Page 366 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

infuriated. Captain Mitchell, however, had not been ar-
rested at once; a vivid curiosity induced him to remain
on the wharf (which is nearly four hundred feet long) to
see, or rather hear, the whole process of disembarkation.
Concealed by the railway truck used for the silver, which
had been run back afterwards to the shore end of the jetty,
Captain Mitchell saw the small detachment thrown for-
ward, pass by, taking different directions upon the plain.
Meantime, the troops were being landed and formed into a
column, whose head crept up gradually so close to him that
he made it out, barring nearly the whole width of the wharf,
only a very few yards from him. Then the low, shuffling,
murmuring, clinking sounds ceased, and the whole mass
remained for about an hour motionless and silent, awaiting
the return of the scouts. On land nothing was to be heard
except the deep baying of the mastiffs at the railway yards,
answered by the faint barking of the curs infesting the outer
limits of the town. A detached knot of dark shapes stood in
front of the head of the column.
Presently the picket at the end of the wharf began to
challenge in undertones single figures approaching from
the plain. Those messengers sent back from the scouting
parties flung to their comrades brief sentences and passed
on rapidly, becoming lost in the great motionless mass, to
make their report to the Staff. It occurred to Captain Mitch-
ell that his position could become disagreeable and perhaps
dangerous, when suddenly, at the head of the jetty, there
was a shout of command, a bugle call, followed by a stir and
a rattling of arms, and a murmuring noise that ran right up