Page 153 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

ing, her enraged face turned up to Nostromo with a pair of
blazing eyes. He bent low to her in the saddle.
‘Juan,’ she hissed, ‘I could stab thee to the heart!’
The dreaded Capataz de Cargadores, magnificent and
carelessly public in his amours, flung his arm round her neck
and kissed her spluttering lips. A murmur went round.
‘A knife!’ he demanded at large, holding her firmly by the
shoulder.
Twenty blades flashed out together in the circle. A young
man in holiday attire, bounding in, thrust one in Nostro-
mo’s hand and bounded back into the ranks, very proud of
himself. Nostromo had not even looked at him.
‘Stand on my foot,’ he commanded the girl, who, sudden-
ly subdued, rose lightly, and when he had her up, encircling
her waist, her face near to his, he pressed the knife into her
little hand.
‘No, Morenita! You shall not put me to shame,’ he said.
‘You shall have your present; and so that everyone should
know who is your lover to-day, you may cut all the silver
buttons off my coat.’
There were shouts of laughter and applause at this witty
freak, while the girl passed the keen blade, and the impas-
sive rider jingled in his palm the increasing hoard of silver
buttons. He eased her to the ground with both her hands
full. After whispering for a while with a very strenuous face,
she walked away, staring haughtily, and vanished into the
crowd.
The circle had broken up, and the lordly Capataz de
Cargadores, the indispensable man, the tried and trusty

1 Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard