Page 242 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

Decoud affected suddenly the utmost nonchalance.
‘I can’t bear to be spied upon. Oh, the cause? Yes, there is
a cause; there is something else that is lost besides Antonia’s
favourite fan. As I was walking home after seeing Don Jose
and Antonia to their house, the Capataz de Cargadores, rid-
ing down the street, spoke to me.’
‘Has anything happened to the Violas?’ inquired Mrs.
Gould.
‘The Violas? You mean the old Garibaldino who keeps
the hotel where the engineers live? Nothing happened there.
The Capataz said nothing of them; he only told me that the
telegraphist of the Cable Company was walking on the Pla-
za, bareheaded, looking out for me. There is news from the
interior, Mrs. Gould. I should rather say rumours of news.’
‘Good news?’ said Mrs. Gould in a low voice.
‘Worthless, I should think. But if I must define them, I
would say bad. They are to the effect that a two days’ battle
had been fought near Sta. Marta, and that the Ribierists are
defeated. It must have happened a few days ago—perhaps a
week. The rumour has just reached Cayta, and the man in
charge of the cable station there has telegraphed the news
to his colleague here. We might just as well have kept Bar-
rios in Sulaco.’
‘What’s to be done now?’ murmured Mrs. Gould.
‘Nothing. He’s at sea with the troops. He will get to Cayta
in a couple of days’ time and learn the news there. What he
will do then, who can say? Hold Cayta? Offer his submission
to Montero? Disband his army—this last most likely, and go
himself in one of the O.S.N. Company’s steamers, north or

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