Page 313 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

the Capataz would call desperation.
‘I fancy I hear another shower on the water,’ he observed
in a tone of quiet content. ‘I hope it will catch us up.’
Nostromo ceased chirruping at once. ‘You hear anoth-
er shower?’ he said, doubtfully. A sort of thinning of the
darkness seemed to have taken place, and Decoud could see
now the outline of his companion’s figure, and even the sail
came out of the night like a square block of dense snow.
The sound which Decoud had detected came along the
water harshly. Nostromo recognized that noise partaking of
a hiss and a rustle which spreads out on all sides of a steam-
er making her way through a smooth water on a quiet night.
It could be nothing else but the captured transport with
troops from Esmeralda. She carried no lights. The noise of
her steaming, growing louder every minute, would stop at
times altogether, and then begin again abruptly, and sound
startlingly nearer; as if that invisible vessel, whose posi-
tion could not be precisely guessed, were making straight
for the lighter. Meantime, that last kept on sailing slowly
and noiselessly before a breeze so faint that it was only by
leaning over the side and feeling the water slip through
his fingers that Decoud convinced himself they were mov-
ing at all. His drowsy feeling had departed. He was glad to
know that the lighter was moving. After so much stillness
the noise of the steamer seemed uproarious and distracting.
There was a weirdness in not being able to see her. Suddenly
all was still. She had stopped, but so close to them that the
steam, blowing off, sent its rumbling vibration right over
their heads.

1 Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard