Page 342 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

certainly before noon Sotillo would know in what manner
the silver had left Sulaco, and who it was that took it out.
Nostromo’s intention had been to sail right into the har-
bour; but at this thought by a sudden touch of the tiller he
threw the lighter into the wind and checked her rapid way.
His re-appearance with the very boat would raise suspi-
cions, would cause surmises, would absolutely put Sotillo
on the track. He himself would be arrested; and once in the
Calabozo there was no saying what they would do to him
to make him speak. He trusted himself, but he stood up to
look round. Near by, Hermosa showed low its white surface
as flat as a table, with the slight run of the sea raised by the
breeze washing over its edges noisily. The lighter must be
sunk at once.
He allowed her to drift with her sail aback. There was
already a good deal of water in her. He allowed her to drift
towards the harbour entrance, and, letting the tiller swing
about, squatted down and busied himself in loosening the
plug. With that out she would fill very quickly, and every
lighter carried a little iron ballast—enough to make her go
down when full of water. When he stood up again the noisy
wash about the Hermosa sounded far away, almost inaudi-
ble; and already he could make out the shape of land about
the harbour entrance. This was a desperate affair, and he
was a good swimmer. A mile was nothing to him, and he
knew of an easy place for landing just below the earthworks
of the old abandoned fort. It occurred to him with a pecu-
liar fascination that this fort was a good place in which to
sleep the day through after so many sleepless nights.

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