
Page 425 and 426:
‘Antonia will kill herself!’ sh
Page 427 and 428:
the cathedral. Three single strokes
Page 429 and 430:
CHAPTER FIVEDURING the night the ex
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duplicity and cunning, together wit
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court, and had conceived the idea o
Page 435 and 436:
and the bullet-speckled walls of th
Page 437 and 438:
‘The brute!’ observed his Excel
Page 439 and 440:
cho howled with conviction, was the
Page 441 and 442:
patrol duty, strolling, carbine in
Page 443 and 444:
Don Pepe, in a mild and humorous vo
Page 445 and 446:
the hammock. With less confidence,
Page 447 and 448:
ecause whatever happened his honour
Page 449 and 450:
CHAPTER SEVENAT ABOUT that time, in
Page 451 and 452:
(which were accessible to His Excel
Page 453 and 454:
as a great captain of industry and
Page 455 and 456:
on the table.‘You will have to ta
Page 457 and 458:
gadores could have been employed wi
Page 459 and 460:
the Custom House, appeared lonely,
Page 461 and 462:
CHAPTER EIGHTAFTER landing from his
Page 463 and 464:
the cupolas, towers, and miradors r
Page 465 and 466:
as a boy on one of these feluccas b
Page 467 and 468:
made a few steps, then stopped agai
Page 469 and 470:
Sharing in the anti-priestly freeth
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sensible his profound isolation. Hi
Page 473 and 474:
meditating—or, perhaps, reading a
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ing his lips slightly, and not look
Page 477 and 478:
der-blades. From there his eyes tra
Page 479 and 480:
membered that much. What do you wan
Page 481 and 482:
where he would be of the greatest u
Page 483 and 484:
ought never to have left the mounta
Page 485 and 486:
pest in his ears in time to hear th
Page 487 and 488:
‘Am I to understand, senor,’ No
Page 489 and 490:
such a fool as when I started. I ha
Page 491 and 492:
CHAPTER NINEDISTRACTED between doub
Page 493 and 494:
that treasure, for that wealth of s
Page 495 and 496:
come entangled in a perfect welter
Page 497 and 498:
Complete silence. He quaked. It was
Page 499 and 500:
whose one end was fastened to Senor
Page 501 and 502:
its mouth closed askew. The colonel
Page 503 and 504:
any future treacheries of that scou
Page 505 and 506:
He was absolutely the only one. The
Page 507 and 508:
You are safe because you are needed
Page 509 and 510:
‘I don’t know,’ burst out the
Page 511 and 512:
Sotillo.’And Dr. Monygham stopped
Page 513 and 514:
no divers, but he has a ship, boats
Page 515 and 516:
Custom House, before he managed to
Page 517 and 518:
laying about you with a stick among
Page 519 and 520:
had left it twenty-four hours befor
Page 521 and 522:
keen blade piercing his breast.The
Page 523 and 524:
decaying strength.He extended his h
Page 525 and 526:
The Capataz drank greedily. A sligh
Page 527 and 528:
CHAPTER TENTHE next day was quiet i
Page 529 and 530:
lish, French, Italians, all sorts
Page 531 and 532:
of his safe. It was even for that s
Page 533 and 534:
priest, everlastingly worrying the
Page 535 and 536:
ticle to him and the force he has o
Page 537 and 538:
see framed under glass in the Munic
Page 539 and 540:
the land gate, was not able to oppo
Page 541 and 542:
do?’ ‘You know very well I was,
Page 543 and 544:
confines of waking and sleep with r
Page 545 and 546:
they thought up to the last on that
Page 547 and 548:
Ha! ha! ha! He wants me to admit th
Page 549 and 550:
without loss of time and undetected
Page 551 and 552:
ments and barren tasks for the peop
Page 553 and 554:
endary treasure.At the end of his f
Page 555 and 556:
universe as a succession of incompr
Page 557 and 558:
dark, he ceased rowing and flung th
Page 559 and 560:
He had made up his mind that nothin
Page 561 and 562:
CHAPTER ELEVENSULACO outstripped No
Page 563 and 564:
ing tenderness.‘Don’t expect to
Page 565 and 566:
the Bolson de Tonoro. And the heroi
Page 567 and 568:
Gould. She had brought her uncle ov
Page 569 and 570:
him that position? Who can say? Gen
Page 571 and 572:
know how really good you are. You w
Page 573 and 574:
that incorruptible Capataz. Moreove
Page 575 and 576:
the Violas. As late as midnight at
Page 577 and 578:
an old negro, who had been sitting
Page 579 and 580:
Gould added to the grace of her sea
Page 581 and 582:
success for the last of the Goulds.
Page 583 and 584:
qualities was destroyed. He felt it
Page 585 and 586:
ed and feared Captain Fidanza, the
Page 587 and 588:
made for himself, under his rightfu
Page 589 and 590:
He went to see his friend Captain M
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A sudden dread came upon the fearle
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you for the earth to become empty t
Page 595 and 596:
her raised eyes remained fixed on n
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‘Be allowed to listen to your Ram
Page 599 and 600:
his little flower.It had grown dark
Page 601 and 602:
and the triumphant excitement of hi
Page 603 and 604:
‘Where is it? Where? Tell me that
Page 605 and 606:
There was something in that immobil
Page 607 and 608:
CHAPTER THIRTEENON THE day Mrs. Gou
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hills, for which we are starving ou
Page 611 and 612:
Linda had a good share of the Viola
Page 613 and 614:
ious and shameless innocence with k
Page 615 and 616:
stairs. At the moment of opening th
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sala. The prosperous majordomo rema
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has something to say to you alone.
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aim. I myself could have done no be
Page 623 and 624:
lost for ever.’After hearing thes
Page 625 and 626:
photographer, small, frail, bloodth
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‘You have killed Gian’ Battista
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