Page 442 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

patrol duty, strolling, carbine in hand, and watchful eyes,
in the shade of the trees lining the stream near the bridge,
Don Pepe, descending the path from the upper plateau, ap-
peared no bigger than a large beetle.
With his air of aimless, insect-like going to and fro upon
the face of the rock, Don Pepe’s figure kept on descending
steadily, and, when near the bottom, sank at last behind the
roofs of store-houses, forges, and workshops. For a time the
pair of serenos strolled back and forth before the bridge, on
which they had stopped a horseman holding a large white
envelope in his hand. Then Don Pepe, emerging in the vil-
lage street from amongst the houses, not a stone’s throw
from the frontier bridge, approached, striding in wide dark
trousers tucked into boots, a white linen jacket, sabre at his
side, and revolver at his belt. In this disturbed time nothing
could find the Senor Gobernador with his boots off, as the
saying is.
At a slight nod from one of the serenos, the man, a mes-
senger from the town, dismounted, and crossed the bridge,
leading his horse by the bridle.
Don Pepe received the letter from his other hand,
slapped his left side and his hips in succession, feeling for
his spectacle case. After settling the heavy silvermounted
affair astride his nose, and adjusting it carefully behind his
ears, he opened the envelope, holding it up at about a foot
in front of his eyes. The paper he pulled out contained some
three lines of writing. He looked at them for a long time.
His grey moustache moved slightly up and down, and the
wrinkles, radiating at the corners of his eyes, ran together.

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