Page 314 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

‘They are trying to make out where they are,’ said De-
coud in a whisper. Again he leaned over and put his fingers
into the water. ‘We are moving quite smartly,’ he informed
Nostromo.
‘We seem to be crossing her bows,’ said the Capataz in a
cautious tone. ‘But this is a blind game with death. Moving
on is of no use. We mustn’t be seen or heard.’
His whisper was hoarse with excitement. Of all his face
there was nothing visible but a gleam of white eyeballs. His
fingers gripped Decoud’s shoulder. ‘That is the only way to
save this treasure from this steamer full of soldiers. Any
other would have carried lights. But you observe there is
not a gleam to show us where she is.’
Decoud stood as if paralyzed; only his thoughts were
wildly active. In the space of a second he remembered the
desolate glance of Antonia as he left her at the bedside of
her father in the gloomy house of Avellanos, with shuttered
windows, but all the doors standing open, and deserted
by all the servants except an old negro at the gate. He re-
membered the Casa Gould on his last visit, the arguments,
the tones of his voice, the impenetrable attitude of Charles,
Mrs. Gould’s face so blanched with anxiety and fatigue
that her eyes seemed to have changed colour, appear-
ing nearly black by contrast. Even whole sentences of the
proclamation which he meant to make Barrios issue from
his headquarters at Cayta as soon as he got there passed
through his mind; the very germ of the new State, the Sepa-
rationist proclamation which he had tried before he left to
read hurriedly to Don Jose, stretched out on his bed under

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