Page 389 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

subject whatever.’
‘No,’ said Captain Mitchell, simply, and with evident de-
pression. ‘A man locked up in a confounded dark hole is not
much use to anybody.’
‘As to old Viola,’ the doctor continued, as though he had
not heard, ‘Sotillo released him for the same reason he is
presently going to release you.’
‘Eh? What?’ exclaimed Captain Mitchell, staring like an
owl in the darkness. ‘What is there in common between
me and old Viola? More likely because the old chap has no
watch and chain for the pickpocket to steal. And I tell you
what, Dr. Monygham,’ he went on with rising choler, ‘he
will find it more difficult than he thinks to get rid of me.
He will burn his fingers over that job yet, I can tell you. To
begin with, I won’t go without my watch, and as to the rest—
we shall see. I dare say it is no great matter for you to be
locked up. But Joe Mitchell is a different kind of man, sir. I
don’t mean to submit tamely to insult and robbery. I am a
public character, sir.’
And then Captain Mitchell became aware that the bars
of the opening had become visible, a black grating upon
a square of grey. The coming of the day silenced Captain
Mitchell as if by the reflection that now in all the future
days he would be deprived of the invaluable services of his
Capataz. He leaned against the wall with his arms fold-
ed on his breast, and the doctor walked up and down the
whole length of the place with his peculiar hobbling gait,
as if slinking about on damaged feet. At the end furthest
from the grating he would be lost altogether in the darkness.

Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard