Page 316 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

a naked mast. I will do it now, before this steamer closes
still more upon us. The faint creak of a block would be-
tray us and the San Tome treasure into the hands of those
thieves.’
He moved about as warily as a cat. Decoud heard no
sound; and it was only by the disappearance of the square
blotch of darkness that he knew the yard had come down,
lowered as carefully as if it had been made of glass. Next
moment he heard Nostromo’s quiet breathing by his side.
‘You had better not move at all from where you are, Don
Martin,’ advised the Capataz, earnestly. ‘You might stum-
ble or displace something which would make a noise. The
sweeps and the punting poles are lying about. Move not for
your life. Por Dios, Don Martin,’ he went on in a keen but
friendly whisper, ‘I am so desperate that if I didn’t know
your worship to be a man of courage, capable of standing
stock still whatever happens, I would drive my knife into
your heart.’
A deathlike stillness surrounded the lighter. It was diffi-
cult to believe that there was near a steamer full of men with
many pairs of eyes peering from her bridge for some hint
of land in the night. Her steam had ceased blowing off, and
she remained stopped too far off apparently for any other
sound to reach the lighter.
‘Perhaps you would, Capataz,’ Decoud began in a whis-
per. ‘However, you need not trouble. There are other things
than the fear of your knife to keep my heart steady. It shall
not betray you. Only, have you forgotten—‘
‘I spoke to you openly as to a man as desperate as myself,’

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