Page 375 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

you, Mitchell,’ he said, emphatically, ‘who are the thief, not
my soldiers!’ He pointed at his prisoner a forefinger with a
long, almond-shaped nail. ‘Where is the silver of the San
Tome mine? I ask you, Mitchell, where is the silver that was
deposited in this Custom House? Answer me that! You stole
it. You were a party to stealing it. It was stolen from the Gov-
ernment. Aha! you think I do not know what I say; but I am
up to your foreign tricks. It is gone, the silver! No? Gone in
one of your lanchas, you miserable man! How dared you?’
This time he produced his effect. ‘How on earth could
Sotillo know that?’ thought Mitchell. His head, the only
part of his body that could move, betrayed his surprise by
a sudden jerk.
‘Ha! you tremble,’ Sotillo shouted, suddenly. ‘It is a con-
spiracy. It is a crime against the State. Did you not know
that the silver belongs to the Republic till the Government
claims are satisfied? Where is it? Where have you hidden it,
you miserable thief?’
At this question Captain Mitchell’s sinking spirits re-
vived. In whatever incomprehensible manner Sotillo had
already got his information about the lighter, he had not
captured it. That was clear. In his outraged heart, Captain
Mitchell had resolved that nothing would induce him to say
a word while he remained so disgracefully bound, but his
desire to help the escape of the silver made him depart from
this resolution. His wits were very much at work. He detect-
ed in Sotillo a certain air of doubt, of irresolution.
‘That man,’ he said to himself, ‘is not certain of what he
advances.’ For all his pomposity in social intercourse, Cap-

Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard