Page 207 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

passing into light banter, ‘that Montero, should he be suc-
cessful, would get even with me in the only way such a brute
can get even with a man of intelligence who condescends to
call him a gran’ bestia three times a week. It’s a sort of intel-
lectual death; but there is the other one in the background
for a journalist of my ability.’
‘If he is successful!’ said Antonia, thoughtfully.
‘You seem satisfied to see my life hang on a thread,’ De-
coud replied, with a broad smile. ‘And the other Montero,
the ‘my trusted brother’ of the proclamations, the guer-
rillero—haven’t I written that he was taking the guests’
overcoats and changing plates in Paris at our Legation in
the intervals of spying on our refugees there, in the time of
Rojas? He will wash out that sacred truth in blood. In my
blood! Why do you look annoyed? This is simply a bit of
the biography of one of our great men. What do you think
he will do to me? There is a certain convent wall round the
corner of the Plaza, opposite the door of the Bull Ring. You
know? Opposite the door with the inscription, Intrada de
la Sombra.’ Appropriate, perhaps! That’s where the uncle
of our host gave up his Anglo-South-American soul. And,
note, he might have run away. A man who has fought with
weapons may run away. You might have let me go with Bar-
rios if you had cared for me. I would have carried one of
those rifles, in which Don Jose believes, with the greatest
satisfaction, in the ranks of poor peons and Indios, that
know nothing either of reason or politics. The most forlorn
hope in the most forlorn army on earth would have been
safer than that for which you made me stay here. When you

0 Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard