Page 426 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

‘Antonia will kill herself!’ she cried out.
This cry fell into the silence of the room with strangely
little effect. Only the doctor, crumbling up a piece of bread,
with his head inclined on one side, raised his face, and the
few long hairs sticking out of his shaggy eyebrows stirred in
a slight frown. Dr. Monygham thought quite sincerely that
Decoud was a singularly unworthy object for any woman’s
affection. Then he lowered his head again, with a curl of his
lip, and his heart full of tender admiration for Mrs. Gould.
‘She thinks of that girl,’ he said to himself; ‘she thinks
of the Viola children; she thinks of me; of the wounded; of
the miners; she always thinks of everybody who is poor and
miserable! But what will she do if Charles gets the worst of
it in this infernal scrimmage those confounded Avellanos
have drawn him into? No one seems to be thinking of her.’
Charles Gould, staring at the wall, pursued his reflec-
tions subtly.
‘I shall write to Holroyd that the San Tome mine is big
enough to take in hand the making of a new State. It’ll
please him. It’ll reconcile him to the risk.’
But was Barrios really available? Perhaps. But he was
inaccessible. To send off a boat to Cayta was no longer pos-
sible, since Sotillo was master of the harbour, and had a
steamer at his disposal. And now, with all the democrats
in the province up, and every Campo township in a state of
disturbance, where could he find a man who would make
his way successfully overland to Cayta with a message, a
ten days’ ride at least; a man of courage and resolution, who
would avoid arrest or murder, and if arrested would faith-