Page 346 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

of those imported workmen with the people of the country
had been uniformly bad from the first.
Doctor Monygham, going to the door of Viola’s kitchen,
observed this retreat marking the end of the foreign inter-
ference, this withdrawal of the army of material progress
from the field of Costaguana revolutions.
Algarrobe torches carried on the outskirts of the moving
body sent their penetrating aroma into his nostrils. Their
light, sweeping along the front of the house, made the let-
ters of the inscription, ‘Albergo d’ltalia Una,’ leap out black
from end to end of the long wall. His eyes blinked in the
clear blaze. Several young men, mostly fair and tall, shep-
herding this mob of dark bronzed heads, surmounted by
the glint of slanting rifle barrels, nodded to him familiar-
ly as they went by. The doctor was a well-known character.
Some of them wondered what he was doing there. Then, on
the flank of their workmen they tramped on, following the
line of rails.
‘Withdrawing your people from the harbour?’ said the
doctor, addressing himself to the chief engineer of the rail-
way, who had accompanied Charles Gould so far on his way
to the town, walking by the side of the horse, with his hand
on the saddle-bow. They had stopped just outside the open
door to let the workmen cross the road.
‘As quick as I can. We are not a political faction,’ an-
swered the engineer, meaningly. ‘And we are not going to
give our new rulers a handle against the railway. You ap-
prove me, Gould?’
‘Absolutely,’ said Charles Gould’s impassive voice, high