Page 171 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

buy a pardon for himself and his gang of deserters by armed
service. He could range afar from the waste lands protecting
his fastness, unchecked, because there were no troops left in
the whole province. The usual garrison of Sulaco had gone
south to the war, with its brass band playing the Bolivar
march on the bridge of one of the O.S.N. Company’s steam-
ers. The great family coaches drawn up along the shore of
the harbour were made to rock on the high leathern springs
by the enthusiasm of the senoras and the senoritas standing
up to wave their lace handkerchiefs, as lighter after lighter
packed full of troops left the end of the jetty.
Nostromo directed the embarkation, under the super-
intendendence of Captain Mitchell, red-faced in the sun,
conspicuous in a white waistcoat, representing the allied
and anxious goodwill of all the material interests of civi-
lization. General Barrios, who commanded the troops,
assured Don Jose on parting that in three weeks he would
have Montero in a wooden cage drawn by three pair of oxen
ready for a tour through all the towns of the Republic.
‘And then, senora,’ he continued, baring his curly iron-
grey head to Mrs. Gould in her landau—‘and then, senora,
we shall convert our swords into plough-shares and grow
rich. Even I, myself, as soon as this little business is settled,
shall open a fundacion on some land I have on the llanos
and try to make a little money in peace and quietness. Seno-
ra, you know, all Costaguana knows—what do I say?—this
whole South American continent knows, that Pablo Barrios
has had his fill of military glory.’
Charles Gould was not present at the anxious and patri-

1 0 Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard