Page 401 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

whom they call the King of Sulaco, the master of the mine?
Is it not so?’
‘Yes, I am the master of the mine,’ answered Charles
Gould.
The man cantered for a time in silence, then said, ‘I have
a brother, a sereno in your service in the San Tome valley.
You have proved yourself a just man. There has been no
wrong done to any one since you called upon the people
to work in the mountains. My brother says that no official
of the Government, no oppressor of the Campo, has been
seen on your side of the stream. Your own officials do not
oppress the people in the gorge. Doubtless they are afraid
of your severity. You are a just man and a powerful one,’ he
added.
He spoke in an abrupt, independent tone, but evident-
ly he was communicative with a purpose. He told Charles
Gould that he had been a ranchero in one of the lower val-
leys, far south, a neighbour of Hernandez in the old days,
and godfather to his eldest boy; one of those who joined
him in his resistance to the recruiting raid which was the
beginning of all their misfortunes. It was he that, when his
compadre had been carried off, had buried his wife and
children, murdered by the soldiers.
‘Si, senor,’ he muttered, hoarsely, ‘I and two or three oth-
ers, the lucky ones left at liberty, buried them all in one
grave near the ashes of their ranch, under the tree that had
shaded its roof.’
It was to him, too, that Hernandez came after he had de-
serted, three years afterwards. He had still his uniform on

00 Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard