Page 140 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

were badly wanted for this great development of material
interests. Anybody on the side of these things, and espe-
cially if able to help, had an importance in Sir John’s eyes.
He had not been disappointed in the ‘King of Sulaco.’ The
local difficulties had fallen away, as the engineer-in-chief
had foretold they would, before Charles Gould’s mediation.
Sir John had been extremely feted in Sulaco, next to the
President-Dictator, a fact which might have accounted for
the evident ill-humour General Montero displayed at lunch
given on board the Juno just before she was to sail, taking
away from Sulaco the President-Dictator and the distin-
guished foreign guests in his train.
The Excellentissimo (“the hope of honest men,’ as Don
Jose had addressed him in a public speech delivered in the
name of the Provincial Assembly of Sulaco) sat at the head
of the long table; Captain Mitchell, positively stony-eyed
and purple in the face with the solemnity of this ‘historical
event,’ occupied the foot as the representative of the O.S.N.
Company in Sulaco, the hosts of that informal function,
with the captain of the ship and some minor officials from
the shore around him. Those cheery, swarthy little gentle-
men cast jovial side-glances at the bottles of champagne
beginning to pop behind the guests’ backs in the hands of
the ship’s stewards. The amber wine creamed up to the rims
of the glasses.
Charles Gould had his place next to a foreign envoy, who,
in a listless undertone, had been talking to him fitfully of
hunting and shooting. The well-nourished, pale face, with
an eyeglass and drooping yellow moustache, made the Se-

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