Page 277 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

up Sulaco again, and what he said was, ‘The insurgent army
has taken possession of the Government transport in the
bay and are filling her with troops, with the intention of
going round the coast to Sulaco. Therefore look out for
yourselves. They will be ready to start in a few hours, and
may be upon you before daybreak.’
‘This is all he could say. They drove him away from his
instrument this time for good, because Bernhardt has been
calling up Esmeralda ever since without getting an answer.’
After setting these words down in the pocket-book which
he was filling up for the benefit of his sister, Decoud lifted
his head to listen. But there were no sounds, neither in the
room nor in the house, except the drip of the water from
the filter into the vast earthenware jar under the wooden
stand. And outside the house there was a great silence. De-
coud lowered his head again over the pocket-book.
‘I am not running away, you understand,’ he wrote on.
‘I am simply going away with that great treasure of silver
which must be saved at all costs. Pedro Montero from the
Campo and the revolted garrison of Esmeralda from the sea
are converging upon it. That it is there lying ready for them
is only an accident. The real objective is the San Tome mine
itself, as you may well imagine; otherwise the Occidental
Province would have been, no doubt, left alone for many
weeks, to be gathered at leisure into the arms of the victo-
rious party. Don Carlos Gould will have enough to do to
save his mine, with its organization and its people; this ‘Im-
perium in Imperio,’ this wealth-producing thing, to which
his sentimentalism attaches a strange idea of justice. He

Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard