Page 413 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

wing of the Gould Concession. Other public bodies—the
Cabildo, the Consulado—would be coming, too, presently,
seeking the support of the most stable, the most effective
force they had ever known to exist in their province.
The doctor, arriving with his sharp, jerky walk, found
that the master had retired into his own room with. orders
not to be disturbed on any account. But Dr. Monygham was
not anxious to see Charles Gould at once. He spent some
time in a rapid examination of his wounded. He gazed down
upon each in turn, rubbing his chin between his thumb and
forefinger; his steady stare met without expression their si-
lently inquisitive look. All these cases were doing well; but
when he came to the dead Cargador he stopped a little lon-
ger, surveying not the man who had ceased to suffer, but the
woman kneeling in silent contemplation of the rigid face,
with its pinched nostrils and a white gleam in the imper-
fectly closed eyes. She lifted her head slowly, and said in a
dull voice—
‘It is not long since he had become a Cargador—only a
few weeks. His worship the Capataz had accepted him after
many entreaties.’
‘I am not responsible for the great Capataz,’ muttered the
doctor, moving off.
Directing his course upstairs towards the door of Charles
Gould’s room, the doctor at the last moment hesitated; then,
turning away from the handle with a shrug of his uneven
shoulders, slunk off hastily along the corredor in search of
Mrs. Gould’s camerista.
Leonardo told him that the senora had not risen yet. The

1 Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard