Page 307 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

CHAPTER EIGHT

OR a moment, before this extraordinary find, they for-
Fgot their own concerns and sensations. Senor Hirsch’s
sensations as he lay there must have been those of extreme
terror. For a long time he refused to give a sign of life, till at
last Decoud’s objurgations, and, perhaps more, Nostromo’s
impatient suggestion that he should be thrown overboard,
as he seemed to be dead, induced him to raise one eyelid
first, and then the other.
It appeared that he had never found a safe opportuni-
ty to leave Sulaco. He lodged with Anzani, the universal
storekeeper, on the Plaza Mayor. But when the riot broke
out he had made his escape from his host’s house before
daylight, and in such a hurry that he had forgotten to put
on his shoes. He had run out impulsively in his socks, and
with his hat in his hand, into the garden of Anzani’s house.
Fear gave him the necessary agility to climb over several
low walls, and afterwards he blundered into the overgrown
cloisters of the ruined Franciscan convent in one of the by-
streets. He forced himself into the midst of matted bushes
with the recklessness of desperation, and this accounted
for his scratched body and his torn clothing. He lay hidden
there all day, his tongue cleaving to the roof of his mouth
with all the intensity of thirst engendered by heat and fear.
Three times different bands of men invaded the place with

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