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

lip is what you’ll want; and you could bluff a little on thestrength of your backing. Not too much, though. We will gowith you as long as the thing runs straight. But we won’t bedrawn into any large trouble. This is the experiment whichI am willing to make. There is some risk, and we will take it;but if you can’t keep up your end, we will stand our loss, ofcourse, and then—we’ll let the thing go. This mine can wait;it has been shut up before, as you know. You must understandthat under no circumstances will we consent to throwgood money after bad.’Thus the great personage had spoken then, in his ownprivate office, in a great city where other men (very considerablein the eyes of a vain populace) waited with alacrityupon a wave of his hand. And rather more than a year later,during his unexpected appearance in Sulaco, he had emphasizedhis uncompromising attitude with a freedom ofsincerity permitted to his wealth and influence. He didthis with the less reserve, perhaps, because the inspectionof what had been done, and more still the way in whichsuccessive steps had been taken, had impressed him withthe conviction that Charles Gould was perfectly capable ofkeeping up his end.‘This young fellow,’ he thought to himself, ‘may yet becomea power in the land.’This thought flattered him, for hitherto the only accountof this young man he could give to his intimates was—‘My brother-in-law met him in one of these one-horseold German towns, near some mines, and sent him on tome with a letter. He’s one of the Costaguana Goulds, pure-