Page 298 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

In the featureless night Nostromo was not even certain
which way the lighter headed after the wind had completely
died out. He peered for the islands. There was not a hint of
them to be seen, as if they had sunk to the bottom of the
gulf. He threw himself down by the side of Decoud at last,
and whispered into his ear that if daylight caught them near
the Sulaco shore through want of wind, it would be pos-
sible to sweep the lighter behind the cliff at the high end
of the Great Isabel, where she would lie concealed. Decoud
was surprised at the grimness of his anxiety. To him the re-
moval of the treasure was a political move. It was necessary
for several reasons that it should not fall into the hands of
Montero, but here was a man who took another view of this
enterprise. The Caballeros over there did not seem to have
the slightest idea of what they had given him to do. Nostro-
mo, as if affected by the gloom around, seemed nervously
resentful. Decoud was surprised. The Capataz, indifferent
to those dangers that seemed obvious to his companion,
allowed himself to become scornfully exasperated by the
deadly nature of the trust put, as a matter of course, into
his hands. It was more dangerous, Nostromo said, with
a laugh and a curse, than sending a man to get the trea-
sure that people said was guarded by devils and ghosts in
the deep ravines of Azuera. ‘Senor,’ he said, ‘we must catch
the steamer at sea. We must keep out in the open looking
for her till we have eaten and drunk all that has been put
on board here. And if we miss her by some mischance, we
must keep away from the land till we grow weak, and per-
haps mad, and die, and drift dead, until one or another of