Page 355 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

the man to formulate his conduct even to himself, perhaps,
let alone to others. It may be that the game has been partly
suggested to him by Holroyd; but it accords with his char-
acter, too; and that is why it has been so successful. Haven’t
they come to calling him ‘El Rey de Sulaco’ in Sta. Marta? A
nickname may be the best record of a success. That’s what
I call putting the face of a joke upon the body of a truth.
My dear sir, when I first arrived in Sta. Marta I was struck
by the way all those journalists, demagogues, members of
Congress, and all those generals and judges cringed before
a sleepy-eyed advocate without practice simply because he
was the plenipotentiary of the Gould Concession. Sir John
when he came out was impressed, too.’
‘A new State, with that plump dandy, Decoud, for the first
President,’ mused Dr. Monygham, nursing his cheek and
swinging his legs all the time.
‘Upon my word, and why not?’ the chief engineer retort-
ed in an unexpectedly earnest and confidential voice. It was
as if something subtle in the air of Costaguana had inocu-
lated him with the local faith in ‘pronunciamientos.’ All at
once he began to talk, like an expert revolutionist, of the in-
strument ready to hand in the intact army at Cayta, which
could be brought back in a few days to Sulaco if only De-
coud managed to make his way at once down the coast. For
the military chief there was Barrios, who had nothing but a
bullet to expect from Montero, his former professional rival
and bitter enemy. Barrios’s concurrence was assured. As to
his army, it had nothing to expect from Montero either; not
even a month’s pay. From that point of view the existence of

Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard