Page 225 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

not return for two days. The police would have laid the Ital-
ian by the heels if it had not been for fear of the Cargadores,
a turbulent body of men, quite apt to raise a tumult. Now-
adays it was not so easy to govern Sulaco. Bad characters
flocked into it, attracted by the money in the pockets of the
railway workmen. The populace was made restless by Father
Corbelan’s discourses. And the first magistrate explained to
Charles Gould that now the province was stripped of troops
any outbreak of lawlessness would find the authorities with
their boots off, as it were.
Then he went away moodily to sit in an armchair, smok-
ing a long, thin cigar, not very far from Don Jose, with
whom, bending over sideways, he exchanged a few words
from time to time. He ignored the entrance of the priest,
and whenever Father Corbelan’s voice was raised behind
him, he shrugged his shoulders impatiently.
Father Corbelan had remained quite motionless for a
time with that something vengeful in his immobility which
seemed to characterize all his attitudes. A lurid glow of
strong convictions gave its peculiar aspect to the black fig-
ure. But its fierceness became softened as the padre, fixing
his eyes upon Decoud, raised his long, black arm slowly,
impressively—
‘And you—you are a perfect heathen,’ he said, in a sub-
dued, deep voice.
He made a step nearer, pointing a forefinger at the young
man’s breast. Decoud, very calm, felt the wall behind the
curtain with the back of his head. Then, with his chin tilted
well up, he smiled.

Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard